Minnesota Vikings Best and Worst: Week 11 vs. Denver Broncos
By Adam Carlson
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Although mentioned earlier, Kirk Cousins deserves a lot of credit for his play in the second half. He connected on 18 of his 23 passes in the final two quarters, gaining 261 yards and scoring three touchdowns. The narrative that he can’t win when trailing has just been smashed.
Cousins hit three different receivers for the touchdowns, connecting with Stefon Diggs on a beautiful deep ball, Kyle Rudolph for a catch and run, and a red zone toss to Irv Smith Jr. A lot of the credit for this game has to go to Minnesota’s quarterback because that was an improbable victory.
Here are some other good things to come out of Week 11 for the Minnesota Vikings:
- Irv Smith Jr. scores his first career touchdown! This will be the first of many in his career. Smith has been picking up work each week, especially when Adam Thielen has been out. And the way he was clutching that football on the sideline showed how much it meant to him.
- Dan Bailey‘s 1,000th career point! Minnesota had a lot of kinks to work out in their kicking, but it seems as though they finally have a competent unit that can regularly put the football through the uprights. This milestone from Bailey shows just how impressive of a kicker he really is. He is currently 62nd in the NFL in career points scored and will look to move up that list this season.
- Andrew Sendejo returns for an interception! For a guy who was recently cut to return to his former team, sit out a week, and then start a game, this was a nice way to make a big impact on the game. Sendejo’s pick came at an important when Denver had just gotten a turnover in Minnesota territory and was threatening to score. Welcome back!
- That’s stepping up in a big way. Lately, I’ve been critical of Stefon Diggs for not being a bigger part of the Vikings offense with Thielen out. This week, he shut me up. He led the Vikings in receiving yardage, gaining 121 yards on five catches…catching every pass thrown his way. That was a massive game for Diggs, who made big plays when the team needed him.