The Minnesota Vikings came back to win the largest comeback in NFL history on Saturday afternoon, beating the Indianapolis Colts at home by a score of 39-36.
The comeback was one point larger than the 32-point comeback by the Buffalo Bills over the Houston Oilers in the 1992 AFC wild-card round, which was ironically orchestrated by former Colts coach Frank Reich.
While the second half and winning the NFC North was an excellent finish, the first half was beyond abysmal. Nothing went right for the Vikings and it reflected in the 33-0 halftime deficit. Who deserves the most blame for the performance? Let’s break it down.
Kirk Cousins-10%
This season, Cousins has figured out a way to lead this team from behind on multiple occasions. This was not one of those. At a certain point, Cousins shrunk into a corn cob and went full-blown robot mode. This is something that he has done multiple times and he did it again on Sunday. For as much credit as we have given him this season, Cousins is playing like his old self and that’s not a good thing.
Kirk Cousins has gone into robot conservative mode. Has Justin Jefferson on a hi-low levels concept wide open and picked the short, easy throw
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) December 17, 2022
Dalvin Cook-10%
The Vikings running back has a knack for fumbling the ball at the worst times and it continued on Saturday afternoon. After the Vikings went down 10-0, they needed a spark in the biggest way. O’Connell dialed up a misdirection pitch that netted 40 yards. The next play, he fumbled it and the Colts converted it into a touchdown to go up 17-0.
Ed Donatell-15%
Of all the things going wrong for the Vikings against the Colts, the defense isn’t very high on the list. However, the promise of change on offense wasn’t there.
Tom Pellisero said pregame that the Vikings were going to run more man coverage. Have they even run one play in man?
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) December 17, 2022
The promise of change that was essentially told to us pregame wasn’t there much at all. Consistent zone coverage and only a couple plays of man. There were a few blitzes thrown in there, but it seemed that Donatell was staying steadfast that the execution was poor and not the play calling.
Kevin O'Connell-15%
After having two losses where the Vikings basically got manhandled and were never in the game, you would think that O’Connell had figured out how to manage bad situations. Unfortunately, he hasn’t figured that out quite yet.
After the Vikings got down 17-0, O’Connell didn’t do much to help calm the tide except go for it on fourth down where they went 0-3 inside their own territory. I know that O’Connell is a first-year head coach and that there will be growing pains, but it’s incredibly disappointing to see a third embarrassing performance.
As is tradition for the ups and downs of a first-year head coach, O’Connell never gave up on the team and they found a way to win the game at the end.
Mark and Zygi Wilf-50%
This offseason, the Vikings had a chance to start a full rebuild. Things weren’t in the best place at the end of the Mike Zimmer era in terms of both overall talent and the salary cap. The directive was given to new general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah that the Vikings weren’t allowed to take a step back at quarterback. That directive was the catalyst for approaching this like a competitive rebuild instead of tearing it down to the studs and starting over.
Not being willing to move on from a core that had multiple of these games over the last eight seasons. It wasn’t just the coaching staff, this group has clunkers like this in them and ownership was too afraid to rock the boat and make things better.
Overall, they figured it out
What a roller coaster this game was. The first half was so bad that it prompted this piece. Is some of it an overreaction? Absolutely, but overreaction is always rooted in reality so it’s important to explore the why behind everything.
However, seeing them come through and pull it out was some next-level stuff from the Vikings. The second half looked like a completely different team and should be commended for how good it was.
