The Vikings comeback from 33-0 is the greatest in NFL history
This wasn’t the first time Kirk Cousins had experienced this kind of comeback, until this year. And even if this is, at least statistically speaking, unprecedented in 103 seasons of NFL games.
So, when the Vikings quarterback left US Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon — donning a loud purple tracksuit with the Vikings’ and his family’s logos — he thought of another comeback. It was just with another team, with another coach, and perfectly combined what it takes to bounce back from a 33-0 deficit to the Colts and turn it into a 39-36 win in overtime.
“Yeah, I remember when we came back against Tampa in 2015 — we were down 24-0 and came back and won 31-30,” Cousins says. Jay [Gruden] He texted me that night, after the game, and just said, great work. This does not happen to ordinary people. That’s always stuck with me, you have to be unfamiliar to be able to do something like that. And so I have the same idea in mind that Jay sent in seven years ago, after we won today.
Cousins completed 34 of 54 passes for 460 yards and four touchdowns against the Colts to help the Vikings clinch the NFC North.
Matt Crone/USA Today Sports
“It just doesn’t happen to ordinary people. And this team was uncommon and they showed an uncommon level of chemistry with each other, the toughness that I think was on display today.”
What everyone witnessed on Saturday was more than just unfamiliar.
It was a legitimate first, and not just for a player or a team, but for the entire league.
Perhaps the history-making Vikings wouldn’t guarantee them much more than a comeback that, 30 years later, beat them to a playoff appearance in the Bills-Oilers ’92 as the NFL’s all-time best quarterback. On the other hand, says Cousins, it revealed a lot about a team that was still somehow in doubt going into the game against the Colts at 10-3.
And as Cousins tells the story, that quality of the Vikings — the same one that helped fuel a furious comeback five weeks ago in Buffalo — showed up in spades in the locker room at halftime with Minnesota down 33-0.
The first half was as bad as can be, and that’s no exaggeration. “There is no explanation,” says the cousins. “We made it really difficult for ourselves.” A long kickoff return put Indianapolis up 3-0 from the gate. He returned a blocked punt to fall 10–0. A Dalvin Cook fumble gave the Colts a short field to make it 17–0. Two fourth down stops, one on a fake kick, led to two more Indianapolis field goals. Six picks made it 30-0. And a two-minute drive drove to another field to make it 33-0 at the half.
However, no one on the home team was shaken. Indeed, veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson would say over and over again, All we need is five downs. Offensive line coach Chris Cooper, in another corner of the locker room, was saying pretty much the same thing.
“[Kuper] He said it to me before we started the second half. He said, Let’s score 35 unansweredCousins say. “I thought, I mean, that would be cool. But this doesn’t just happen. “
Within 30 minutes of chopping, and this inexplicable belief, happened on Saturday.
Cousins took us through the steps he and his team took along the way to get there.
• The second half in fact he did not do Start according to the Vikings’ plan – Cook was dropped for loss on the first play and Cousins was sacked, and Minnesota went three and out. So, clearly, the Vikings needed a spark from their second possession after the first half. And one of the biggest stars of the afternoon—KJ Osborn—was giving it to him at second and 12 on the Viking 35 with 9:42 left in the third.
“Maybe their coverage was a little skewed there, because he’s behind the linebacker and there was no safety in that area of the court,” Cousins says. And I guess they’ll tell you they need someone there. So KJ was kind of running to open the turf and I just put it in there for him. We had previously called a big play that they decided to finish, and then the Colts challenged it and it came back as incomplete.
“That was kind of an added frustration where, even when we got something, we couldn’t stop it. Then the same for two touchdowns that Chandon Sullivan had that we thought were touchdowns. Instead, it turns out the whistle was blown and the play died. There were several Things to overcome in addition to helplessness.”
Sullivan’s potential defensive touchdowns may have little more than an intangible benefit. However, Osborne is one – a 40-yard catch that was both challenged and overturned. On the play Cousins called, Osborne lost enough in Indy coverage to generate 63 yards on the play and get to the Colts 4-yard line. Three plays later, he would catch another Cousins ball, this one from two yards out to make it 33-7.
Cook had 190 all-purpose yards against the Colts, including 64 on that touchdown reception.
Jeffrey Baker/USA Today Sports
• From there, the game changed – and that was immediately apparent, as the Vikings had the next possession 75 yards in eight plays without having to convert a single third down. On the road after that, they covered 61 yards in six plays, needing only a third down to reach the end zone, with one coming on an eight-yard pass from Cousins to Justin Jefferson.
And it was that easy because of plays that moved the ball methodically and in sparse chunks—with nothing more significant than Jefferson’s roar across the Indy defense 20 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter right after Cousins caught an early punt.
