Vikings' Winning Streak Comes to Crashing Halt in 40-3 Loss to Cowboys

The Vikings' magic ran out on Sunday. Micah Parsons and the Dallas defense were dominant.

When regression hits, it often hits hard.

The Vikings used up a lot of luck and magic on their seven-game winning streak, pulling out numerous fourth quarter comebacks and winning each game by eight points or fewer. Last week in Buffalo, they orchestrated one of the most miraculous comebacks you'll ever see. It was a fun two-month stretch, but it was never going to be a sustainable formula.

On Sunday, all of the regression hit at once as the Vikings (8-2) were thoroughly dismantled in their home stadium by the Cowboys (7-3) in an ugly 40-3 defeat. Dallas dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and sent the Vikings into soul-searching mode with another tough game coming up in four days.

This was one of the most lopsided Vikings losses ever. The 37-point margin of defeat is the biggest in a Minnesota home game since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. Back in 1963, the Vikings lost by 42 to the St. Louis Cardinals at Metropolitan Stadium. It's only the sixth time the franchise has ever lost a game by at least 37 points, and the first since a 45-7 road loss to the Packers in 2011.

Offensively, the Vikings couldn't get anything going against the Cowboys' defensive front. They were destroyed in the trenches, with at least one offensive lineman getting beaten badly on seemingly every Kirk Cousins dropback. Dallas ended up with seven sacks and could've had more. The Vikings finished with 183 yards of offense, but they only had 112 midway through the third quarter.

It started right away. The Vikings received the opening kickoff and Micah Parsons sacked Cousins on the game's third play, forcing a fumble that the Cowboys recovered. Parsons, who entered this game as the favorite to win defensive player of the year, might've wrapped up the award on Sunday. He had two sacks and made his presence felt on just about every play.

Defensively, the Vikings became the first team this season to give up points on their opponent's first seven possessions of the game. The Cowboys' drive chart looked like this:

• Field goal
• Touchdown
• Field goal
• Touchdown
• Field goal
• Touchdown
• Touchdown

They didn't punt until their eighth possession. At that point, it was already a 37-3 game late in the third quarter.

The Vikings really missed defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson — who was out for the third game in a row with a calf injury — in this one. The Cowboys racked up 151 yards on the ground, seeing a ton of big holes opened up by their offensive line. Dak Prescott torched the Vikings through the air, completing 22 of 25 passes and hitting running back Tony Pollard for two long touchdowns. The first was a 30-yarder late in the first half that made it 20-3. The second was a 68-yard bomb past Jordan Hicks that made it 30-3 early in the third quarter and ended the competitive portion of the game — if you can even call it that. The Cowboys finished with 458 yards of offense.

This game was so ugly that in much of the country, CBS cut away from it during the third quarter to show a much more competitive Steelers-Bengals game. Chants of "Let's Go Cowboys" could be heard in U.S. Bank Stadium on numerous occasions. Fans in purple showered their team with boos, with many of them heading for an understandable early exit.

This was a marquee game, billed as the NFL's game of the week. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo were on the call. It was the CBS game for nearly the entire country. The Vikings had a chance to prove themselves to the nation. Instead, they didn't show up at all.

With the Patriots coming to town on Thanksgiving night, Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell decided to pull many of his starters in the fourth quarter. Nick Mullens came into the game at quarterback, ending Cousins' streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass at 39.

This is suddenly a big moment in the Vikings' season. 

The first home loss of the O'Connell era was a historic and embarrassing one. After weeks and weeks of victory celebrations and good vibes, the Vikings got punched in the mouth by a Super Bowl-caliber Cowboys team. Now it's about how they respond to this rather large helping of adversity.

The Vikings don't have much time to think about this game. They need to quickly put it behind them and get ready to play Bill Belichick's Patriots in four days. That'll be another big test, this time in primetime. 

This loss doesn't have to turn into anything further if the Vikings can move past it and bounce back on Thursday night. If it snowballs with another loss, things will start to get a bit dicey heading into a Week 12 matchup with the Jets.

The Vikings are still 8-2. They're still in complete control of the NFC North and their own destiny when it comes to the No. 2 seed in the conference. They were coming off an incredible comeback victory that drained them physically, mentally, and emotionally, and they took one on the chin against Dallas.

Now they need to find a way to make sure this doesn't happen again.

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