Off the top of my head …
I like the way the defense kept a struggling offense in the game long enough for the promising young quarterback to get his long-ball act together.
It wasn't perfect. The defense did give up three red-zone touchdowns. But it also held Washington to a pair of field goals after it had first-and-goal at the 13 and second-and-one at the 6.
On both of those drives, linebacker Anthony Barr had game-altering plays with a sack on second-and-13 in the first quarter and a tackle for loss on second-and-one in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and the running game came around well enough to post 15 fourth-quarter points and the win. Bridgewater looked like Tarvaris Jackson early on, going 0 for 4 on balls thrown 20 yards or longer. But he came back to completed 4 of 5 deep balls down the stretch, including back-to-back 21-yarders to Jarius Wright and Chase Ford on the game-winning drive.
Beating Tampa Bay and Washington in consecutive weeks isn't shout-from-the-mountaintop material. But it took 25 games for this team to post its first winning streak since the end of the 2012 season. And it's relatively healthy heading into a bye week. And tight end Kyle Rudolph probably will be ready to return in two weeks. So, all in all, the 4-5 Vikings have a lot to feel good about, especially considering they haven't had Adrian Peterson since the opener.
