Happy Holidays – Vikings win on a Giant Kick
Vikings Territory Breakdown: Vikings win on a Giant Kick
Another week, another dramatic finish for the Minnesota Vikings, who have won a team record 11 wins by one score this season. This time they did it against a team, the New York Giants, who have won the second-most games by one score this season. So it was fitting. It was exciting. And It was a great way to start Christmas weekend. With a 27-24 win, the Vikings are 12-3, still in possession of the second-best record in the NFC and the second seed for the postseason and riding high into the holiday. But don’t take my word for it. Ask Greg Joseph, the kicker who hit a franchise-record 61-yard game-winning field goal as time ran out, how it feels to have those pressure moments placed at his feet.
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“I want it,” Joseph told KFAN after the game. “I want those opportunities. I feed on those opportunities. It’s all because of my teammates around me.”
How do you figure that? A guy who had, earlier in the season, missed five consecutive kicks in a row plus a bunch of PATs, nails the record kick dead straight through the uprights (with enough juice for another five yards, perhaps) redeeming himself and restoring the confidence of himself, his coaches and his teammates. It’s just another unlikely, slightly lucky, frenetic finish for this team in a brand new manner. By this time we should start expecting it.
There were a lot more big-time players stepping up in yet another big-time moment at U.S. bank Stadium on Saturday:
- TJ Hockenson grabbed 13 for 109 and two scores, with 13 receptions that are a personal career-high and a franchise record for a TE.
- Josh Metellus with the timely punt block that set up the game-leading score.
- Brian Asamoah with the strip and recovery that turned back the G-Men when they were on the move.
- Patrick Peterson with a slightly off game but the big pick to save their bacon.
- Justin Jefferson with 12 for 133 and a score—another record-setting performance that moved him past Randy Moss (most yards in a season) and Cris Carter (most catches in a season) on the team list.
It took all those plays and more to put this one in the win column—and if, as a fan, you haven’t asked for a defibrillator for Christmas this season, you might want to consider it. It just keeps happening. One crazy win after another. And we here at the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast are here to recap, discuss and analyze it all for you. Have a wonderful holiday weekend season, started off with another great Purple win!
Mark Craig from the Star Tribune joins Joe Oberle from Vikingsterritory and PurplePTSD, who will put forth their best good faith effort to understand and then explain this and the whole season, for that matter.
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