The worst thing
There were a lot of different ways to go for the worst thing to come out of this game, especially if judging by the first half alone. However, the biggest thing that had to have fans and the team itself insanely frustrated was the massive impact penalties had in those first two quarters of play.
Once again, Minnesota found itself struggling to stay disciplined. The stat sheet will only show five penalties accepted against the Vikings in this game, but it was more about the timing of these infractions than the number of them.
Offsides, hands to the face, pass interference, and other calls kept drives alive for the Broncos on a couple of occasions when the purple and gold had them stopped. Thankfully, this wasn’t an issue that plagued the team for the entirety of the game.
Whatever Mike Zimmer said or did to this team at halftime needs to be bottled and sold. Minnesota looked like a completely different team, playing a mostly clean version of the game they couldn’t manage to play in the first half.