Vikings Postgame Report: Vikings Complete Historic Second Half Comeback, Win 39-36 In OT & The NFC North | INDY | Week 15

in fifty five weeks. And not only are the Minnesota Vikings NFC North champions with that victory, they completed the greatest comeback in the history of the National Football League and had to overcome a lot of self inflicted wounds and a lot of things that went against them. The last time the Minnesota Vikings beat the Indianapolis Colts, Pete Bursach was in his third year out of Notre Dame playing against the Colts at the Metrodome in nineteen ninety seven.

Coming up on the postgame report, you will hear from Kevin O'Connell and Kirk Cousins. You also will hear Kevin O'Connell's post game locker room speech with the T shirts and the hats for winning a division title. Analyst just stream your consciousness on the What an unbelievable game. I mean, it's an unbelievable game. And it's really been an unbelievable season, and this game, it was every bit, if not more

exciting than the game in Buffalo. But what a different type, what a different style, a different type of a game. The way this thing unfolded. You know, you have you have Taylor out for the Colts. Yeah, you know, he played maybe a player two in the beginning, ye and then came out and you're looking at this going, this is the best opportunity that you have against any team

in the league right now to win this division. And then you go ahead and get a punt block for a touchdown, right you just you you you fumble, You're you're moving the football finally, and then you fumble it. And you know, so much of today, though, unlike Buffalo, was self inflicted. But the cool thing is is it's not in life what happened to see you, but how

you react to it. And despite all the mistakes, despite all the bone headed plays, this team had enough fortitude did not only just turn this thing around, but come back and win a game that no one has ever done before. No one, no team ever in the history of the NFL had come back from where this team was. I mean, and and then now you would you're ten to oh and one score games. I mean, it's like I forgot about the whole thing. The whole thing is

is just is truly truly remarkable. Yeah, and you know, Tip, I mean, we can get We'll get six. I mean considering considering we had, we had probably I think we had somewhere around fifty yards of offense going in a halftime. I mean, that turnaround is unheard of, right, I mean, this it's everything. Everything today is unheard of. But um, but this team, whatever that is that you need, the you know, the never given up hanging in there. This team has it, man boy. And then when they come together,

they come together. I mean justin Jefferson, kJ Osborne, Dalvin Cook, the offensive line toward the end, I mean, just just an unbelievable effort by everybody, you know, and um, and granted it's a regular season game that wins the NFC North, but it had a Minneapolis miracle feel to it. You know, the team's down thirty three zero and the way the fans were trying to jump into the radio booth banging

on the glass with the coaches next to us. I'm just really happy that the fans at us Bank Stadium got to experience something like we got to experience at Buffalo, you know, because I'd say ten thousand people left, you know when easy right, Yeah, when they when they were down thirty three. And by the way, teams leading by thirty points or more in a game in the history of the National Football League were one thousand and five forty eight and one into the game. It's now one

thousand and five, forty eight and two. The Minnesota Vikings beat Indianapolis thirty nine thirty six in the one thousandth game in the history of the team, and it was one of the most thrilling games in the history of the team. Gabe Henderson and Ben Lieber have winning formula and here are their thoughts. Well, um, before we start between the lines, fuel by get read these shirts pretty much state that's sweet sleep. I mean we run the North.

Zadarius Smith has walked by and said, who runs the North? We run the North of Minnesota Vikings winners today thirty nine and thirty six over the Indianapolis Coats and Dib man, this was the wildest, greatest, craziest, I'm most unbelievable game I've ever seen in my life. Um, the Bills game back at you know a couple of months well back in November, I was like, okay, I'll never see another

game like this. This game said, hold my beer? How do you Where do you start when it comes to describing this unbelievable, largest comeback in NFL history when today for the Minnesota Vikings, Well, I think that's where we start. Um, it's historic. I mean there's there's no bigger, more, no, no more grandiose word that you can think of. Was it epic, yes? Was it unbelievable, Yes, it was historic.

I mean we've never seen this in NFL history. And you know, a ton of props obviously to the players and the coaches, the fans here at the stadium, But my goodness, I mean to go through what we watched in the first half, which is maybe some of the worst football I've seen any team play. To go three and out on offense to start the third quarter, and then all of a sudden, one series, another series, another touchdown, another defensive stop. It was everything that could go right

went right, and we won a historic game. It was a tell of two half. Yeah right. The Minnesota Vikings had a block punt, Well had a punt block for Indianapolis Colts touchdown, then to write again before the half, Kurt Cousins stores a pick six down thirty three to zero. At halftime, the Minnesota Vikings kJ Osborne. They starts storming back. kJ sixty five yard catch and it's like, oh, this is the kJ We've been asking for all Yeah, finish this game one hundred and fifty seven yards. How would

you just describe the comeback? When did you know that this comeback was in full throttle? I didn't know until really the end of the game. I mean it was it was like late in the fourth quarter, Mike, We're really gonna do this, you know. I really think, in all honesty, when we were down two scores and I'm like, all right, we're moving the ball. They did get conservative,

you know. I do think if I'm a Colts fan and be like, guys, come on, like yeah, step on their throats, all those proverbial things like but keep your foot on the gas pedal a little bit. They did get conservative. They tried to pick it back up, but that whole momentum thing. This went against them. When we got down two scores, I'm like, well, now we can score another touchdown, and we can get another stop, and then we can score and get a two point conversion.

