The Vikings overcame a referee knocking over Camryn Bynum on what looked like a sure interception, a poor face mask penalty and a rough offensive line performance to come from 10 points down to beat the Washington Commanders 20-17 on Sunday afternoon at FedEx Field.
The Vikings’ first drive of the game was excellent. They drove 78 yards on nine plays and capped it off with a Justin Jefferson touchdown catch. Kirk Cousins was 5-5 for 67 yards and the touchdown pass to Jefferson.
Throughout the next 40 minutes, the Vikings’ offense struggled. The offensive line couldn’t pick up stunts and the duo of Jonathan Allen and Montez Sweat wreaked havoc all day on the Vikings’ offensive line.
In those two quarters, Cousins threw an interception to Jefferson in the back of the end zone with just 14 seconds left. It’s difficult to fault Cousins on that, as he did what we have been asking him to do his entire Minnesota career: trust his receivers to come down with the football.
Cousins finished 22/40 for 265 yards, two touchdowns and an interception while Jefferson topped 100 yards for the fifth game this season with seven catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.
Bradbury also got hurt at the end of the first half but he did return to the game. Cameron Dantzler, however, was ruled out with an ankle injury, opening the door for Akayleb Evans. He was great in relief of Dantzer, including forcing a pass breakup on Terry McLaurin on a key fourth down play.
The defense came up big when they needed too against the Commanders. Taylor Heinicke struggled finding open receivers down the field. He only threw for 149 yards on 15-28 passing. Danelle Hunter had two sacks on the day and finally saw production to pair with his great season thus far.
The big play came in the first minute of the second half. Curtis Samuel ran a deep post route and Heinicke threw it into triple coverage but the back judge ran into Camryn Bynum who was in great position to get an interception. Instead, Samuel catches the pass and scores a 49-yard touchdown.
The game was ugly and the Vikings’ offensive line couldn’t pick up a stunt to save their lives. What was good, however, was seeing the Vikings find a way to come from behind and win another one-score game. The Vikings are now 6-0 in one-score games this season after being 6-8 all of 2021.
Up next for the Vikings are the 6-2 Buffalo Bills who are coming off of a 20-17 upset loss to the New York Jets.
