All three phases of the team came out of the gate fast in this one, with a three-and-out on defense, a great kick return by Marcus Sherels on special teams and an opening-series touchdown on offense.
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On Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings scored in all sorts of different ways and set some records in the process as they held off the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 30-24 to snap their four-game losing streak and, for the most part, save their season. I knew it was going to be a good game for me, man. “But like we’ve done in the past, we just have to keep moving forward”. Sam Bradford went 20/28 for 169 and a touchdown on the day. The pair of 100-yard scores was the first time the Vikings had accomplished the feat in their history, and the first time it happened in an National Football League game since the Cowboys pulled the feat in 1962.
“Everybody’s held accountable, whether you’re the best player on the team or the guy that’s just about to get cut”, Palmer said.
“I don’t know if it’s an exhale. That feeling we had in the locker room today, I think it solved a lot of problems”.
Luck, completing 15 of 28 for 262 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, drove the Colts 64, 75 and 80 yards for touchdowns the first three times they had the ball to build a 21-0 lead.
“Without the excellent personnel that he has on the Vikings defense, he’s one of the best defensive play callers in the game”, Fitzgerald said. On the ground, David Johnson rushed for 55 yards and a touchdown in 19 carries while Palmer added 16 yards in a run.
The Vikings had a more fully-formed idea of how they want to run their offense under Pat Shurmur, incorporating more diversity out of their Wildcat package and using Cordarrelle Patterson on end arounds, reverses and screens.
“It looked like an obviously holding penalty”, Palmer said. Look for the Vikings to try to get Diggs involved early with timing routes and short screens to build his confidence.
Entering Sunday, the Vikings faced a must-win game against the Arizona Cardinals, who themselves were in the midst of a crisis.
That gave Minnesota a ten-point lead once more at 27-17.
Neither of those numbers is good by any means, and that’s the reason the Vikings have struggled so much this season. “We’re playing man-to-man, basically cover zero, until they get the ball back in the quarterback’s hands”. But that’s not the kind of pass that anyone expects to see from a veteran quarterback like Palmer.
“With me, I definitely feel like I should’ve been doing a little bit more”.
“It was very tough to come out and lose this game”, Johnson said. Rather than having the Cardinals either take back the lead or tie, they turned it into a 10-point lead in the first half.
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Arizona owns the league’s second-ranked defense in terms of yardage, one spot ahead of Zimmer’s Minnesota crew. Arizona had some momentum heading into the locker room at the half, down just 20-17 thanks to Jermaine Gresham’s 29-yard touchdown reception with:50 left in the second quarter. More often than not, that positive has come in the form of the Cards’ incredible second-year running back. All of the pressure also helped the Vikings pick off Palmer twice. Prior to kickoff, the Vikings were preparing to rush out onto the field when the sound guy, for reasons now unknown, made a decision to run across the mouth of the tunnel where the Minnesota players were gathered.