I mean, a lot of things still had to go right, but when we were down two scores, that's when I thought it was very possible. Man. I'm most proud because I'm most proud of this defense because of the fact that we're down thirty three D zero and they only give up three points in the second half and halftime. Going into the half, the Indianapolis Coats had two hundred and nine first half yards, second half overtime one hundred

and thirty one. Yeah, your thoughts on the effort in the second half, I mean, I think that we didn't do a great job on first down. I mean it was it was four or five six yards on first down. And the disheartening thing was we knew everybody knew watching this game that they were gonna play a version of four minute offense. We're gonna try to grind the clock out, and we still couldn't stop them on first down. I'm like, guys, what are we doing? Like we know they're going to

run the football. But we get the second down and we bowed up, and all of a sudden, now our second down defense was was legit and we're stopping them, and now we're like, okay, well, now the third and four, third and five, you have a fighting chance at that. So our second down defense in the second half was awesome, and that really was a difference in this game, and we dialed up some pressures that actually got home. Yeah.

And then on the offensive side of the ball, you just talked about the defensive schames, the offensive schames, the fact that we caught a screenplay down one score thirty six to twenty nine to Dalvin Cook that goes for a touchdown. How would you assess Kevin O'Connell's and West Phillips play calling on the offensive side of the ball

in the second half. Well, I actually just talked to him for Kfan Radio and I asked him as a very similar question, and his answer to me was, there's a point in the game where I stopped thinking about plays and started thinking about players. Wow, And I started he really had to focus on where do I want to get the ball? Who do I want to put the ball? The ball on the hands of and then we're gonna design plays. We're gonna come up with plays.

And he even made that, you know, said one time, he's like, you know, there's a couple weeks drew up in the dirt. Yeah, you know. So I think that he really had to dig deep into the playbook and even outside of the playbook to come up with ways to get the ball in his playmaker's hands. And so, you know, great job by him, great job by Wes Phillips by staying present, you know, not mentally freaking out thinking like oh, this game's over. You know, they just

kept their head down. They just knew, like, all right, one more first down, one more big play. And for those guys to stay present and stay positive, that was that was big. That was a difference maker. People were gonna go home talking about, you know, the Greg Joseph walkoff, which without thinking about Justin Jefferson going for another hundred yard game. kJ Osborne, we just talked about him. But Dalvin Cook ninety five rushing yards, ninety five receiving yards.

I would like to say this is his best game this year as a Minnesota Viking. What were your thoughts just on his game change, game defining plays today. Well, we've seen at times they used Dalvin in the passing game, but I think all of us are clamoring to see more. Yeah, you know, and and again I think this is one of those situations. Going back to Koc's quote to me was he knew he had to get the ball in his hands and not so much in the run game because the game was lopsided. You are going to have

to throw to win. So I hope that that's a recipe going forward. You know that we have a really talented guy that has incredible vision, you know, elite speed, and he can break tackles. He's as good as any wide receiver that we have on the field. And you talk about the mismatches that creates. Let's see if we have a little bit more Dalvin Cook spread out of this offense. Man, I would love to see that because

that offers up so much. I mean, it puts the defense on their toes because they had the count for so many different guys and understanding that that gives Kirk Cutsins more options again to throw the ball. Kirk Cousins four hundred and forty seven passing yards today, fifty three attempts. He's not stopping right now, He's on a roll. Right now, do you put their hand? I guess my question for you, do you give Kirk Cousin the keys and say, Kirk, you will take us as far as we as far

as we want to go. Yeah, I mean we saw him. We saw him making a lot of checks at the line of scrimmage. We saw him assessing the defense and trying to put our offense in the best possible situation for success. Is as much this is as much freedom as I've seen an ownership that I've seen out of him in quite some time. And you know, again, our offensive line did a great job. I know that we give up some sacks and then and that's a really

good defensive front. Again. You know that's a top ten defense. Yeah, you know, we played six top ten defenses this year, so we got to give them a credit. They did. They did a lot with They have a lot of talent, a lot of skill over there. But when you are asking a running back to step out of the backfield, you're giving up some chip opportunities, some past protection opportunities. You get hackets and split out. It just left our five guys to block their best guys and our guys

up front stepped up. So if we can get that performance out of our offensive line and we get Bradberry back, and we get and we get Kirk Cousins dealing like he's dealing and getting this often spread out look out, oh, look out, and look out next week because next week is a white out game against the New York Giants, so that the end zones would be painted white, the Vikings would be wearing white jerseys the first time ever. And now you got a white suit. I don't have

a white I don't have a white suit. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to wear, like a white white polo. Maybe I don't know. We'll figure something out. But one thing that we did figure out today was how to win and the Minnesota Vikings again and understanding that, you know, there's always these false narratives about who the Vikings are, their identity, blah blah blah blah blah. If you go, if you went on Twitter during the first half,

that's what a lot of people thought about. The Vikings now scoring thirty two straight points wearing this shirt, wearing the NFC Nord Championship hat, what do you have to say about this Minnesota Vikings stag. Honestly, don't don't care about any narratay wants to say. Right, they're winning games and winning, winning is infectious, and winning sometimes it's hard to do in this league. And we just keep winning and we're gonna find ways to win, and we're champs.

