The Minnesota Vikings beat the Indianapolis Colts 21-13 at USA Bank Stadium to improve to 6-2 and a game behind the Lions in the NFC North. That’s what the agate type in the paper will tell you. But the reality was the defense once again led the team to victory while the offense spent some time shooting themselves in the foot. The offense eventually put up 21 points in the second half, but three turnovers on the game could have spelled disaster.
But it didn’t. The defense, with two turnovers of their own, gave up only six points in the game (one of those Vikings turnovers resulted in a scoop and score for the Colts). Holding the visiting Colts to just 227 yards on offense, the Purple D righted their ship and looked more like the unit we saw in the first five games of the season. While a better team than the Colts might have exploited those turnovers, the Vikings D wouldn’t allow it. Their dominant performance put the team in the winner’s circle again.
There is plenty more to talk about in this one (perfect Will Reichard misses his first two kicks of the season and Sam Darnold with a subpar performance for starters), and the fellas at Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast—Joe Oberle, senior writer at vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com and Mark Craig, NFL and Vikings writer for the Star Tribune and startribune.com—are on hand to discuss it all. Tune in and check it out.