‘All that just happened’: An oral history of the Vikings’ 33-point comeback win over the Colts

Beware, Joe Flacco. The last time the Indianapolis Colts walked into U.S. Bank Stadium with a veteran quarterback, his 2008 draft classmate Matt Ryan, the Minnesota Vikings made NFL history.

There were as many game-turning moments in the Vikings’ comeback win, a 39-36 victory in overtime after trailing 33-0 at halftime on Dec. 17, 2022, as Flacco has NFL starts. He’ll make his 204th start against the Vikings on “Sunday Night Football.”

The Minnesota Star Tribune spoke to 19 players and coaches this week about the largest comeback by any NFL team in the regular season or playoffs, and the memories of the NFC North-clinching victory flooded back. Those recollections are not irrelevant for a Vikings team coming off back-to-back losses and left tackle Christian Darrisaw’s season-ending knee injury.

“I hope I never have to go through that again,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “You don’t want to get down that much, but it showed you kind of the resilience we have, of Kevin [O’Connell] dialing up play calls and not really panicking early in that second half and not going into two-minute mode right off the bat. … A good lesson for everyone that the game is never out of reach and it’s never time to panic.”

“That was one of the best days probably I’ve had in the NFL,” right tackle Brian O’Neill said. “You spend five years trying to win the division as a starting point, and finally got it done. That felt good.”

“I’m sure they still have some guys who were there, and they remember it,” he added. “They won’t forget going into this game what happened.”

The 4-8-1 Colts limped into U.S. Bank Stadium with interim coach Jeff Saturday, having lost six of the previous seven games.

An opening 49-yard kickoff return set up a short march for an opening Colts field goal.

“That game has a bad taste in my mouth, even though it was a part of history,” Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said. “The fast start by Indy was a true result of special teams play.”

Edge rusher Patrick Jones II was scratched from the game because of an illness, which wasn’t a massive deal until his replacement, undrafted rookie edge rusher Luiji Vilain, was targeted as the right guard on the Vikings punt team on the next drive. Colts edge rusher Ifeadi Odenigbo, a former Viking, blocked the punt, leading to a return for a Colts touchdown.

“[Vilain] hadn’t worked all week,” long snapper Andrew DePaola said. “It was a guy who hadn’t been in there, hadn’t had many reps, really, and gets thrown in that spot.”

“It seemed like they wanted to pick on the rookie,” punter Ryan Wright said.

Running back Dalvin Cook popped a 40-yard run, but lost a fumble on the next play, with seven and a half minutes left in the first quarter. Ryan, in his 15th and final NFL season, found Colts tight end Jelani Woods for a game-long, 36-yard catch and run that set up a 1-yard touchdown pass for 17-0 lead.

Two desperate, failed fourth-and-1 attempts by the Vikings – both from their own 31-yard line – led to short fields and Colts field goals. One fourth-down try saw Wright, a former high school quarterback, fake a punt and sail an incomplete pass to receiver Jalen Nailor.

“Little high,” Wright said. “It happens.”

The Vikings’ defense had two potential touchdowns removed by officiating. The first came when cornerback Chandon Sullivan scooped up a fumble by Colts receiver Michael Pittman and ran into the end zone. But officials, headed by referee Tra Blake, deemed Pittman’s forward progress stopped before fumbling.

Blake also officiated the Vikings’ Oct. 24 loss to the Rams, where refs missed an obvious face mask on quarterback Sam Darnold during a Rams safety.

“Heard it was the same crew that robbed me of my two defensive touchdowns two years ago,” Sullivan wrote last week on social media.

“Oh, was it?” safety Harrison Smith said. “Shocker. I would’ve never guessed.”

Receiver Justin Jefferson was twice evaluated for injury in a physical game.

Jefferson’s first exit – after being slammed to the turf by a Colts defender – led to a pick-six by Colts safety Julian Blackmon. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins targeted Jefferson’s replacement, Jalen Reagor, who stopped a shallow hook route but then kept running as Cousins unleashed a pass to where he stood.

“You expect a blocked punt or a pick-six to happen to you from time to time,” O’Neill said, “but you don’t expect both.”

Inside the Vikings locker room, cornerback Patrick Peterson shouted a handful of words that ring to this day.

“‘Offense, let’s get five touchdowns! We’ll win the game!’” center Garrett Bradbury recalled. “Everyone’s like, OK, let’s do it. He kind of screamed it in the locker room.”

Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips played through a back injury that had him listed questionable beforehand.

“Like I did all this work all week, and I’m in a lot of pain right now, for this?” Phillips said. “Some people were talking at halftime like, ‘Dude, we can play free, let’s make this one of the most amazing games of our lives, let’s go for broke.’”

“At that point, the pressure is off,” O’Neill said. “You still think you can do it, but there’s still this factor of that’d be pretty crazy to actually do it.”

The Vikings offense opened the third quarter with a three and out. Paper planes, crafted by pages ripped from game programs by frustrated fans, fell to the turf.

The Vikings defense didn’t bend. They forced the first of six Colts punts after halftime.

O’Connell didn’t press. He called plays from his standard menu, not the hurry-up offense.