Maybe we're champs. So hopefully we can get another win next Saturday, Next Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, I guess the New York Giants, right, here's a white out. We already clinched the North. Let's continue to keep that two seed for Ben Liebert, Ryan O'Neill. My name is Gabe Henderson, and

for this NFC North defending champ Minnesota Vikings team. Thank you again for tuning into another edition of Between the Lines fueled by Gatorade Schools go Ho kJ Osborne sixteen targets, ten catches, a career best one hundred and fifty seven receiving yards, and a touchdown that jump started the whole thing. It did, and you know, and that's and that's kind of the thing, you know, And I remember back in ninety eight when we were fifteen and one and things,

you know, we weren't always going our way. I wouldn't say it was as bad as today, but instead of kind of saying here we go again, we'd all look around and be like, all right, who's gonna be the person to pull us up today? Who's gonna be the one that turned this thing around? Yeah? And I really got you really got to give a tip of the captain kJ Osbourne. I mean he was he made some key plays at some unbelievably key times early to get

this Viking team back in the swing. And once everybody get back on board and jumped on it was, you know, pedaled in the metal the rest of the way. And you know, for the Colts, they're they're in neutral, they're just trying to burn the clock for three quarters of this football game and then to get an overtime and have to you know, revive an offense. That's not easy,

that's not easy at all to do. Yeah, And so but kJ uh, you know, he you know, he can go put his head to his pill and I knowing that not only did they leave a mark on, you know, on the NFL in history of the NFL, but he had an unbelievably huge part of it. Yeah, and and Justin Jefferson has an unbelievably huge part of everything the Vikings do. He finished with one hundred and twenty three yards in the touchdown. Now and getting that one twenty

three with that Minneapolis miracle like feel to it. Who caught the game winning the miracle winning touchdown pass from Kingdom Stefan Stefon Diggs Well with one hundred and twenty three yards, Jefferson passed Diggs today for the ninth most receiving yards in the history of the Minnesota Vikings. Dalvin Cook with then with ninety five yards receiving and a sixty four yard touchdown. I mean, the way you explained it on KFA end of the Vikings radio network inside

the fifteen, what he did, holy can it was. It was unbelievable. And and we've seen Dalvin do that where he just refuses to go down, and that was that. You know, that was not you know, schematics win in the day and this and then it was simple will. It was just pure absolute will to not go down and to bring that thing all the way into the end zone. I mean, it wasn't he wasn't free and clear those last twenty five yards probably he made about four or five you know, cults miss him before they

finally brought him down in the end zone. And you know, I've said it before, but Dalvin Cook, I think is the heartbeat of this offense. He is the guy that you can count on win loser dropped, however, any of the He's going to be that that that pillar of strength, and he showed it on that play. I mean just it was one of those things where hey, just keep

feeding the ball. We saw him do kind of the same thing at the end of that Buffalo goanme where he was basically unstoppable toward the end and he had just had a different level than everybody else around him. And the guy's on the sidelines see that, the defense sees that, everybody sees that, the fan see it, and it just fuels the fire for a comeback that, you know, like one of a kind. It's never happened. Kevin O'Connell is two one o and overtime head coach of the

Minnesota Vikings. Interestingly, was drafted the same year Colts quarterback Matt Ryan was drafted two thousand and eight. Matt was the third overall pick ninety one picks later San Diego State University, KOC was taken by Belichick. Well, now Koc's coaching a Division champion Minnesota Vikings team. Here's this postgame presser. Sorry, guys, the water is an absolute necessity for me right now. All right, we'll let everybody file in here, But I

just want to commend our team, our entire organization. It took everybody today after playing, you know, our worst half of football all season long. I'm trying to do everything really in our power to lose the football game. We came back in at halftime, and our team had a decision to make. Our coaches had a decision to make. I thought our captains the way by the time our coaching staff, you know, came out to our players and to give them the pseudo plan for the rest of

the half or for the second half. Guys like Patrick Peterson, Kirk Cousins, Eric Kendricks, Adam Feeling, Brian O'Neill, CJ Hamm. Really, I'm sure missing somebody, but Dalvin Cook to who I heard. I heard our leadership telling our guys we've been here before, maybe not that much, maybe not the need for the largest comeback in the history of our league. But this team believes in each other and we just had to

go try to play good football regardless of score. We just had to try to play good football and just see if we could apply some pressure to our opponent before it was all said and done, and we were able to do that. So we set a goal to win this division at the very beginning of training camp. We have not talked about anything else besides winning the division. We knew how important that would be for our organization,

our team. Now we've got to take this moment both the the things that we clearly need to correct early on in this football game, but see if we can harness the energy that it takes to set a record like that and and compound that moving forward to have more complete performances, which is what this team is always

on the strive to do. And I need to do a better job as a head coach, demanding, you know, our standards for recorders to continue to give ourselves a chance to continue playing as long as they'll allow us to play this year. Giving you guys an injury update justin Jefferson. It was a rib chest contusion. He's feeling pretty good right now. Um, you know he was able to obviously come back in the game and help contribute

in a huge way to winning that football game. Um, and we'll I'm sure he'll be sore, but we'll keep you guys posted how he does. And then we just had three players cramping Christian dare Saw, Patrick Peterson and kJ Osborne. Career day for kJ, a huge day for Christian dare Saw to come back and and be a major part of that being able to score like that in the second half. You need your offensive line to show up and and and handle their business, which against

a really good front they were able to do. So with that, I'll open it up to you guys like this do for the Mint to shake up of your team going forward. Well, we've had a few, um that I think you can build on, and I don't think maybe we get it done today unless we had moments like Buffalo or Detroit or you know, Washington or you know, I could list off a few you guys know, um, and I just when you got the right kind of guys,

you know. And we'll continue to improve and stress the importance of individual offense, defense, special teams, group improvement, and then our team understanding how we can avoid setbacks like we had early on. You know, we can we can list those. The list is very large from the things we did poorly in the first half. But I will never discount this team's ability to overcome and continue to

play play for each other. Um. Sometimes the culture stuff gets challenged in our league, but you don't win a game like that without it. Now, we got to continue to work and continue to improve to be the best possible football team we can be through the rest of the month of December and now we know into January. How do you wrap How do you wrap your head? The NFL is one hundred three years old. This is the greatest comeback ever, surpassing that Buffalo Houston playoff game.

