What We Learned About the Minnesota Vikings in Get Right Victory Over Colts

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NFL: Indianapolis Colts at Minnesota Vikings
Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

In week 9, Minnesota Vikings played against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football. It a game they hoped would end a two-game losing streak, and one they couldn’t afford to lose if they wanted to keep their NFC North hopes alive.

After a slow start, the Vikings offense finally figured things out in the 3rd quarter. The defense had one of its most impressive performances of their season, too. In the end, turnovers from both teams made this a roller coaster, back-and-forth affair that was exciting, yet hard to watch, at times.

In the end, though, it was the Vikings who took the victory, and moved to 6-2 on the season. Now, they sit in 2nd place in the NFC North, and they’d be the 5th seed in the NFC, if the NFL Playoffs started today. But this is only the halfway mark of the season.

There is a lot to take away from this game. Here is what we learned about the Minnesota Vikings during Sunday night’s win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Minnesota Vikings defense is so back

A lot has been said about the Minnesota Vikings defense, over the last couple of weeks, after it was exposed by the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions. But that was not the case on Sunday night, when the Colts totaled just 227 total yards of offense, zero offensive touchdowns and two turnovers.

The Vikings were good against both the run and pass. Joe Flacco threw for 179 yards (63.7 cmp%). Jonathon Taylor compiled only 48 yards on 13 carries and no Indianapolis wide receiver totaled more than 60 yards. It was an impressive effort by Brian Flores’ defense all around.

The Minnesota Vikings needed Brian Flores to get his defensive group back to the something that resembled the early dominance displayed during the first five weeks of the 2024 NFL season, back when they were setting DVOA marks that were so high, they nearly broke the entire algorithm.

Related: Kirk Cousins vs Sam Darnold – Comparing Old/New Vikings QBs Through Week 9

And finally, after two games riding the struggle bus, the Vikings defense delivered the exact type of performance we had been missing. And the offense needed it, because the path to victory in week 9 was anything but smooth.

The Sam Darnold roller-coaster is a wild ride

Every week that Sam Darnold plays football in a Minnesota Vikings uniform, I realize more and more why he has been both criticized and praised throughout the season. One moment, he is making impressive, heady plays that display his arm talent and ability to scramble when needed.

Then, a play or two later, he makes some of the most mind-numbing decisions and poor throws ever seen in downtown Minneapolis… and that’s saying something. On Sunday, he had a relatively impressive statline, going 28-of-34 for 290 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

Some of the good throws make your jaw drop. The bad decisions are deflating in a much different way. Look at the difference in these two plays. One is a beautiful touchdown pass to Josh Oliver. The other is a bone-headed interception that he threw immediately after his own defense did the same thing.

Thankfully, the Vikings defense came to play this weekend, which made Darnold’s mistakes and referee blindness (keep reading) factors that the team was able to overcome. But going forward, Sam has to find a way to eliminate the mistakes that hold him back from being one of the better quarterbacks in the league.

The 2nd half of the season will tell other teams a lot about what type of quarterback Sam Darnold will be, if he joins an organization that is able to foster further development, after the 49ers and Vikings have set him back on the proper career track.

Related: Former Vikings Assistant Could Be New Play Caller in Vegas

If he can prove that some of these issues will be fixed, with more experience, he can make a lot of money this offseason. But should Darnold continue to throw games away (or try to), then his suitors in a few months will be fewer and more far between, meaning less money and job security for our (likely) one-year QB hitman.

Will Reichard is a football guy (and human)

This might be the biggest concern to come out of the Minnesota Vikings vs Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night. Alabama rookie Will Reichard missed a 48-yard field goal, just wide right in the first half. That was weird. Then, the very next drive, he lined one up from 31 yards… and missed that too.

A short time later, videos started to surface of Reichard limping and putting a heat pack on his thigh, in between kicks. We then found out he was dealing with a quad injury, that he tweaked at some point during the first two quarters.

Still, the 2024 6th round (No. 203 overall) pick continued to go out, kickoff after kickoff, field goal attempt after field goal attempt, and try to help his team. Let’s be real, nobody on the Vikings roster is better a better kicking option than Reichard, even if he’s only at 50%. He still made every extra point and found a way to get his kickoffs into the end zone. But you could tell that every single kick caused major discomfort.

Related: Former Vikings Assistant Could Be New Play Caller in Vegas

After the game, Reichard confirmed the injury is something that he has been dealing with this week, but that something happened in the first half that made it worse. He’ll have an MRI on his right quad Monday. He’s now 14 of 16 in his NFL career (plus 23-of-23 XP). Let’s hope our new kicker has good news come back from his MRI, so we can get back to putting footballs through the uprights.

Referees are still the worst

I am going to make this section short and sweet. If you want more on the situation, you can head over to our write-up on it over here. But the referees did their best on Sunday night, to yet again try to derail the Minnesota Vikings quest for six victories.

The most egregious play came on another egregious missed roughing penalty involving the head of Sam Darnold. Instead of a facemask penalty, Sunday’s illegal contact to the facemask came with a forearm clothesline that was so obviously a foul that NBC’s retired booth referee was flabbergasted at the no-call.

How in the world does this happen two weeks in a row? We have seen contact to helmet penalties called for love taps and slight grazings, in the past. Now, we can’t even get one for WWE style clotheslines off the ropes.

After the game, the pool referee gave an excuse that felt awfully familiar to what we received last week, just days before the NFL fined the Rams player who committed the no call penalty. Will that be the case again this week? Probably.

What’s to take away from Minnesota Vikings vs Indianapolis Colts

Overall, this was a big win for the Minnesota Vikings, and it was one that they had to scratch and claw for. While there are some worrisome notes to take away from the victory, there are more positives. The biggest of which is the aforementioned play of the defense.

We have to hope Sam Darnold comes around. But if this team is going to have any chance in the playoffs, the defense will have to be closer to dominant, than they are atrocious. And on Sunday night, they were all that and more.

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