Vikings beat Giants on Greg Joseph's 61-yard Christmas miracle
The Vikings are now 11-0 in one-score games this season, the latest coming in Christmas miracle fashion as Greg Joseph hit a 61-yard field goal as time expired to lift Minnesota over the New York Giants 27-24.
GREG JOSEPH 61-YARD FIELD GOAL FOR THE WIN! @VIKINGS #NYGvsMIN pic.twitter.com/a7JwsbirRX
— NFL (@NFL) December 24, 2022
The 61-yarder is a franchise record and gives the Vikings a 12-3 record with two weeks left in the regular season. The Giants fall to 8-7-1, still hoping to clinch a playoff spot in the back of the NFC race.
Joseph's record field goal wouldn't have happened without Justin Jefferson's record-setting catch that put Minnesota at the Giants' 42-yard line with seconds left on the clock.
On 3rd-and-11, Jefferson caught a screen and raced 17 yards for a first down. It was his 12th catch of the day and 123rd of the season, breaking Cris Carter's franchise record of 122 receptions in a single season. He also broke Randy Moss's franchise record for receiving yards in a season.
Jefferson's tenth catch of the day went for a touchdown to give the Vikings a 24-16 lead with just over three minutes left in the game.
Justin Jefferson again. What else can you say?
— NFL (@NFL) December 24, 2022
📺: #NYGvsMIN on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/AJ2krgfBrW pic.twitter.com/HkwURKP6MH
The Giants answered with a 75-yard drive capped off on a 4th-and-2 handoff that Saquan Barkley took for a 27-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion pass from Daniel Jones was caught by tight end Daniel Bellinger, tying the game 24-24 with 2:01 to play.
On 3rd-and-9 on the ensuing drive, Cousins hit Jefferson for a first down. And then on 3rd-and-11 after Cousins took a sack, Jefferson made the big play to set Joseph up for the 61-yarder.
Tight end T.J. Hockenson had 13 catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns for Minnesota. Jefferson finished with 12 catches for 133 yards and a touchdown. He's now up to 123 catches for 1,756 yards and eight touchdowns.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.