I mean, how do you wrap your head around that? Yeah, Chris, It's it's hard, man, it's hard. Um, I really have UM at this point when you're trying to do something like that and um really offensively. Uh, you know, we were you know, in a lot of cases creating things and a lot of cases getting players, uh, seeing what kind of looks we could attack to just kind of generate maybe some things we didn't talk about or practice,

but our guys handling it. And how about our quarterback. Uh, you cannot win the football game the way we had to go win it without your quarterback, UM playing at an incredibly high level willing. We talked last week. I thought he tried him and Justin tried to will us to win that football game last week. UM, I think we just watched him do that. Uh, you know, amongst the other phases of our football team, when we had to have it after a game like this, I'm absolutely

exhausted right now. I'm not gonna lie to you. UM, all the above, all the above. Now, it's it's just I cannot say enough about our fans. I mean, although I felt it and heard some of the um, you know, some of the rightly do displeasure with our team in the first half, the moment that we could get some you know, enthusiasm back in this building, no matter how far fetched it seemed that we would come back. Our fans were right there and you felt them. It was unbelievable.

And then shoot, when I don't know if I've heard a building like that like we did in the end, and that energy is what has really pushed us all year, and when we need them the most, they were at their best it's when did it move from far fetched to this is happening in your mind? I think before I think when we were able to get the two scores and get it, then they get that field goal, But in my mind, I still thought three touchdowns and a two point, which we kind of knew we were

gonna need five, you know, five touchdowns anyway. But then when they got that field goal, Um, I just knew it was possible, just because the momentum we were building weren't just for the plays and the success we were having. I thought there were other things off of some of the things we were able to do. Dalvin cooking the

pass game I thought was huge. That screen was a you know, season defining kind of play when in that moment where you had to have it, I mean, uh, you know, justin continuous, continually U continuously going over the middle, making critical catches, willing to you know, go attack the football, and I think we got to protect him a little bit better. Um, it's great to get the flags, but uh, you know, just moving forward, that's his coaches as well. It's not just anybody else out there, but he's too

important to our league. Um. It seems like a weekly occurrence at this point. UM. But yeah, it was about that moment, keV. And then it was just about kind of making sure that you look too big picture at any particular moment in that second half, and we're doing a disservice to reality. Still at that point, as you said you needed five touchdowns, I mean that like, I know that mathematically that's the case, but that sounds like a lot like Yeah, Patrick Peterson, I'll never forget it

as long as I live. I walked out to address the team before we went out back and went back out there, and I just overheard him walk over towards the offense say we're gonna get stops. You just need five touchdowns, that's nothing. And it was a nice little, um, you know, moment for me to lead right in off of. And I said, Pat, you're exactly right. You know, that's

that's what we needed at the time. And and you know, it was probably the most motivated I've been to kind of challenge our players just so that they just knew, regardless of the outcome today, that first half was not good enough and will never be acceptable to have that kind of performance, UM, regardless of the outcome today. UM, And and nobody's happier to be NFC North champions, and the way we earned it, I think it'll stick with

a lot of us for a long time. But but there's still a lot to go back and make sure that we rectify and continue to improve to get a roster full of guys in the headspace where when you say, hey, we only need five touchdowns, they believe it and they don't kind of just say yeah whatever. Yeah. First and foremost, you got to believe it yourself, because I think the one thing in this league is if you're not authentic and real, those fifty three guys in there will notice.

I've built that up with these guys over a long period of time, so they knew both at halftime and at the game. After the game, um, they know I mean every word I say to him, no matter what in any moment, go to or bad. I'm gonna consistently be me every single day because I just don't know any other way, And then I can trust that I've got the right guys here in the leadership of our

football team. Ben, I don't know if you can say enough about some of those guys throughout our season, in the different moments and I'm not just talking about those eight captains. I'm talking about the twenty two plus players that receive votes to be captains on our team. We talked about kJ a little bit, but for him, like the season he's had, maybe not get involved sometimes, to have a ten catches, one hundred and fifty seven and to kind of get you guys started with that first touchdown.

What did that mean? Because even yeah, I told I told kJ a few weeks back that, but his time was coming regardless, just with how our offense is evolving and his value to us, I just knew it would happen, and I didn't necessarily envision it maybe this scenario that played out today. But think back and some of those catches, some of those conversions, his willingness to catch, getting north, the yards after catch, I mean, just critical critical plays

for our team. And then people won't see some of the blocking that he did, you know, helping spring some

of those underneath completions. You know, I thought he was great on the bubble game, you know, something as little as catching and converting first downs, and you know with at TJ and Adam out in front, blocking form, just little things execution wise that our guys, did they gave us a chance to extend the chance to win the football game, Because that's all you're really looking for, is just eliminating the other team having a chance to put

us away. And if they don't do that, our guys are going to continue to fight and we're going to grind it out till they tell us there's no more ball left to play. What you observed from the two Sullivan possible fumble returns for touchdowns that water, Yeah, I could feel why he was so frustrated the first one. The first one, you know, they just ruled forward progress stopped. And when they do that, UM, doesn't matter if I agree or disagree with the call. There's it's out of

my hands at that point. I cannot challenge that UM. And then I was able to challenge the other one, UM and and get that ball out and get that ball back um. Some of those stops defensively we had. We just kept on urging them to keep going at the football see if we can change a game, which we thought we did at that one point, but but unfortunately we didn't. And then, uh, you know, I just

