Down 20-0 at halftime, it seemed that the Minnesota Vikings were on their way to a very disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos at home, but fortunately for the Vikings, the team woke up in the second half, and they were able to defeat the Broncos 27-23 on Sunday.
After taking the lead in the fourth quarter, the Minnesota faithful had to sweat this one out. Denver was able to move the ball down to Minnesota’s 4-yard line with 10 seconds left and no timeouts, but the Vikings’ defense stiffened, and Minnesota was able to escape with the victory.
“It was an exciting game, obviously. It’s nice to come back,” Vikings head Mike Zimmer said. “Showed a lot of heart, showed a lot of guts, showed a lot of courage. Obviously, we didn’t play very well in the first half. We had penalties, fumbles, gave up big plays. Just did not play very well. But we came together, we fought pretty darn good in the second half and made just enough plays to win.”
One of the reasons the Vikings were able to make a comeback was QB Kirk Cousins(29-35, 319 yards, 3 TDs), who threw three touchdown passes in the second half, including the game-winner to TE Kyle Rudolph.
“It was a special win,” Vikings QB Kirk Cousins said. “Like you said, it’s not common to do it. It wasn’t looking good there, but we kept playing and got enough explosives and scored fast enough to have time on the clock, and our defense only allowed three points in the second half, which is crucial to any comeback, and that often gets lost in a comeback is how much your defense keeps you in it when you’re down. So obviously, then, the final plays they made in the red zone were enormous as well.”
According to ESPN.com, this was the first time in five years — a span of 100 games including the playoffs — that an NFL team won after trailing by 20 or more points at halftime.
Great win for Vikings, and while they need to play better moving forward, they get the win, they move to 8-3, and now it’s off to enjoy the bye.
