HOUSTON – The Vikings' week began under orders to evacuate their practice facility, after word came from the NFL they might have been exposed to COVID-19 from an opponent that had likely used infected players.
The Vikings shuttered their opulent headquarters for two days, shifted game-planning sessions to home offices and reconfigured a practice schedule that traded an integral day of on-field work for a slate of virtual meetings. They took and passed a week's worth of point-of-care tests, nervously waiting at NRG Stadium for a final set of results on Sunday morning after the rapid tests returned one false positive for a starter and three inconclusive results shortly before the deadline to declare inactive players.
They built an 11-point lead against the Texans, fumed as their five-time Pro Bowl safety was ejected for a hit they felt should only have incurred a penalty and scrambled to hold their secondary together against quarterback Deshaun Watson's attempts to test its limits. And then, one more time, the Vikings waited, as an official review determined that Will Fuller's leaping one-handed attempt would not count for a touchdown and Watson would not have a chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion.
Only then was the 31-23 victory assured.
The Vikings haven't needed four games to produce their first win of the season since 2013 — when they had to go to London to get it — and in some ways, they shouldn't have needed to work as hard as they did to secure it.
But as players spilled onto the field to celebrate, before referee Brad Rogers made it official that Fuller hadn't completed the catch, the imperfections of their victory didn't matter much. All that really did was the fact a taxing week would end with a coda of relief.
"It's great, to see all of the emotions in the locker room, to see all of the smiling faces in the locker room," said receiver Justin Jefferson, who had been a part of as many losses in three weeks as he had in two seasons as a starter at LSU. "First three weeks, everybody was droopy and we were coming out of the locker room with an 'L,' so to finally come out with the 'W' and to see everybody's excitement, it's great. I'm trying to get many more."
The first-round pick formed a triumvirate with Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook that accounted for all but 51 of the Vikings' 410 yards from scrimmage. Cook ran for 130 yards and two touchdowns, pressing the edges of the Texans defense the way he did on a 181-yard day against the Titans and scoring his second touchdown on a highlight-worthy showcase of his balance, footwork and sheer tenacity.