Sully's one of those guys that just keeps battling. Um. He's veteran players, smart, tough, and and you don't you know, you don't win a game like this and hold the team to three points in the second half without guys like Sully Um, you know, gutting it out. If you had to hear all week about your defense and how bad they have been playing recently, what does it say for them to only give up one offensive touchdown today and kind of battle like they did. Yeah, I didn't

think we did anything to help them. So if we're gonna, uh, you know, as a whole sit back and and over analyze, I think, you know, we need to analyze how how poorly we did a job at supporting them today, both special teams and offense. So I'm really proud of our defense. You don't come back from any game like this and hold a team to three points. We had to be aggressive with some decision making early on game short fields, and they you know, even though we didn't help them,

those guys never flinched. They never looked to the other phases of our offense or defense or sorry special teams and shoot, I thought ed in the second half really timely pressures losing pat p for some stretches there and guys still tighten it up, and um, you know a lot of people had a hand in this one, but our defense, we don't get it done today without those guys. This game, yep, we would have We would have won the division if at all was that in your head

in overtime? It was very much in my in my head, and that's why that last time we got the ball, we started to drive out with a run um and we were able to All I wanted to see is, uh, you know, can we get a get a new set of downs? Can we can? We? Very not conservatively is the wrong word, because I feel I felt strongly about the calls, but can we eat some clock but yet still have a mindset of when we get that first

first down? Um, I trust Kirk coleheartedly in those moments, and he made a couple of huge throws to flip the field and then we had a chance to even down to the very end. You're saying to yourself, should we you know? But I think there's moments where says a lot about your confidence in your team, regardless of how any particular phase has been up until that point. I wanted to win this football game I thought our team had earned the right to try to win the game.

And how about Greg knocking it in from what was it forty and and no doubt or as soon as it hit his foot, I knew it was in previous possession. I think you punted it was like a fifty eight or fifty nine yard field. Go yeah, And that point in time, with the clock being where it is, I thought our defense, like I said, had played well enough to maybe try to pin them and see if we could get the ball right back. It took a huge

stop for those guys to do that. Maybe that you know, they drove the ball down the field a little bit on us, but our defense bowed up when they had too. And that was really another reason why, even at the clock being where it was and trying to be aggressive with my timeouts there, I just wanted to give our team a chance to completely grasp It'll be nice to

look back and say we won this football game. It would have been great to win the division with a tie, but there's nothing like winning it the way we did, set in a record and winning the football game. Kevin Kirk makes a couple throws in a tight covers there, I guess when you're in your own territory and over time,

what's going through your mind. You see him kind of put the ball into a tight spaces there, rings how much is that him doing that or how much is that you kind of telling him, Hey, it's okay to be aggressive. No, I mean he knew. I don't have to say a whole lot. I'm trying to generate not so tight coverage with some of the things I'm calling, and I just thought that his poise, his demeanor, his

accuracy where we needed the most. I think back to some huge plays Ben that we're not his first progression, second progression. The guy's up front doing a great job giving him an extra click in critical moments to get backside to TJ on the two point or find that dagger to to add him there in that two minute drive late, I mean, if I mean that's a that's three or four on the progression backside, trying to high load defenders and this guy just knipes a beautiful throw

to his guy Adam in that moment. But but Kirk deserves a huge amount of credit for, like I said, willing our team. Regardless of the plays that are called. That guy just keeps playing at a high level, and he was a huge part of us winning this game. Is there any one moment, big or small you think might be both cemented in your memory from this Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard for me to There's so so many in my mind, but I wouldn't want to

sell any anyone, particularly or short. But I mean, you can just go back through and look at some of the plays offensively, defensively. You know that that really changed the you know, minute to minute play to play. It felt like the narrative of this game was ultimately changing, and our guys just continue to apply pressure. We got a lot of things to fix, but ultimately I appreciate you guys very much, but this, this one will stick with me for a long time. I'm really proud of

my football team and our coaching staff. Thank you, guys. Kirk Cousins thirty four of fifty four, four hundred and sixty yards, four touchdowns, technically five because he threw his twelfth pick six. It went to Julian Blackman, a safety for the Colts, but he had four to vikings. He got picked off a couple of times. The second one was a ridiculous Jayalen Ragers situation where he stopped running at the five. Here's what Kirk had to say after

a thrilling Division winning three point overtime victory. I mean, credible game. I think that the fact that our defense only give up three points in the second half was critical. Reminded me of the Eagles game when the same thing. We were down and they just didn't give any points in the second half. And I had to remind myself of that as we were playing, knowing that if our defense can do that, they allow you to hang around

and keep getting mecking it. You know. I think the fact the fans stayed at the end and provided so much energy, UM is a big deal. There was one time where they were doing the skull chant and I was I was surprised that they were still in it the way they were, UM, and so grateful that there that they were there with us all the way through it to the end. UM. Great to obviously, UM, you know, show that there was no quit and to keep playing

