Minnesota Vikings 2015 season review: 4 quarters – part 2

After finishing the first half of the season 6-2, Minnesota Vikings fans hopes were high knowing that the second half of the season, that half of the remaining games were against contending teams with playoff aspirations.

Earlier this week, the first half of the Minnesota Vikings 2015 schedule was broken down. Those eight games helped to set the stage for what would be a very interesting remainder of the team’s 2015 NFL season.

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So, now it is time to take a look at the remaining games the team played, including a look into the heartbreaking Vikings playoff game against Seattle in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.

Third Quarter

@ Raiders, vs Packers, @ Falcons, vs Seahawks

Record 2-2

When the Vikings left town to play Derek Carr and the Oakland Raiders there was some fear as to if Minnesota’s Defense could contain their aerial escapades. The defense proved up to the task and the sporadic Vikings offense and special teams stepped up to rack up 30 points. Rhett Ellison scored on an 11 yard touchdown reception, Cordarrelle Patterson had a 93 yard kickoff return for a score, and Adrian Peterson capped off the scoring with an 80 yard run in the final 2 minutes

Riding high off of 5 straight wins, the anticipation was high for the Vikings to prove themselves at home against Minnesota’s border battle nemesis, the Green Bay Packers. Not a lot of good came out of this game. The feelings of being a legit contender were being met with a cruel reality check that we were still developing. If there were any positives to take out of the game, one was Teddy Bridgewater had a higher completion percentage than Aaron Rodgers, and Kyle Rudolph had, for him, a rare as snow in July, 100 yard receiving game.

The Minnesota Vikings would again prove resilient with a bounce back victory on the road against the Atlanta Falcons. Adrian Peterson led the charge with 29 rushes for 158 yards and 2 touchdowns, Teddy Bridgewater completed 20 passes for 174 yards, and Blair Walsh kicked 2 field goals in the contest.

The defense bounced back from last weeks dismantling by Eddie Lacy and Aaron Rodgers, allowing only a field goal from Shayne Graham and a garbage time touchdown with less than 2 minutes remaining in the game.

For those of us that thought the Green Bay loss was horrible, when Seattle came to town it was apocalyptic… Jerick McKinnon was our leading rusher with 4 rushes for 18 yards and our leading receiver was Mike Wallace with 2 receptions for 43 yards as our defense gave up a season worst 38 points as Russel Wilson was able to dissect our secondary and spread his passes around seemingly at will. The lack of Marshawn Lynch was looking to be a positive, that was until we met rookie Thomas Rawls who ran through our interior defense for 19 rushes totaling 101 yards.

The only touchdown for Minnesota was an embarrassing high-stepping kickoff return touchdown that really deserved no celebration, as we were already completely out of the game. A feeling of implosion was starting to set in knowing the Vikings were traveling to NFC West leading Arizona only 4 days away…

Fourth Quarter

@ Cardinals, vs Bears, vs Giants, @ Packers

Record: 3-1

Usually I do not believe in “moral victories” but that is what the Minnesota Vikings found against the Arizona Cardinals. Still battered and beaten from having their pride and parts unmentionable handed to them 4 days earlier, the Minnesota Vikings found “IT”. Over the past 2 seasons when Carson Palmer started to this point in the season the Cardinal were an amazing 19-3. Nonetheless up 23-20, the Cardinals had the lead but the Minnesota Vikings had all the momentum.

Receptions by Kyle Rudolph and Jarius Wright had the Vikings where we could have kicked a game tying 48 yard field goal with 13 second remaining. Minnesota chose to try one more play to shorten the distance, a decision I agreed with, but one that was met with much scrutiny.

Teddy Bridgewater dropped back to pass, he actually had a fair amount of time, when Dwight Freeney tapped in to his time machine and came around from behind the quarterback like he did frequently in his time with the Colts. Calais Campbell was the man in the right place at the right time as he fell on the ball effectively sealing the victory for Arizona over our Minnesota Vikings squad.

With the previous week being the defining moment of the season, the Minnesota Vikings welcomed the Chicago Bears to TCF Bank Stadium. Teddy Bridgewater gave them a warm reception, responsible for all 5 touchdowns, 1 rushing and 4 passing, and completing 17 of 20 passes. The defense was continuing to solidify, and the whole team clicked on all cylinders, ending our only 2 game losing streak of the season.

In the Week 16 tilt against the New York Giants, the Minnesota Vikings were going up against a team needing a win to stave off elimination for another week. Reeling from the 1 week suspension of Odell Beckham Jr, for his part in the previous weeks altercation with the Carolina Panthers Josh Norman, the Giants allowed the Minnesota Vikings to score a season high 49 points in a game that was pretty much over by halftime.

The whole game basically turned and never turned back when safety Harrison Smith scored on a 35 yard interception return ending a drive the Giants were on that could have potentially tied the game at 10 apiece. Instead the Vikings poured it on and the Giants were knocked out of contention.

With the possibility of a first division championship since 2009 in Minnesota’s sights, the only thing standing in their way was the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Already guaranteed a playoff spot, it was known the winner of the game would play the Seattle Seahawks at home and the loser would travel to Washington to play the Redskins on the road.

Many fair weather fans wanted the Vikings to avoid the Seahawks rematch at all costs. In a fairly nondescript game, the main highlight and the difference maker was Captain Munnerlyn. His 55 yard fumble return for a touchdown was the game winning score locking up the win and the division championship for Minnesota, and setting up the rematch of what was the Minnesota Vikings worst game of the season.

Second half of the season record: 5-3

The second half of the season was representative of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It was when the Minnesota Vikings got annihilated and rose from the ashes more powerful and prepared for the post season. The fans faith was also tested and rebuilt. The only question that remained in the minds of everyone was whether or not the Minnesota Vikings would be able to actually be competitive with the Seattle Seahawks who handed us the worst loss of the season.

End of the regular season record: 11-5

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Typically the post season would get its own article but this is just a brief summary to finish off the 2015 season.

NFC Wildcard Game

vs Seahawks

Loss 10-9

The score is totally indicative of how close the game really was. The Minnesota Vikings led 9-0 going in to the 4th quarter as they were showing the national audience how far they had come since their regular season matchup. The Minnesota Vikings owned all 3 phases of the game, though the stellar Seahawks defense also held Minnesota’s offense to only 3 field goals. I refuse to call this a game lost by Blair Walsh’s missed field goal.

Yes Blair Walsh could have won the game, but he alone did not lose the game. First, Seattle’s lone touchdown came after a play where Russell Wilson botched a snap and went over 15 yards backwards from across midfield to about the Vikings 43 yard line, but not only did he complete the pass for a first down, Tyler Lockette took the pass that never should have been all the way down to the 4 yard line. The result, Doug Baldwin scored a touchdown 2 plays later.

Second, Adrian Peterson’s fumble on the ensuing possession ended another drive that we actually gained momentum up to that point. Third, my most frustrating of all the 4th quarter issues is when Kyle Rudolph cut out of bounds  with only 1 unblocked man to beat to the endzone.

Next: Vikings game-by-game 2016 season preview

It may seem unfair to point this particular play out, but as fans we have been waiting for Rudolph to step up and be “the man” and he quite literally just walked out on his opportunity. Fourth is the field goal miss, but how can you fault the man who had already scored all 9 of the Minnesota Vikings points already. Again I state, Walsh did not win the game for us, but he sure as hell didn’t lose the game alone.