The Minnesota Vikings held on to claim a 23-17 win in London and deny Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets a thrilling comeback victory.
The Vikings came into the game as one of just two unbeaten NFL teams - along with last season's Super Bowl winners the Kansas City Chiefs.
And they gave Rodgers, the Jets quarterback, a torrid time as they charged into a 17-0 lead in front of 61,139 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Jets gave themselves hope right before half-time, before Rodgers threatened to lead the Jets back as the rain began to fall in north London.
The NFL's four-time Most Valuable Player found Garrett Wilson for a touchdown to cut the score to 20-17 with six minutes left.
Minnesota added a field goal, giving the Jets just over three minutes to march up the field and claim a game-winning touchdown.
But with 49 seconds remaining and the Jets edging towards Minnesota's endzone, Rodgers was intercepted for the third time in the game, allowing the Vikings to improve their record to 5-0 while the Jets dropped to 2-3.
Vikings keep up the feelgood factor
The Vikings are becoming this season's feelgood story in the NFL. The organisation was rocked by the death of rookie Khyree Jackson in the off-season before they lost rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy to a season-ending knee injury
That meant that Sam Darnold would begin a season as the starting QB for the first time in three years and, according to the pre-season odds, 22 teams were deemed to have a better chance of reaching the Super Bowl.
But Kevin O’Connell's team have used that adversity as inspiration, beating the San Francisco 49ers, who lost last season's Super Bowl, as well as two more teams who reached last season's play-offs - Houston and Green Bay.
Now they faced the Jets, who have gone ‘all in’ on reaching the Super Bowl after luring Rodgers from Green Bay in 2023 and building a young, dynamic roster around him.
They have had one of the best defences in the NFL yet the Vikings' defence was on top during a dominant first half, intercepting Rodgers on back-to-back possessions for New York.
The first drew the biggest cheer of the day as the Vikings' faithful roared on Andrew van Ginkel as the linebacker made a marauding run down the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown.
Darnold then led a 74-yard drive, which culminated in full-back CJ Ham punching the ball in from two yards.
The Vikings held off a second-half fightback by Green Bay last week and again they showed resilience to get the job done, with Will Reichard kicking his second and third field goals to keep them in front before cornerback Stephon Gilmore claimed the decisive interception.
After the game, linebacker Jonathan Greenard talked about proving the naysayers wrong and warned that "we haven't even played our best ball yet", and they now have a bye week before taking on another of last season's play-off teams, Detroit.
Comments
Post a Comment