hard and and um finding a way. And then it's just so important that UM, you know this is this is one step and a much larger goal, and it's an important step. It's a step that you talk about when when you go to training camp and the season begins. But um, um, you know there's obviously more to go. Um. You know, kJ I thought it was phenomenal today. He's a guy that he could he could do that every week. But you've got Justin, You've got at him, You've got TJ,

you got Dalvin, you got Alex Mattison. Um. And so it's it's been hard to get him the football as much as he deserves it and has shown the ability to uh to deserve it. So he's a guy that all season long, I've kind of felt, you know, we need to get him more targets, get him more opportunities because he's the real deal. It's just been hard to to get him as involved as he was today. And he showed it today what what he's capable of. I have total confidence him to be an elite, elite receiver

in this league. Um. So great to win, great to come back. I had no idea it was the largest in NFL history. Um something like that doesn't happen to average people. UM. So I'm proud of the way the group did that, and um um, I just gotta keep building from here and there will be an enormous amount of things to correct. So take any questions you have story with the jacket and what would you have born have to come back that My wife dresses me so

uh I I she put it. She put it out last night and I looked at her like I don't know, and uh she nodded, you got to do it. So uh So here we are. Um so it's uh yeah, fun jacket. You know there's guys that have been crying in there, and I don't know what you went to put in there, but you got the sense that guys had this ball. They were reflecting on the season and their whole careers that can end the fact that they got to this point. How did it strike you when

you got in there at Yeah? What I what I've learned is you need to enjoy it because, um you work so hard. I mean think about two days training camp, OTA's you know, meetings, you know, the hours you put it on Wednesday Thursday as you prepare to have these moments that might come around you know, once a once a season, once a decade. You know, with the comeback

like that, you need to enjoy it. And so you just want to make sure that you're taking it in and and thanking everybody who participated and um and soaking it in as opposed to just you know, quickly moving on. I just think it's healthy to pause for a moment and enjoy it. I don't even know. Um, it's been in our closet a little while, honestly, but I don't

I don't even know when we got it. My wife could answer that probably was there any moment in the second half where maybe you started to feel real like, Okay, this is going to happen. That's a great question, because I was asking myself that, like, at what point does it become a normal NFL football game? Um? And I'm off the top of my head here, when we cut it to was it fifteen? When we cut it to fifteen, that's when I felt like maybe there were twelve minutes

left something like that. I thought, this is this is right there? Um um. And then again it keeps going back to the defense getting us the ball back, holding that we know we gave them short fields, so we made it hard for our defense to hold up the way they did, and they still did. Um. And then when you think about you know, solely returning a couple of fumbles for touchdowns. It didn't happen. I mean, it's

it's another thing you kind of overcome. Um to get to where we did as a veteran leader, what were you saying to the team and what were your thoughts kind of at halftime? Um? My thoughts weren't great at halftime. UM. I just felt like we were we were losing in a lot of ways and it wasn't It wasn't it wasn't good. Um. You know, Patrick Peterson made the comment we only need five touchdowns, and I didn't know if he's being sarcastic or what. When I looked at him,

he was serious. Um. I think his point was we're not going to let them score anymore, so if you can get five touchdowns, that will be good enough. Um. You know, it's it's a I'm kind of a one play at the time guy. So my mindset is like, just tell me the first play of the second half and let me go execute that as well as I can, and then you tell me the second play once we get there. So whenever I've been a part of comebacks like we've had it through the years, that's kind of

the way I operate. It's just, you know, one play at a time and let's not get too far down the road. He said that though, did you like five touchdowns? Did that feel realistic? Give yourself? I mean, you know, fairness, it doesn't happen very much. Well, they were, they were kicking our tails, you know. So you know it's one thing to say when you need five touchdowns, that's difficult to do. It's even more difficult when you have been struggling the way you've been struggling. Um, you know, this

is a this is just reminded again today. This is a crazy league and you just gotta play at one played a time, enjoying it. In one game, you win your first division title, you put up I believe a career high yardage total, and you have the greatest come back in NFL history. What is this like? Um? I mean it was it was. It was a great day to come back and win the way we did. And um and um, you know you're gonna enjoy it. You're

gonna build on it. Um. I think it's fun to look down and see that Dalvin had one hundred ninety yards from scrimmags Justin had twelve catches. For one hundred and twenty. You know, kJ Adam caught a touchdown, made the biggest play at the end there to to get us in field goal range. So um, you know, it's great to get so many guys involved and and have so many people contribute, and um, you know, just proud

of the way we kept fighting and played. But there's also a lot of stuff I'm not proud of, you know, the way we played game. There was no other game on it's national Yeah, well it's lousy everywhere I'm watching social media, people that don't care about the culture vikings a year are jumping on saving are you watching this? And too soon? If you guys realize you just played a game that people are going to literally talk about forever. Yeah, the Buffalo game. You know, maybe as well we may

have topped the Buffalo game with this one. Who knows. So, um, you know, I'm a fan of football, and walking off the field when someone said it was the largest comeback, I thought of Frank Reich and Bills and the Titans and Warren Moon in that game and Buffalo, and I thought it couldn't have been It couldn't have been bigger

than that comeback And somebody told me it was. I still I don't know the numbers, but I was like, really it was bigger than that one, because that one still to this day, I always wonder how did that happen? But um um, obviously it's a result space business. So when the result goes the way you want, it's it's it's throwing over time there. When you forced the punt, what's your thought process in terms of how aggressive do I want to be even to tie? Yeah, I didn't

know all this. In like ten seconds before we get the ball back, Chris goes Chris O'Hara, our QB coach, because we're gonna run it to start. A tie wins the division. And I looked at him like I would have been nice to know that like at least ten minutes ago, maybe three days ago. You know. So I'm talking on the field, like a tie wins the division. Well,

you got options here. He called the run and uh, and then he the second call didn't coming very quick, So I'm kind of sitting there like maybe he's going for the tie. And then he then he called the drop back, I think, and I thought, no, he's he's gonna go forward. And and then we went from there, So yeah, it was just crazy to have a chance for a tie to win the division. We still able to get down there and win the game, which what

we wanted. If you guys hadn't completely become I mean, I'm self aware enough, Jim to not wear this, so probably myself on self awareness, I think, and that would not have been the right play that Houston Buffalo Games reference.

