MINNEAPOLIS _ The game that put the Vikings back over .500 for the first time in three weeks will not go down as the one that minted their contending status, not with a healthy batch of offensive issues surfacing against a 1-4 team traveling two time zones east.
Kirk Cousins had seven passes batted down at the line of scrimmage, and was sacked four times, as the Vikings' line again struggled to give their quarterback time to throw. His first-quarter interception came on an ill-advised throw as he was trying to flee Benson Mayowa, and Chandler Jones' forced fumble triggered a Budda Baker return for a touchdown.
But the Vikings, a work in progress though they might be, are on a win streak for the first time this year.
They rode their formula from an earlier part of the Mike Zimmer era to stave off the Arizona Cardinals, 27-17, on Sunday, improving to 3-2-1 with a forceful ground game and a defense that would deny rookie quarterback Josh Rosen any chance to repeat what Josh Allen did at U.S. Bank Stadium three weeks earlier.
Where the Vikings struggled to protect Cousins, they succeeded in opening space in the middle of the NFL's second-worst run defense. A Vikings team that only had one 20-yard run all season _ from wide receiver Stefon Diggs _ got five on Sunday, with Latavius Murray making the most of a downhill running attack to become the team's first 100-yard rusher this season.
The Vikings had planned to play Dalvin Cook for 20-25 snaps on Sunday, according to a league source, but with Cook's hamstring injury keeping him out for the third time in four games, Murray finished with a career-high 155 yards on 24 carries, the most by a Vikings back since Adrian Peterson ran for 158 against the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 29, 2015.
"It was good to see that the running game got going," Zimmer said. "I thought Latavius ran with a purpose."
Adam Thielen had more than 100 yards receiving for the sixth consecutive game, extending his Super Bowl-era NFL record for consecutive 100-yard games; the overall NFL record was set in 1961 when Charley Hennigan of the AFL's Houston Oilers surpassed 100 yards receiving in seven straight games in 1961.
And on the other side of the ball, there would be no repeat of Allen's performance in the Buffalo Bills' staggering Week 3 win, not with Vikings' defenders swirling around the first-round pick all afternoon likes sharks circling a schooner.
Zimmer dialed up a sizable dose of blitzes for the first-round pick, with Mackensie Alexander racing through the line untouched for a first-half sack and Harrison Smith leveling Rosen on an overload blitz in the third quarter. The Vikings sacked Rosen four times, and were at their best when the quarterback needed a conversion; Arizona started the game 0-for-9 on third downs and failed to convert on a pair of fourth downs, including when David Johnson was stopped for no gain at the goal line.
The goal-line stop would be as close as the Cardinals would get to an offensive touchdown with the game's outcome still in question, though they tied the game at 10 in the first half with Baker's fumble return touchdown following the fourth strip sack of Cousins this season.
Jones had pressured Cousins on second down and forced him to step up into the pocket before Corey Peters took him down. On third down, he beat Rashod Hill again, ripping the ball away from Cousins. Baker took the recovery 36 yards for a touchdown, effectively muting the U.S. Bank Stadium crowd as he crossed the goal line.
The Vikings pulled ahead by three at the end of the first half, following a clunky two-minute drill that saw them called for delay of game a play after Cousins stopped the ball to stop the clock. A 21-yard run by Mike Boone highlighted a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to start the third quarter, capped by a 13-yard pass from Cousins to Thielen.
After the Vikings forced a three-and-out, Murray's 34-yard run put the Vikings inside the Cardinals' 10, setting up Cousins' 8-yard score off a designed run.
Thielen had 11 catches for 123 yards. Cousins was 24-for-34 for 233 yards and an 87.0 rating.
Rosen completed 21-of-31 for 240 yards and was picked off by Anthony Harris, the veteran safety's first NFL interception.
Vikings rookie defensive back Mike Hughes suffered a knee injury during the game. Zimmer said Hughes, who was on crutches in the locker room, will have an MRI Monday.
