It Was 33-0: Vikings Clinch NFC North in Historic Fashion

For the Minnesota Vikings, they had another chance to clinch the NFC North, and this was the second time that they had the always favorable "win and in" scenario. Two weeks prior, they needed a win and a Detroit Lions loss; the Vikings did their part, but the Lions also won. Last week, all the Vikings had to do was defeat the Lions in Detroit, but that was not successful. So the Vikings had a third opportunity, and they were at home against an Indianapolis Colts team whose entire season was on life support. Sounds like easy pickings, right?

Yeah...about that.

Murphy's Law explicitly states that whatever can go wrong in any scenario...often does. 66,000 fans in Minneapolis saw Murphy's Law up close during the first two quarters of this game. It started innocently enough, a Colts field goal opened the scoring. 3-0 is a nice and quiet score. Unfortunately for the Vikings, not only did they go three and out, but their punt was blocked and returned for a touchdown on the spot. Their next possession saw Dalvin Cook cough up the ball, and that turned into a Colts touchdown drive. It's 17-0 Colts after one quarter, but it gets crazier. Indy was already deep in FG range after Minnesota's 4th and 1 attempt was stopped short, and while they didn't go all the way, they added three more points. 20-0. Another turnover on downs allowed Indy to make it 23-0, and the three Minnesota possessions that followed: punt, Pick 6, punt. After another Indy FG, it was 33-0 at halftime. Thirty-three to nothing.

The Vikings went to the locker room to the sound their faithful fans booing the mess out of them. A fired up Patrick Peterson dared his team to score five touchdowns in the second half. In the immortal words of Barney Stinson, "Challenge accepted." After the two teams traded punts, KJ Osborn cracks the Vikings' goose egg with a TD reception, but Indy added another FG to make it 36-7. Minnesota's next drive following the Colts' FG went 75 yards and into the end zone; a CJ Ham one-yard TD run to make it 36-14. So the Vikings scored twice to make the score look somewhat respectable. Surely they couldn't make a bigger dent, right?

Well...the Colts did go three and out afterwards, and the Vikings racked up another touchdown drive, ending with Cousins throwing it in the end zone to his favorite target, Justin Jefferson (who is on my fantasy wish list for next season). So it's 36-21 early in the fourth quarter. Now the Vikings were within range, especially after the Colts (again) went three and out. However, Cousins threw an interception, so that complicated things, but Indy did literally nothing with that turnover, and had to punt it away. The punt gave the Vikings the ball at midfield; half a field for Minnesota, and they took advantage. Another touchdown, this time it was Adam Thielen with the score. So after trailing by 33 at the midpoint of the third quarter, the Vikings were down by one possession: eight points. Even crazier, a Colts fumble allowed the Vikings a chance to tie it, but they ended up turning the ball over on downs. Minnesota had to burn timeouts on defense, and with one left and Indy on 4th and 1, the defense stopped Matt Ryan short! It was Vikings' ball, and they had 2:19 left to get 64 yards, with the only timeout being the two-minute warning.

Then this happened:

So let me explain something. By this point, I, a Packers fan, found myself pulling for the Vikings to pull this off. My reasons were simple. For one, the Packers' season was over. Whatever the Vikings did wouldn't help the Packers anyway. Plus, one way or the other, each team deserved to be laughed at. The Vikings were down 33-0 at home. I had fun laughing at them and also laughing at the possibility of them rooting for the Jets on the next day. Then the Colts were blowing it, and I was laughing at them for a change and hoping that the Vikings would do this. But they had 2:19 left, and a 64-yard drive would kill all of it.

Unless you're Dalvin Cook.

Cook got the handoff and he did the rest; running the entire 64 yards in just five seconds. TJ Hockenson caught the two point conversion, and just like that, the game was tied! Both teams went three and out afterwards, and we had overtime. In a game that was 33-0, we had overtime. Minnesota had the ball first, but had to punt, giving Indy a chance to save some semblance of face. However, they ended up punting it away. Minnesota not only got the ball back, they couldn't lose this game. That was guaranteed when they got to FG range. The Vikings, after being down by 33 points, were either going to win or tie, with either outcome clinching the division for the team. Greg Joseph had to make it from 40 yards with seven seconds left, and he did just that. Final score: Vikings 39, Colts 36, in overtime.

The Vikings came back from a thirty-three point deficit to win this game and clinch the NFC North for the first time since 2017. This was the largest comeback in NFL history, edging the infamous 1992 AFC Wild Card Game by just one point. The sound you hear is old Houston Oilers fans breathing a sigh of relief that is three decades in the making, while also laughing at the Colts. Kirk Cousins threw for 460 yards and four touchdowns in this overtime thriller, which improved the Vikings' record to 11-3 and moves them closer to the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC's top seed. I'm going to be perfectly blunt: there is a good chance that the Vikings could go all the way this year. I'm not kidding. In Minnesota's past good seasons, I often scoffed at them because I knew this team. The Vikings have a long history of blowing good starts and good seasons. I haven't seen a shred of that this season. This year's Vikings team isn't messing around.

Poor Matt Ryan. As the game progressed, and as the Vikings' deficit decreased, when they showed Matt Ryan, I went, "It's happening to him again." It's bad enough that he still has "28-3" lingering over his head. Now he'll have that and "33-0" haunting him for the rest of his career. Matt Ryan has now been on the losing end of the two worst and most embarrassing choke jobs in NFL history, with both games being on national television. Ryan has thrown for over 60,000 yards and is 20 shy of 400 career touchdowns, yet he'll be forever known for those two massive collapses. Regarding this one, I know what they'll say: "Well, it was the defense who blew that lead." That would be a valid point, except the defense was mostly responsible for building the 33-0 lead as well. The Colts' defense did their part. Ryan only threw for 182 yards and a touchdown, and had a QB rating of 31.4, which, as I learned from one of my favorite YouTubers, JaguarGator9, is lower than if you spiked the ball on every single play.

So while the Vikings are celebrating their historic comeback win and their division title, the Colts dropped to 4-9-1, and came close to ending up 4-8-2 and becoming the first team since overtime was adopted in 1974 to have two ties in the same season. The Colts can be eliminated this week; a Tennessee Titans win or tie couple with a win from either the New York Jets or the New England Patriots would end Indy's season. This game was absolutely crazy. Again: it was 33-0!!! Indy had this game dead to rights! But they literally coughed this up, and by doing so, they cemented themselves on the most embarrassing end of NFL history.