So you were like four or five. Yeah, but I watched NFL Networks, So I'm curious, like how like, I mean, that's such a momentous moment in NFL history, and I'm curious how like a locker room, a few people who aren't old enough to have experienced it live, like even are aware of those type of you know, I don't know how many guys are aware of that, but uh, you know, I'm a fan of football, and I mean I watch when games come on, Like the other day,

the twenty thirteen NFC Championship game is on between Seahawks and Niners. You know, I'm watching that as a student of the game, you know, because that's a that's a game in a stage I want to play and I want to watch that. So whenever those games come on, I always try to take take something from them and make myself a better player. Important to kind of at times take a second and enjoy it. I mean, how hard is that for you? Um? Yeah, to take it all in sometimes. Yeah, I'm not wired that way. I'm

kind of wired to what's next, What's next? Um, you know, it's hard for me to enjoy the process. I want to enjoy the product, and so you know I don't. What I want to do is get to the end of my career. And Cooper is uh, you know, is grown grown older and you look back and you said I missed it. You know, I didn't enjoy it while I was going through it. So I want to make sure sure that you know, I can play long enough for him to remember it and really be a part

of it. But also, um, um, you know to look back and said I didn't miss it while I was in it, And now that it's over, I can say I enjoyed it, got everything out of it I could. So moments like this you want to enjoydown to Dalvin and how how great cool are these? Like one? Play in your eyes? Here Bub the same way too. It's a great play call. First of all, incredibly well blocked

to get a screen like that off. And then it was Dalvin showing why he's Dalvin Cook to be able to not only get a big play there, but but finished with a touchdown. And I'd love to see ezer Cleveland. They're basically willing him into the end zone as well. Um, I thought that play encapsulate a lot of who Dalvin is. And I said to him in the locker room, I said, I've I've been a front row seat for your best plays in your career over the last five years. That

might have been my favorite. Um. So it wasn't a run, it was a catch, but he had a couple other big catches today, and UM, you know, it's fun to think back on all the all the times I got to see him be special player in this league and then to think that's probably the top one for me. It's fun. Joseph's kick went through the uprights. What was the first thing you did, or who was the first

person you talked to or whatever. I'm not sure. I was looking at the video board to kind of be able to see the angle of the ball, and then U it might have been justin he was standing up on the bench. But yeah, it's just a memory that for a long time Christmas traditions. You're looking forward to this week with your family. Well, playing on Christmas Eve will be interesting because then you get Christmas Day, you know, to really enjoy Christmas. But you know, we got the

tree up. We've had the lights up since November first, got the day call around the house and Cooper went went over the tree the other day when my wife wrapped a few presents a little early, and he was going to open it that morning and we said we got wait like twelve more days, and he kind of lost his mind, like what do you mean? I gotta wait twelve more days? So, you know, probably not the best idea to wrap the presence early put them under

the tree. All right, thanks guys. Before we get to Ron Johnson's three takes, the Minnesota Vikings defense has been much maligned and there there's been a lot of talk about it, not only season long, but specifically this week, after allowing at least four hundred nine yards to offenses five consecutive games. Well, the Colts scored thirty six, but it's a bastard number. They got seven on a block point, they got seven on a pick six and they got

fifteen from kicker Chase McLaughlin. The defense gave up one touchdown today, Peter, Yeah, they and they know those early stops in the red zone, you know, those are the ones that you know, are are are just amazing. The Colts were one of four in the red zone, right, we were four of four. Soon those three stops at this defense came up with force and field goals. You know, they allowed they allowed this comeback. And they were putting some bad spots too, fake fourth down, fake punt that

didn't go fourth down. We tried to you know, run it and didn't get it. We actually lost yardage. They were put on some short fields today and they hung in there. They were much more aggressive, you know, Harrison Smith blitzing a lot more right at the end of the game, a zero blitz. I mean they I think that's the trend that we're gonna see over these next couple of weeks. It's just the and into the playoffs for sure, is to say, hey, you know what, Yeah,

we're gonna just gonna roll the dice. We're gonna pin our ears back, We're gonna get aggressive, and we gotta make something happen, so Darius was unblockable at the end of the game. Zadarius Smith is And you talk about Dalvin on offense being the heartbeat, Darius Smith is absolutely the heartbeat of this defense. He and Harrison Smith. He's tough. I mean, he's out there bad all the time. Yeah,

and the same thing for Harry. Harry. Harry, despite him being you know, you know, five hundred years old, is still out there just leaving everything on the field. And now our corner situation's gonna have to get figured out. And you know, uh, there's a lot of there's a lot of headwinds, no question about that. But you've got a guy like Zadarius to be there to lead this team.

