THE COMPLETE MINNESOTA VIKINGS EXPERIENCE

VIKINGS 36

STEELERS 28

We saw the full Minnesota Vikings experience on Thursday night at US Bank Stadium against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

4 days after a crushing, humiliating last second loss in Detroit, the teetering Vikings came out in primetime against a playoff contender, with a QB and coach with rings, and for two quarters of football stomped the living daylights out of them. And then came within 1 final pass of possibly suffering the greatest blown lead in the entire regular season HISTORY of the NFL.

Even in a historically tense and chaotic season, this game stands out as one of the most memorable.

In fitting fashion for the usually sloppy TNF games, the game opened with a pair of drives ending in missed field goals. One apiece.

The Vikings second drive was sparked by the night's biggest star, a star who nobody even really thought until Thursday was going to play at all. Dalvin Cook, just 11 days removed from a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum, improbably took the field. And he was magnificent.

The line blew open holes, and Cook took full advantage, spelled a little by Mattison. Kirk found a wide open JJ in the endzone for the game's first score. Greg Joseph missed yet another PAT, but early worries that this would be another one of those missed kicks that would factor into the final didn't last.

The Vikings were just too damn good in the first half.

The offense kept running at will. Cook set a new team record for first half rushing yards. He put two in the endzone. Kirk was not real sharp, and Jefferson failed to haul in a couple potential big plays, but the lead ballooned to 23-0. 

And the defense was like vintage Zimmer. Like 2017 never ended. They had gotten back Kendricks, Barr and Peterson, giving Zimmer the closest thing to a full defensive roster he has had in many weeks. And he set the whole lot of them loose, pummeling Ben Roethlisberger for crushing sacks, shutting down the Steelers running game, eliminating any chances for big passes. They even were able to dodge the end of half curse by keeping TWO late Steeler drives from getting points.

Even while leaving some points out there with 2 missed kicks and a couple missed throws, this was the best, most complete half of Vikings football in years. They were in absolute control.

After the Flo Rida halftime show, it looked like the domination would continue. The Steelers went 4 and out and gave us a short field. Then Bashaud Breeland picked off Roethlisberger and his return gave us another short field. Yeah, we only got a pair of field goals out of this, but at 29-0, with the 3rd quarter more than halfway gone, even the pessimists had to think that even this Vikings team could not screw this up. 

And then we screwed this up.

Even as the Steelers marched to their first touchdown, helped along by Kris Boyd badly mistiming a jump ball and then getting a brain dead taunting penalty, I still wasn't that worried.

But worry came on the very first play of the next Vikings series. Kirk threw a pass downfield for JJ, and the ball hit him in the hands, but the ball clanked off of them and into the hands of a Steeler. Just like that, momentum had swung. And shortly into the 4th quarter, following a stupid, drive-extending DPI on Dantzler, the Steelers found the endzone again.

The Vikings go 3 and out, the holes no longer being blown open for Dalvin, and it took just 3 plays (including another Boyd penalty, declined) for Roethlisberger to launch another touchdown pass. In less than 6 minutes of actual game time Pittsburgh had scored three touchdowns and transformed a laugher into something scary.

We did catch a break here, as Mike Tomlin decided to go for the 2, and we stuffed them on a WR screen. So we were still up 2 scores. But we still desperately needed to counterpunch and get momentum back. 

And on the third play of the next drive, a struggling Cousins uncorked his best pass of the night and one of his best of the season, a laser shot downfield to KJ Osborn, who beat his guy and hauled in a 62 yard touchdown. And we could all relax a little.

The reeling defense got a quick 3 and out, as the crowd helped force a 4th down delay of game, and, surprisingly, the Steelers punted.

Really all we needed was a couple first downs to pretty much seal the deal, and after Kirk made a nifty 3rd down scramble we were looking golden. We were in Steeler territory, burning clock, heading for 6-7. 

Then, for some reason, we threw the ball on 3rd and short, and Kirk's rather awful slant pass for Osborn was picked off and run back to our 21. We just could not help ourselves. 

In two plays, Roethlisberger had a wide open touchdown pass after our closest defender fell down. Steelers get the 2 and here we were once again in a one score game. After leading by 29. After leading by 16 with the ball in their territory moments earlier. The thousands of Steelers fans at the purple palace were on fire. 

The offense looked like another 3 and out was in order, especially after the obligatory Oli Udoh holding penalty. Kirk hit Dalvin for a huge first down, but after a 3rd down pass to Osborn fell incomplete and the refs picked up the flag they had thrown (a flag that NEVER gets picked up for certain teams), we had to surrender the ball. 

Fortunately Jordan Berry pinned his former team at their own 4. And the Steelers no longer had any timeouts. But as we have seen multiple times this season, pretty much any quarterback can lead a late drive against this team from any starting point. 

It only took 2 plays for the Steelers to get near midfield, after an embarrassing catch on Breeland that was also comically amateurish DPI. Pittsburgh got an illegal block penalty, and even faced a 4th down, but it didn't matter. They just kept coming. At least we were able to tackle a couple guys in bounds to burn some time. 

One endzone shot fell incomplete, although it was also an easy game ending pick that Breeland dropped (third time this year he has blown such an opportunity).

So finally, with 2 seconds left, the Steelers had one last crack at it from the 12. Deja vu. 

Roethlisberger had the throw. It was a good throw, and was going to be a catch setting up a do or die 2, until Harrison Smith broke up the completion. The ball fell to the ground. The Vikings had averted disaster.

There was no real celebration, only relief. And disbelief that this game went from 2 and a half quarters of domination to a heart stopper finish. I know that the m.o. of this team is to have every game come down to the end, but this was extreme even for them.

In the aftermath, the focus was perhaps justifiably on the collapse. It was the only time ever in a regular season game that a team trailed by so many points and had a chance to even tie it at the end.

Momentum swings were sharp, sure. The turnovers were very bad, sure. A couple of these Steelers catches were pretty great, sure. But just like it was in that Packer game, you could tell that once the ball got rolling this defense had no answers as to how to stop it. The only thing that stopped Pittsburgh in the end was time.

This is just what this defense is. They get figured out now. They cannot play a full 4 quarters. They get chances to end games with interceptions or 4th down stops, but they just don't get them.

The offense again had patches where they were ineffective, but made just enough plays in the 2nd half to hold on.

Kirk was shockingly inaccurate. 14 of 31 is just not what he does. He never got sacked, but was pressured a lot. Still, he hit a few big throws, hit a few big 3rd downs. And for once, a less than stellar Kirk performance did not doom the Vikings to certain defeat. For once, the team around him carried him. Even at 29-0 Kirk was not having a great game. But for one night anyway, Kirk got to enjoy what every other QB gets to at least sometimes. Pokes some more holes in the tired "QB wins" argument.

The unquestioned star of the game was Dalvin Cook. Years from now, Vikings fans will look back at his career and remember this game, and the fact he went out there with one good shoulder and ran for 205 yards. It's a performance on par with almost anything we even saw from Adrian Peterson.

Big picture I'm not sure this win moves the needle on whether or not Zimmer, Spielman, et al keep their jobs. Had this become a loss, yeah, heads would have rolled. I think all jobs are now secure through the end of the season.

And the win keeps the Vikings afloat in the wild card race. With both the 49ers and WFT facing tough games this weekend we may even jump back into a playoff spot by the end of the weekend.

We all saw it Thursday night, and Zimmer himself.even echoed it. The Vikings can beat anybody in the league, or lose to anybody in the league. And they can look like both of these teams in the same 3 hours.

They are maddening. They are infuriating. They are exciting. They are still alive.