Down 33-0 Saturday to the Indianapolis Colts, the Minnesota Vikings would not die. Not in front of a national audience who was calling the 10-3 Vikings a fraud.
Led by the much-maligned Kirk Cousins — who along with his Vikings team was getting trashed on social media for their first half — the home team roared back and won it in overtime over a stunned Colts team 39-36.
“My thoughts weren’t great at halftime,” Cousins said. “I just felt like we were losing in a lot of ways, and it wasn’t good.
“Patrick Peterson made the comment, ‘We only need five touchdowns.’ I didn’t know if he was being sarcastic or what. When I looked at him, he was serious,” Cousins said. “I think his point was, ‘We’re not going to let them score anymore, so if you can get five touchdowns, that will be good enough.’ I’m kind of a one-play-at-a-time guy. My mindset is, ‘Tell me the first play of the second half and let me execute that as well as I can. You tell me the second play once we get there.’ Whenever I’ve been a part of comebacks like we’ve had through the years, that’s kind of the way I operate. One play at a time, and let’s not get too far down the road.”
The comeback was the largest ever in NFL history. The previous record was a 32-point comeback authored by Frank Reich and the Buffalo Bills over the Houston Oilers in a 1993 AFC playoff wildcard game.
GREATEST NFL COMEBACKS
33 pts -> 2022 Vikings d Colts 39-36 OT (Colts led 33-0)
32 pts -> 1993 Bills d Oilers 41-38 OT (Oilers led 35-3) — wildcard
28 pts -> 2014 Colts d Chiefs 45-44 (Chiefs led 38-10) — wildcard
28 pts -> 1980 49ers d Saints 38-35 OT (Saints led 35-7)