MINNEAPOLIS – For much of Thursday night, the Minnesota Vikings didn’t look like the same team that got embarrassed by the one-win Detroit Lions four days ago. The criticism of the defense and speculation about coach Mike Zimmer’s job security seemed to be shelved.
Minnesota’s ground game dominated the first half as Dalvin Cook, whose status was questionable leading into the game because of a shoulder injury, gained 153 yards and scored twice. The Vikings led by 29 in the third quarter.
No team has ever come back from a 29-point deficit in the regular season, and it looked like history might be made as the Vikings once again watched a lead transform into a nervous ending. But the Vikings defense, victimized several times this season by late drives, stopped the Pittsburgh Steelers to preserve a 36-28 victory.
“That team that played in the first half for us was pretty darn good, and I think could probably beat anybody,” Zimmer said. “That team that played in the second half probably could get beat by anybody.”
As has been the case in 11 other instances this season, Thursday’s game came down to the wire and exposed the Vikings' weaknesses that have been there all season. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Vikings are the eighth team in NFL history to play 10 consecutive one-score games in a season.
It was once again a tale of two halves for Minnesota. The Vikings' defense kept the Steelers scoreless until 2:15 to play in the third quarter. The pass rush that pressured quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on 38% of his first-half dropbacks only pressured him on four of 29 dropbacks in the second half.
The Vikings' run game that averaged 8.2 yards before contact in the first half only mustered 1.9 yards in the second half. Quarterback Kirk Cousins was 4-of-12 passing with two interceptions and a touchdown in the second half.
Still, the Vikings remain in the playoff hunt.
This is the third time in the last five weeks that Minnesota has beaten an opponent with a winning record. The Vikings are now a half-game behind the San Francisco 49ers, who hold the tiebreaker over Minnesota, for the No. 7 seed.
But make no mistake. The speculation around the direction and future of this team is as intense as it was days ago. Minnesota faces Chicago twice, Green Bay and the Los Angeles Rams in the next four weeks. This stretch of games will ultimately determine how chaotic the Vikings’ offseason will be, which jobs are safe and the direction this team is going.
“I think we've shown potential, but you've gotta do it not only for four quarters, but for really four more games,” Cousins said. “We've got to keep getting to work, and not really talk about it, but be about it. And go make plays and manage the game well, and see where we are at the end of it all.”
Surviving a scare: Cousins didn’t have a particularly great night, completing 14 of 31 passes for 216 yards, two touchdowns and two second-half interceptions that left the door open for the Steelers to come charging back. Had Cousins not found K.J. Osborn on a 62-yard strike to keep Pittsburgh at bay and take a 36-20 lead with 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, this game might have ended in heartbreak for Minnesota.
“That kind of took us to the point where, ‘Yeah, we’re still here. We still can score,’” Cook said. “It gave our defense some momentum, because we were shooting ourselves in the foot by throwing interceptions and turning the ball over and not converting first downs. We were giving them the ball back so quick, so for us to go get that quick strike and kind of show them we settled down, ‘We got y’all, just like we have been in the first half,’ so just regrouping and doing our thing.”
Dalvin dominates: Wearing a harness around the left shoulder that he dislocated in San Francisco two weeks ago, Cook sparked a rushing attack that ripped through the Steelers defense. Cook finished with 205 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries. The expectation when the running back got carted off the field against the 49ers was that he would be shut down for two games to rehab, and return if the team was making a push for the playoffs. Zimmer said he was told on Tuesday that Cook was progressing well enough with his rehab that he had a realistic chance of playing ahead of schedule.
Pivotal plays: The Vikings are on pace this season to surpass the record they set in 2020 for points allowed in the final two minutes of any half with 107. While Minnesota nearly allowed a comeback of historic proportions, the defense excelled in the two-minute drill in both halves, which has been a routine point of emphasis for weeks. Eric Kendricks came away with a third-down sack at the end of the second quarter to keep the Steelers scoreless at halftime, and Harrison Smith broke up a pass on the final play of the game to help Minnesota escape with the win.