“Pressing early in that half would’ve been, I think, sending the wrong message,” O’Connell said, “because so much of what took place in the first half was correctable.”

Receiver K.J. Osborn, whose 10 catches for 157 yards on 16 targets remain career highs, lit the first spark. He sprung loose downfield with a 63-yard catch and sprint, and capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown.

Another special teams blunder, a 48-yard kickoff return, set up a short field and Colts field goal. But the Vikings offense’s momentum didn’t stop. Chunk plays – a 19-yard Cook run, a 12-yard Cook screen, and a 15-yard Osborn screen – set up a short touchdown run by fullback C.J. Ham.

“I kind of felt like, ‘This is for real,’” Ham said. “After that it kind of felt like we’re going to go win this game.”

The Vikings got the ball back just 72 seconds later thanks to a Colts three-and-out.

Jefferson stepped up, holding onto two catches – for 20 yards and 17 yards – while Colts defenders drilled him; Blackmon, the safety, drew a 15-yard flag for his hit.

Jefferson’s 8-yard touchdown has been seen over and over. He beat cornerback Stephon Gilmore, now his Vikings teammate, with a triple move. Jefferson cut toward the sideline, pivoted back inside, and then jabbed his feet into the turf and cut back outside, leaving Gilmore in his wake.

“People don’t usually run three routes in one,” Gilmore said. “And they bring it out to me because they know I’m going to jump that [second move].”

Jefferson said he’s never brought up the play to Gilmore. “If anything,” Jefferson added, “I’ll bring it up as some fuel and motivation for him to go out and get this dub on our side.”

“That’s always going to be something I keep in the back pocket,” he said of the touchdown. “But I’m glad he’s on our side.”

Cousins, who threw for 417 of his 460 yards after halftime, walked up to Gilmore in the end zone.

“He said, like, ‘That’s a tough one’” Gilmore recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, you got me.’”

Another rough hit on Jefferson, this time by Gilmore, led to a concussion evaluation. Another pass intended for Reagor got intercepted when he stopped running a deep over route.

But the Vikings’ defensive dominance – Indianapolis scored three points and gained 133 yards after halftime – kept them alive. Then-coordinator Ed Donatell called more blitzes in the second half, which players encouraged.

“We came back on the sideline like, ‘That’s how we gotta play,’” safety Camryn Bynum said. “We were all getting hyped. Donatell was feeling it like, ‘OK, I feel you guys.’”

Receiver Adam Thielen’s first target came midway through the fourth quarter, a 19-yard catch accelerating a drive that ended in his 1-yard touchdown catch.

Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” played over the stadium speakers.

A second defensive score by Sullivan was taken away when Colts running back Deon Jackson was ruled down by contact. O’Connell won a challenge, but only gained possession. Sullivan was flagged for throwing his helmet in frustration.

The Vikings turned it over on downs to the Colts, then Saturday passed up a 53-yard field goal attempt for a fourth-and-1 sneak by Ryan, which failed with 2:31 left in regulation.

On the next play, Cook housed the game’s highlight: a quick screen pass he took 64 yards for the game-tying score. Darrisaw and left guard Ezra Cleveland escorted Cook downfield, helping to finish the play

A two-point conversion to T.J. Hockenson knotted the score at 36-36. “That will definitely go down as one of the most special ones,” Hockenson said.

“My [5-year-old] son, that’s his favorite YouTube video,” backup quarterback Nick Mullens said. “I come home, and he’ll be watching the Vikings-Colts comeback, watching Dalvin Cook take the screen.”

At the overtime coin toss, fullback C.J. Ham cheekily smirked at stone-faced Colts receiver Parris Campbell.

“I looked at him, I was hoping he would acknowledge it a little bit,” Ham said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, man, we’re here. All that just happened.’”

O’Connell called plays knowing a tie would also clinch the NFC North. He passed up a 56-yard field goal try by kicker Greg Joseph for a punt in overtime. Phillips, playing with an injured back, had a key run stop and chased down a Pittman screen to force a third and long. Another timely blitz forced a Colts punt.

With a tie in mind, O’Connell slow-played the game-winning drive with 1:41 left. Cook took a handoff. About 30 seconds went by before Osborn’s 10th catch, a 15-yard run with two broken tackles. The Vikings picked up the pace with no huddle. Cousins fired a 21-yard pass to Thielen, then a 13-yard screen to Jefferson with less than 20 seconds left.

Odenigbo, the Colts edge rusher, laid on Jefferson as the clock ticked. He was flagged for delay of game.

That set up Joseph for a 40-yard field goal – his fourth of five game-winning kicks in 2022. Teammates mobbed him.

“I saw Greg for maybe a split second, and then he got taken away by all the rest of the guys,” said Wright, the holder for the kick. “I gave him like a half hug, and I have no idea where he went.”

“I get back in the locker room and I see all the O-linemen and I just start bawling my eyes out,” O’Neill said. “Garrett was like, ‘Are you crying?’”

“I got married in March and my wife is always like, ‘You never cry,’” O’Neill said. “Leading up to the wedding, it was actually her family saying to me – they were like, ‘If you cry because you won a football game and you don’t cry when you marry my sister, there’s something seriously messed up.’”

“I cried at both,” he said.