“It was an optional route, just going off,” Cousins says. “So that was just a great run after the catch, and then, they started playing more visibility on the corner to make sure that if he did break out, the corner would be there. It was a bit of a game of cat and mouse there, trying to feel when they were going down and when they were letting us rush in.” Without any threat from any outside defender. So we were just trying to play through that as the game went on.”
Which provided another example of how the Vikings can grow and another reason for the Colts’ lead to slowly shrink, in this case, to 36-21.
• Next, Cousins threw a pick—Jalen Regor stopped a running back on an overhead drive, and Colts safety Rodney Thomas didn’t, making for an easy interception. Then the Vikings defense forced three more fumbles to win the ball back at their own 50.
To go on: supplement passes to Adam Thelin (19 yards) and Osborne (17), a defensive pass drawn by Osborne to put the ball at the 1-yard line, a touchdown pass to Thelin in the back of the end zone on third down and the goal made it 36-28.
“Yes, I have complete confidence in Adam and KJ,” says Cousins. “The ball goes to Justin — I think a lot of it is just the planning and the coaches, trying to make sure Justin gets chances and gets the ball. But when the readings take me to KJ and Adam, I love it, and I love getting them all involved.”
Cousins continued to talk about Osborne and the 25-year-old 10-day receiver with 157 yards. “My problem with KJ is that he doesn’t get the ball rolling enough. He’s able to make the day he has every week. Not everyone can do that. If you’re going to give it to Justin, then KJ and Adam, I think, you end up not being able to.” But KJ is capable of that every week, he’s an elite receiver and I just wish we could get the ball more.”
Cousins doesn’t just have a talented group of receivers. He also has Dalvin Cook, who can go a long way or catch up at any time, and that’s exactly what he did.
• The Vikings recovered the ball 36 with 2:28 left. And that drive wouldn’t take any time at all, or even much development – O’Connell liked a screen for that situation, the idea of putting the ball into Cook’s hands, and that was it.
Cook caught a Cousins pass and ran across the Colts for a 64-yard touchdown. TJ Hockenson held the pointer (he was on the backside of Cousins’ lead, and the protection hung up to get the ball), and the game was tied at 36.
“I mean, it has to block really well in order to be hit,” Cousins says. “But at some point, he’s got to take it from there and start playing. A combination of guys who’ve got their blocks and then that’s a special Dalvin. It’s one thing to get a 20-yard or 30-yard gain, but to be able to take the distance and finish with a touchdown, that’s it.” Big game. It was a great call. We needed to hit him with a screen at that point, and so it was a great time to be able to make that play.
“Then Delvin made it so much more than we thought it was going to be.”
After that, the teams traded three times, heading into overtime.
Jefferson and Osborne combined for 22 catches, 280 yards, and two touchdowns.
Matt Crone/USA Today Sports
A sack and a held call disrupted the Vikings’ first overtime attempt, and their defense stalled again to get the ball back on its 18th single with 1:41 left.
And what was special about what was to come was that, really, there was nothing very special about it at all. Everyone engaged on all six plays to get Greg Joseph into position to kick the game-winning 40-yard field goal. But the play founded by Joseph proved decisive.
“They’re all blending together at the moment,” the cousins say. “I know that receiver’s final screen by Justin that got us closer to a 40-yard field goal. … Without that last play by Justin to get us closer, we’re probably out of range—or it’s going to be a very difficult kick. So I felt like that play was a big deal.” They then get a late game penalty by holding Justin to the ground, which again helps bring us closer.
“Every yard counted at that moment to get to the nearest field goal.”
Every minute counted for the fulfillment of the prophecy set by Peterson and Cooper at halftime.
The corner and coach were close enough needing five touchdowns—they also needed a field goal—to get past the Colts. But more important were the intentions of the two messages.
Peterson was, more or less, telling his teammates that the defense would shut down the Colts’ offense the rest of the way, and that unit came close to pulling him. Meanwhile, Cooper noted that the offense would score every time it got the ball after that, and that was another promise he was about to keep.
And it all feels like business as usual for a team that makes these things sound that way.
In fact, Cousins himself needed a reminder at the end, when NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero began his interview with the quarterback by telling him it was the biggest running back in league history. The quarterback saw a Bills-Oilers game restart from January 1993, but the result was muddled – “I knew it was 35-3. I knew it was 35-3, but I assumed it was 35-0 before it was 35-3.”
Of course it wasn’t, and now Cousins and Vikings We are Engineers the greatest comeback in NFL history.
Which gives – but not limited to – an uncommon team yet another uncommon result in a season full of them.
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