And you know, I think I gotta tip the cap the quaisier Dolphamenza for bringing him in this offseason because he's a huge piece of the puzzle of this team. Daniel Hunter played his best game of the season. He did he needed to. I mean, did you know Daniel I think is still brooming himself getting himself into that outside linebacker position. But yes, he absolutely made an impact today. You know, despite being questionable going into this game, he goes out there and lights it up and does you

know it's a great job. There's a lot of a lot of guys on the defense. D Alvin Tomlinson did an unbelievably good job against the run, I think throughout the entire day. So there's a lot of really good defensive performances mixed in with all this. RJ Ron Johnson three takes with the postgame report and there they are, Thanks Pa, Well, this is Ron Johnson Company from the cafe and studios, and the Vikings are nf C North champions, as everyone has pointed out, but you just gotta say

it again. It just sounds so nice. You got to say it twice. The Vikings are NFC North champions. How'd they get there? Well, here's my three takeaways. At donontell he found away and when I say he found a way, everybody was so down on this defense. But he gave up one touchdown a day, just one touchdown held the kicker, five field goals held on the field goals one for four in the red zone. There were some other touchdowns,

but they were not his fault on defense. Special teams had won and then Kirk Cousins had to pick six, so Ed Donton Detell found a way. He had no one hundred rusher, no one hundred yard rusher, he had no one hundred yard receiver. The quarterback through for under two hundred yards. All that has to go to the defensive coordinator. Looks like the guys were listening to the assignments they were getting after the quarterback. There were some blitzes in there, and they got and they got them

on the ground. That's the big key about a blitz. You can blitz. If you don't get the quarterback on the ground, it doesn't matter. So it's my first takeaway. My second takeaway. Kirk Cousins man back to back four hundred yard games, four TVs four different receivers. He mounted the biggest comeback in NFL history. Being down thirty three points in the first half third quarter, the woes were over. Started off the season some of the worst third quarters

we've ever seen. But today's third quarter, hundred and forty five passer raiding two touchdowns for that Vikings offense. That was huge and that was a big reason for this Vikings comeback. Kirk Cousins was dialing up the passes, he was taking chances and just some of the play calling from Kevin O'Connell in the third quarter. It was almost like they knew, if we don't score in the third, if they have the third quarters, they've had another games,

they don't win this game. So that two touchdowns in this third quarter probably probably the best third quarter they've had all season. And then my third takeaway, of course, it always goes to a receiver. I gotta give kJ Osbourne some props. kJ Osborne deserves the game ball for sure, he deserves possibly NFC Offensive Player of the Week. It's gonna be tough though, with Kirk Cousins from four hundred and sixty yards but ten catches, one hundred and fifty

seven yards and a touchdown. But this is why kJ Osborne is my big takeaway. This is his first one hundred yard game in a purple uniform. That's huge. Hats off to that young man. First NFL one hundred yard game, sixteen targets, same amount of targets is Justin Jefferson. So kJ Osborne is putting his bid in to be that number two receiver. But now Kirk Cousins, he knows he has a true three headed monster with Justin Jefferson Adam Thieland and kJ Osborne. All three can get it done.

All three can put points on the board, and all three at any point can give you ten catches and over one hundred yards. And kJ Osbourne today was his day. Hats off. I'm Ron Johnson and these are my takeaways from this thirty nine to thirty six overtime victory. And the Vikings are NFC North champions. Back to you guys at the stadium, all right, So the Minnesota Vikings complete the greatest comeback in the history of the NFL and beat the Colts thirty nine thirty six. They were down

thirty three. The previous greatest comeback was thirty two points. Interestingly, orchestra by Frank Reich, the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, fired a month and a half ago. Well, his colts got beat thirty thirty nine thirty six, and um we get the Giants as NFC North champions Christmas Eve at noon. What kind of a week is this going to be for the Vikings. Well, you gotta get healthy and you get you had the full week, right, so you know

that's a good thing. You know you're not playing in a short week against a team that had to buy so that was a huge advantage for the Colts. Right there, you're gonna face an offense that is very i think pretty similar, heavy on the run, uh more mobile of a quarterback. The other they're gonna depend on their quarterback

to to move around a little bit. But the Giants have had problems in the secondary, and teams that have problems in the secondary against our offense, man, it could be you know, it could be a big day through the air for the Vikings. But you know, hopefully you learn and everything that happens in his life that you learn, and that you came back and you you you beat a Buffalo Bill's team that an improbable will come back and win and then you stub your till the next week.

Well you did it again, which is awesome. That's the main thing. But lets you gotta learn, you gotta develop, You've got to understand what's ahead of you this week. So these guys need to start working on recovery right now. In closing, you know something special happened when Don Cousins Kirk Cousins father walks four sections over to the front of the voxbox to high five of us all after his kids team comes back and executes the greatest comeback

in the history of the National Football League. Well done to everybody involved for Pete versage. I'm Paul Allen. That's the postgame report. Your Minnesota Vikings are NFC North champions. And here's Koc in the locker room right after the game. We set out a long time ago talking about doing one thing and one thing first before we talked about

anything else. Congratulations NC chimp change. But what I love about it the most, all right, when we came in this locker room at a halftime, it couldn't get much worse. We couldn't have done more to allow that other team to win the football game. But I just felt it. I felt each and every wanting. I felt the captains with your seas on your chest, understanding that we were about to go breaking all time regular season or playoff record for comeback victory. When I tell you guys, man,

I tell you guys, I love you. Oh. I meet it from the bottom of my heart, and that will never change. I will ride with this group to tell it. I want to play more great it tight, and then I want to hear you guys celebrate the twenty twenty two NFC North my god,