Vikings get the job done and beat the Redskins on Thursday night

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t turn in the prettiest of efforts on Thursday night, but they did just enough to top the Washington Redskins for their fourth straight win.

The Minnesota Vikings continued their midseason surge on Thursday night as they topped the Washington Redskins by a score of 19-9. While it was not the prettiest game of the year, the Vikings did enough to come away with the win and improve their record to 6-2.

Minnesota’s night got off to the type of start you would expect from Thursday Night Football with both teams looking sluggish and acting like they wanted to be somewhere else. Stefon Diggs got the night started with a long reception that ended with his fourth fumble of the season and a recovery by Washington’s Ryan Kerrigan.

While the Redskins had success moving the ball momentarily on their first drive, the Vikings would make Case Keenum return the favor as he put the ball on the turf to give Minnesota prime field position.

From there, the Vikings would exchange field goals with the Redskins throughout the first half with Dan Bailey connecting from 50 and 29 yards and Dustin Hopkins hitting from 21 and 30 yards to see the two teams grind to a 6-6 deadlock.

Minnesota didn’t even get into the end zone until the final drive of the second half when Cook finished off a seven-play, 75-yard drive with his eighth touchdown of the season to put the Vikings up 13-6 at the half.

The second half would essentially put Minnesota on football’s version of the power play as Keenum would be bounced from the game thanks to a concussion. That put in first-round pick Dwayne Haskins and essentially neutralized the Redskins’ offense.

Meanwhile, the Vikings would build on their lead thanks to a 27-yard field goal by Bailey and the Redskins would chip into the lead with a 43-yarder from Hopkins.

Things would get tense for a moment after Zimmer decided to go for a 4th-and-1 from his own 34-yard line and Cousins would get stuffed on the quarterback sneak, but Haskins would throw an interception to Anthony Harris to snuff out their best drive of the second half.

With a 40-yard field goal from Bailey, the Vikings ran out the clock on the back of Alexander Mattison as they cruised to their fourth straight victory after starting the season at 2-2. As the Vikings now have a 6-2 record in hand, they’ll have a long week before traveling to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs (5-2) on November 3.