Byron Murphy Jr., Andrew Van Ginkel feast on the Lions in Vikings’ Christmas win

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Byron Murphy Jr. wanted to pay his compliments to the chef.

Or whoever it was who cooked the steaks served to the Vikings cornerback, outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel and other defensive teammates during Netflix’s festive postgame interview after their 23-10 win over the Detroit Lions on Christmas Day.

They’d barely finished licking their chops from devouring the Lions offense when heavy, Santa-style coats were draped over their shoulders like kings, a stack of tomahawk steaks laid out like a feast in front of them.

“[The meat] was falling straight off the bone,” said Murphy postgame, his Santa coat stuffed in his locker, just shed from a photo op. “I had to take a couple bites for sure before I passed it.”

The performance the Vikings defense put on vs. Detroit was worthy of an elaborate, gimmicky celebration, even if the Christmas holiday had already warranted it.

They forced six turnovers from an offense that’d been the cream of the NFC North crop the past couple seasons and had only eight turnovers total — the fewest in the league — entering Week 17.

Notable shows of celebration followed nearly every one.

After all, this was the performance the Vikings defense had been wanting to give when the questions kept coming about the lack of takeaways compared to a league-leading 33 last season.

Their answer was always that when they came, they’d snowball. They were right.

Van Ginkel ran both his recovered fumbles, which came on the same half of the field, to family sitting in one of the field-level suites at U.S. Bank Stadium.

He wrapped his oldest son, Leo, in a hug after handing him his second fumble recovery, which came with just over 3 minutes left in the game. Van Ginkel pried the ball loose from Lions quarterback Jared Goff’s hands as he tried to secure a botched snap that ended up on the ground, and replay gave him the turnover.

His extended family was in town for the holiday and received the ball from his other turnover.

Smith held on to his ball from what he confidently said was “a good play” on his interception, amid downplaying the rest of his successes in the game. But initially, he admitted, a childlike urge to throw it into the stands in celebration nearly overtook him.

After each of Murphy’s turnovers, he and teammates flocked to the end zone, not unlike how they did in 2024 before breaking into a choreographed celebration.

Murphy led the Vikings in interceptions last year with six but hadn’t recorded one this season until Dec. 21 in the Vikings’ win over the Giants at MetLife Stadium. He both recovered a fumble and picked off Goff in the Dec. 25 win to add to his total.

Murphy said he doesn’t think he’s ever been involved in a defensive showing with six turnovers.

The Vikings have relied on their defense in most games this season, but few to the degree they did against Detroit, when the offense finished with just 161 yards in 51 plays.

Even without an explicit defensive score, all but one of the Vikings’ five scoring drives started with a defensive takeaway. Three started in Lions territory.

Wide receiver Justin Jefferson said the defense has been playing “lights out all year, it’s just all gotta come together,” noting that the offense could have done more with the many opportunities the defense gave it.

The Vikings’ 21 total takeaways are now top 10 in the league, a reversal from where they were in the bottom 10 entering the week. All but the Vikings and the Bengals in the top group are either playoff-bound or still vying for a spot.

The Vikings have been out of that race for two weeks, but their defense gave them cause to celebrate plenty on Christmas Day as they moved back to .500 with a fourth straight win.

“If we can’t go, the other team can’t go,” Murphy said. “It’s in our house, it’s Christmas, and we had to take over.”