Brian Murphy: You'll remember where you were for Vikings-Bills
Perhaps it was wise to consume the Vikings-Bills Game of the Season/Century/Millennium in small portions across several platforms as I crashed the finish line from a long weekend of hockey parenting.
Gorging on the relentless entertainment and manic plot twists of Minnesota’s improbable 33-30 overtime victory Sunday risked physical gluttony and mental exhaustion. Sheer madness that probably wrecked man caves and marriages from Roseau to Rochester.
Another Minneapolis Miracle, only this time in Buffalo, where the perpetual clouds parted in mysterious ways again for the sun-kissed Vikings to rocket this already charmed season into orbit.
I never saw Patrick Peterson’s game-ending interception, but I listened to the Vikings’ radio crew hyperventilate through it while dropping off my son’s peewee teammate in St. Paul after their team’s ugly loss at the White Bear Sports Center.
I was stuck manning the visitor’s penalty box door through the second half, the streaming app on my phone muted and delayed 10 seconds from the broadcast. I had no idea what I was seeing, let alone what I was missing.
Our team did not score a goal or take a penalty, so I stole glances whenever the arena stragglers who had gathered around the concourse television erupted at the latest absurdity unfolding at Highmark Stadium.
The crowd seemed to swell after every outburst. Players from the previous game refused to leave. Hockey parents in the bleachers bailed on their children toiling on the ice to rubber neck this FOMO finish.
The Bills and Vikings packed a season’s worth of drama and trauma in the fourth quarter, from Justin Jefferson’s game-extending acrobatics and Eric Kendrick’s game-resuscitating fumble recovery to Kirk Cousins’ snuffed goal-line sneak and every grueling penalty flag and replay review in between.
Unbelievable, they’re gonna win!
Of course, they’re gonna lose!
Wait, what the hell just happened?
The Vikings were prematurely buried three times, falling behind 17 points in the third quarter, failing to score on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line with less than a minute remaining and surrendering Buffalo’s tying field goal in the waning seconds of regulation.
Few teams could rally from so much adversity, in that cauldron of chaos, against an AFC Super Bowl contender and an elite quarterback in Josh Allen, who was not even expected to play because of a bum elbow.
Minnesota became the first team to score more than three touchdowns against a banged-up Buffalo defense that nonetheless had only yielded 12 points per game.
Cousins’ 357 passing yards were the most against the Bills in the last two years. Only Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady have thrown for more. You have better odds winning the Powerball.
The Vikings (8-1) are no longer everyone’s favorite overachievers. The cat is totally out of the bag now. They are competing with undefeated Philadelphia for NFC supremacy and leaning into the challenge as fallible Dallas visits US Bank Stadium next.
“Felt like a movie,” said Jefferson. “This means this is our season, for us to win out and go to the Super Bowl. We’ve got to keep working, going week by week, fix our mistakes and get ready for the Cowboys.”
Jefferson is the biggest bargain since France sold us New Orleans and middle America for a song.
He snatched a career-high 193 yards, many right out of the hands of double-teaming defenders. Jefferson cemented his status as the NFL’s most dynamic receiver, an unstoppable game-breaker who is performing Moss-like tricks for the franchise that introduced the world to Randy.
All while outshining Stefon Diggs on the Buffalo superstar’s turf, putting more distance between Diggs’ messy divorce from Minnesota and Jefferson’s timely arrival.
Years from now, when NFL Films sits down with the paunchier and gray-haired combatants to reminisce about this instant classic, Jefferson’s one-handed grab late in the fourth quarter will be rehashed in reverence.
It was fourth-and-the-game, 18 yards for those scoring at home. Cousins tossed a jump ball toward the Vikings sideline in the area of Jefferson, who twisted and leaped high in the air, corralled the football with his right hand as cornerback Cam Lewis climbed his back and closed it in a vise grip before crashing to the turf.
The otherworldly grab extended the drive that ultimately failed at the goal line, but no one will remember that. Only the image of Jefferson snatching fate out of the jaws of sure defeat.
“I didn’t think he could surpass what I already felt about him as a player,” said fellow receiver Adam Thielen. “He just keeps outdoing himself. I’m here for the show.”
Get in line.
Because no matter where you are this Vikings season, greatness is only a collective roar away.
