Categories: VT News
| On 8 years ago

Vikings Fumble Upset Effort Against Cardinals

By Carl Knowles

image courtesy of vikings.com

The Minnesota Vikings scored 10 unanswered fourth quarter points to tie the game at 20-20, but Chandler Catanzaro kicked a 47-yard field goal with 1:23 to play lifting the Arizona Cardinals to a 23-20 victory Thursday night.

On the Vikings final drive of the game Teddy Bridgewater hit Kyle Rudolph, Stefon Diggs and Jarius Wright to move the Vikings to the Arizona 31-yard line. With no timeouts and only 13 seconds to play, Dwight Freeney strip-sacked Teddy Bridgewater on 3rd-and-long to end the game. In heartbreaking fashion, Blair Walsh was robbed of the opportunity to kick a 47-yard field goal to tie the game.

Bridgewater threw for 335 yards on 25 of 36 attempts finding 11 different receivers in a career performance. Unfortunately, three fumbles by the Vikings offense (Bridgewater, Wright, and Peterson), spoiled their heroic upset effort in the desert.

Adrian Peterson scored the first touchdown of the game on a 9-yard run to give the Vikings a 7-3 first quarter advantage. Carson Palmer (25/35 for 310 yards), hit John Brown down the sideline for a 65-yard score to regain the lead near the end of the first quarter. Blair Walsh kicked a 44-yard second quarter field goal knotting the game at 10-10.

The Cardinals scored a touchdown on a 42-yard pass from Palmer to Michael Floyd in the third quarter and added a 23-yard field goal to move ahead 20-10.

Walsh was perfect on the day and connected on a 54-yarder to cut the score to 20-13 with just over 12 minutes to play.

Chad Greenway, Anthony Harris and Eric Kendricks led a short handed defense with 8 tackles each and forced a big three-and-out with 10:05 to play. The Vikings then mounted a 13 play 88-yard drive capping it off with a Mike Wallace’s 7-yard game tying touchdown reception.

Peterson ran the ball well early in the game but finished with 69 yards on 23 carries and a fumble on a reverse handoff to Wallace. The Vikings fall to 8-5 and remain in the Wildcard playoff picture.

Carl Knowles

Carl Knowles (Contributor) is a former member of the Professional Bowler Association and an avid lifelong Vikings fan. When he is not bowling you can find him on websites and forum pages sharing his creative insight and enthusiasm for the Minnesota Vikings any chance he gets. Carl was a Phoenix Institute of Technology and Purdue University standout who currently enjoys the challenge of being a graphic director in the printing business. You can follow him on twitter @carlknowles_vt.

Tags: adrian peterson Arizona Cardinals minnesota vikings

View Comments

  • Disappointmed but proud that they fought till the end while severely undermanned.

  • They'll all say 'There are no moral victories' but that sure felt like one. The plane ride home may not have too bad

  • Didn't think we had a chance against these guys the way we've been beaten lately. Feel bad we lost the way we did but feel good we didn't get humped on national tv again.

    The offensive play calling was better with the exception of the funky reverse that got blown up. Wish AP would have just taken the tackle instead of trying to lateral while being tackled. That kind of stuff always happens to us.

    Don't think anyone expected our defense to hold them under 30 points. Palmer doesn't scramble and he takes deep drops so I think some of the guys are right that we'll do better against teams like that. We have trouble with a scrambling QB. However, Palmer got his 300+ yards and we still held them under 30.. We had two blown coverages that netted them 14 points plus three lost fumbles. Can't beat a SB contender that way.

    • I also thought Peterson was trying to lateral on his fumble but I think the replay showed that the defender punched the ball out of the crook of his arm first.