The Minnesota Vikings are set to fly home across the Atlantic after another successful visit to England having overcome the pesky Cleveland Browns 33-16.
Whilst the final score suggests that the Vikings won comfortably those in attendance at Twickenham will tell you that was far from the case. The Browns led at halftime and despite making their normal amount of mistakes the Vikings were unable to capitalize.
Fortunately, in the third quarter the Vikings offense stepped up and their defense clamped down allowing the thousands of UK based Vikings fans in attendance (myself included) to breathe a huge sigh of relief. By the time the thunderclap and Skol chants rang round the home of English Rugby in the 4th quarter the game was beyond doubt.
To borrow an old soccer cliché it was an ultimately a game of two halves for Minnesota, sloppy in the first and dominant in the second. The first half performance was arguably the worst 2 quarters the Vikings have put together all season when you consider the opposition and hopefully, it will serve as a wakeup call as they head into their bye week.
With half of the season in the books let’s take a look at the top takeaways from the Vikings Week 8 performance and how they might affect the second half of the season.
Unless otherwise noted, all game stats are provided by ESPN