7. Minnesota Vikings (7)
For the first 45 minutes of the game, it looked as though the Minnesota Vikings were going to drop their first home game of the season. And had that happened, it might have been a huge shock. The Vikings were hosting the Denver Broncos, who came in at just 3-6 and had some internal struggles being reported as word broke that the team isn’t feeling Vic Fangio as the head coach.
And after knocking off the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football the week prior, this should have been rather easy for Minnesota. However, it proved to be anything but that.
Denver jumped out to a 20-0 lead and then took a 23-7 lead into the fourth quarter. The Vikings never gave up though as they kept fighting through and chipped away at the lead. Eventually, the dam broke and they managed to drop 20 points in the final quarter to steal the win 27-23.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins continues to play well and threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns. He hit Irv Smith, Jr. for his first score before finding Stefon Diggs in the fourth quarter (after a Dalvin Cook score the prior drive) to cut it to a one-score game. He then hit Kyle Rudolph for the game-winner with just over two minutes to go.
Now at 8-2, the Vikings are a real threat but they have to find a way to win in their division. As of now, they’re 1-2 in the NFC North. They have to fix that issue if they want to walk away with the division title.