There is no sugarcoating it. The Minnesota Vikings were atrocious in the first half against the Indianapolis Colts. They made every mistake possible in going down 33-0. Even though nothing went right in the first half, the second half looked like a completely different team.
The second half was much different, as the Vikings outscored the Colts 36-3 and forced overtime where the Vikings completed the greatest comeback football has ever seen with a 39-36 victory
The Vikings outscored their opponent in the third quarter for only the third time this season, shrinking the lead to 36-14 before Justin Jefferson put Stephon Gilmore in a blender for a touchdown.
The fourth quarter became exciting after that. The Colts struggled massively to move the ball which continued to give the Vikings a chance. However, they were shot in the foot multiple times.
Right after Jefferson was sent off to be evaluated for a concussion, Jalen Reagor stopped running on a deep crosser and the ball was intercepted. Both times Jefferson had to come off the field resulted in interceptions due to mistakes by Reagor.
This was a weird game by quarterback Kirk Cousins. He started off playing incredibly conservatively and robot-like. He does this every so often when things aren’t going well. Once they got the first touchdown, he settled in and played great football in the second half. His only two interceptions were the fault of Reagor and his stat line was superb. He went 34-54 for 460 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions
The key play in this game was once the Vikings got the game within one score. On fourth and one, Matt Ryan attempted a quarterback sneak and was stopped short. Dalvin Cook scored on a screen pass on the first play from scrimmage from 64 yards out. Cousins found T.J. Hockenson for the two-point conversion to tie the game.
One of the underrated elements of this game was the absence of Jonathan Taylor. He re-injured his ankle on the first possession and did not return. That stunted the Colts’ rushing game which only netted 4.0 yards per carry on 43 carries.
The comeback is the largest in both NFL history and regular season history, as the Buffalo Bills’ 32-point comeback in the 1992 wild card game against the Houston Oilers where the Bills were down 35-3 ended up winning 41-38 in overtime.
The Vikings’ defense deserves a lot of credit here. They only allowed one offensive touchdown, forced the Colts into five field goals and got that crucial aforementioned fourth down stop.
Next up for the Vikings is the New York Giants, as they host them on Christmas Eve afternoon.
