Broncos-Vikings

Well, this game hacked a few years off of my life.

The Denver Broncos entered their Week 11 game at Minnesota with a 3-6 record. Having won five of their last six games and sporting a spiffy 7-3 record, the Vikings were heavy favorites. This game was supposed to be an easy cruise into the bye week. It didn't play out that way. This Broncos-Vikings game was a game of two very different halves. The Vikings did nothing right in the first half. The Broncos did nearly everything right. In Mike Zimmer's five-plus years as head coach, the Vikings always seem to have one game in which they simply don't show up. I've been hoping that game for this season was the Week 4 game against the Chicago Bears. I've been hoping that was the game for the simple reason that it's already in the books. For the first thirty minutes against the Broncos, it looked as if this was the game. It looked like the Vikings had moved up their bye week. This game was 20-0 at the half.

The Vikings were in a very deep hole.

Always on the hunt for pertinent stats, CBS flashed this little NFL nugget for it's viewers.

Teams are 0-99 when trailing by 20+ points at halftime.  

Well, that little nugget is now 1-99.

The Vikings outscored the Broncos 27-3 in the second half. This game of two very different halves played out to a 27-23 Vikings win.

The Vikings offense that did just about nothing in the first half scored on all four of their possessions in the second half. They flopped around in the first half. They were all business in the second half.

Vikings first half possessions:
Punt
Punt
Punt
Punt
Fumble
Fumble
Punt
-calling the second fumble a possession is a stretch as it came on a kick return

Vikings second half possessions:
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown

Kirk Cousins, every talking head's target of criticism, did what most say that he can't do. He led his team back from a deficit, a very big deficit.

Cousins by the numbers:
For the game: 29/35, 319 yards, 3 TDs, 133.2 rating
2nd half: 18/23, 261 yards, 3 TDs
4th quarter: 9/10, 149 yards, 2 TDs

Cousins has now thrown 177 passes without an interception. The longest current streak in the NFL. His last interception was a throw that went through the hands and off the helmet of Stefon Diggs.

For nearly all of his years as a starting quarterback critics have pigeon-holed Cousins as a quarterback that can't win big games, can't win games against good teams, can't win games in prime time, can't lead his team back from deficits. First off all, every game in an NFL season is a big game for the simple reason that there are only 16 of them. Last week Cousins helped guide his team to a prime time win over a very good Dallas Cowboys team. This week he helped guide his team from a 20-0 second half deficit to a 27-23 win. In the last two weeks he's done things that his legion of critics have repeatedly said that he could not do.

The Vikings scored their go-ahead score with 6:01 to play. It wasn't over. These pesky, 3-6, Broncos would not go away. In the final 6:01, they ran 19 plays. Every damn one of them was excruciating.
On the drive, the Broncos converted the following:
3rd & 13
4th & 6
4th & 6
4th & 1
Those conversions enabled the Broncos to have three shots from Vikings 4-yard line. Those three shots started with 10 seconds to play. Each shot could've resulted in a Broncos win. Fortunately, for the Vikings, each pass that Brandon Allen threw fell incomplete.

Mike Zimmer tried to stress it all week and they certainly showed yesterday, the Broncos aren't the typical 3-6 slappy. Their defense is one of the best in the league. All three levels are stout. Head coach Vic Fangio is one of the game's best defensive coaches. The offense has had some issues. Most of those issues involve a very suspect offensive line. Most offensive issues do. But, the Broncos have some offensive players that can be a problem for any defense. The biggest problem is receiver Courtland Sutton. He hurt the Vikings all game and in a variety of ways. He caught five passes for 113 yards, two runs for 10 yards, and even threw a pass for a field-turning, game-tilting 38-yard gain. Sutton has emerged this season as one of the best receivers in the game. Rookie tight end Noah Fant is already a defensive headache. Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman are a nice running back duo. At quarterback, Brandon Allen started his second game in place of the injured Joe Flacco. Against the Vikings, Allen completed less than 50% of his throws but when he needed conversions on 3rd and 4th downs he was on target. When he threw deep he put the ball where his receivers could get it. Drew Lock was drafted in April to possibly be the Broncos quarterback of the future. Who knows what the Broncos do down the road at quarterback? All I know is that Allen was a pain-in-the-ass yesterday. It wasn't always pretty but Allen had his team in a position to win. Fortunately, he didn't win.

It's often been said that there are no pictures in the standings. No matter how pretty a win, no matter how ugly a win, a win is a win. They all count the same. Some might call this 27-23 win an ugly win because of the horrible first half that the Vikings played against a supposedly suspect Broncos team. It takes a lot of fight to come back from a large deficit. The Vikings showed that this team has that sort of fight. They just set out to erase that 20-0 deficit and it took them 24 minutes to do it. The last six minutes of the game were hell but the defense kept a feisty Broncos offense out of the end zone.

Now, the Vikings hit their bye week with an 8-3 record. They can use the break. So, can I.

The final five games of the season will be a challenge. It starts with a Week 13 trip to Seattle for a Monday night game against the Seahawks. That feels like a bad deal for the Seahawks.