Kirk Cousins took a knee, bringing the worst first half the Vikings had ever played in Minnesota to its merciful end. Inside the home locker room at U.S. Bank Stadium, as some of the fans who had booed players off the field headed for the exits, his mind was racing.
"My thoughts weren't great at halftime," Cousins said. "I just felt like we were losing in a lot of ways. Patrick Peterson made the comment, 'We only need five touchdowns.' I didn't know if he was being sarcastic or what. ... They were kicking our tails. It's one thing to say, 'We need five touchdowns.' That's difficult to do. It's even more difficult when you've been struggling the way we've been struggling."
One look at Peterson's face told Cousins that yes, in fact, the veteran cornerback was serious about the Vikings erasing the Colts' 33-0 lead and completing the greatest comeback in NFL history to win the NFC North. The defense would not allow another TD, Peterson insisted; all the Vikings would need to do is coax more than a point a minute out of their offense.
"I'll never forget it as long as I live," coach Kevin O'Connell said.
Nor will those who witnessed what the Vikings did, roaring back to secure a 39-36 overtime victory in the 1,000th regular-season or playoff game in franchise history. The Vikings (11-3) clinched their first home playoff game since the Minneapolis Miracle in the 2017 season with a victory every bit as implausible as that one, scoring 36 second-half points to send the game to overtime and claiming their first division title in five years on Greg Joseph's 40-yard field goal with three seconds left.
The Vikings' 33-point comeback eclipsed the Bills' 32-point rally over the Houston Oilers in the 1993 AFC wild-card playoffs for the largest in NFL history.
They did it despite two Chandon Sullivan fumble return touchdowns that were wiped out by officials, a dubious face mask call on Kris Boyd that nullified a long Jalen Reagor punt return and two Cousins-to-Reagor interceptions that came after Justin Jefferson left for injury concerns. The Vikings' second-half performance was so overwhelming, it didn't need to be perfect.
Cousins completed 34 of his 54 passes for a career-high 460 yards — 417 after halftime, the most by an NFL quarterback since at least 1991. He threw touchdown passes to K.J. Osborn, Jefferson, Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook.
The Vikings outgained the Colts 436-132 after halftime; while 23 of the game's first 29 plays were in Minnesota territory, Indianapolis ran just 10 on the Vikings' half of the field after halftime.
"I'm really proud of our defense," O'Connell said. "You don't come back in a game like this [without] hold[ing] a team to three points. We had to be aggressive with some decision-making early on. Gave them short fields. Even though we didn't help them, those guys never flinched."
He praised defensive coordinator Ed Donatell for "really timely pressures" in the second half and defenders for tightening up even with Peterson out for stretches because of cramping.
"A lot of people had a hand in this one," O'Connell said.
It appeared, at various points, the comeback would not be completed.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Indianapolis' Stephon Gilmore leveled an airborne Jefferson, forcing him out of the game for a concussion check despite the receiver's vehement protests. Cousins threw deep for Reagor, and Rodney Thomas picked off the pass at the Colts 2 after Reagor stopped his route, preserving a 15-point lead.
With the Vikings trailing 36-28, officials ruled Deon Jackson was down by contact before Za'Darius Smith stripped him of the ball. Sullivan returned the fumble for a touchdown that would have given the Vikings a chance to tie the score. A review gave the Vikings the ball, but not the touchdown, and the Colts stopped the Vikings on fourth down.
But the Vikings then stopped Matt Ryan's fourth-down run, and on the next play, Cook lined up as a wide receiver to take the screen 64 yards. Cousins found T.J. Hockenson for a two-point conversion to tie the score 36-36 with 2:15 left.
The Vikings won the coin toss in overtime but stalled at the Colts 39. The defense forced a Colts punt, giving the Vikings the ball at their 18 with 1:41 left.
Before the drive, quarterbacks coach Chris O'Hara told Cousins they would start conservatively because a tie would win the division. The quarterback jokingly replied, "It would have been nice to know that 10 minutes ago."
The benefits of a tie, O'Connell said, were "very much in my head. That's why the last time we got the ball, we started the drive out with a run. All I wanted to see is, can we get a new set of downs? Can we eat some clock?"
Cousins found Osborn for the 10th catch of the receiver's career 157-yard day, and O'Connell hit the gas. Cousins worked through his reads before finding Thielen for 21, and two plays later, Cousins found Jefferson for 13 yards on his final completion of the day. Officials tacked on a 5-yard penalty when Indianapolis defenders tried to pin Jefferson to the ground and run out the clock.
Joseph hit from 40. Vikings linemen hoisted him in the air as a giddy fan base roared.
"I shed a tear just thinking about it," Jefferson said. "I've been in some crazy games in my life, but this definitely tops all of them."
The first half ended with the Vikings facing the second-largest halftime deficit in franchise history, after two quarters full of the stupefying events usually required to make a NFL game so lopsided
On the Vikings' first drive, former Vikings defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo surged up the middle to block Ryan Wright's punt. The ball bounced straight into the air and landed in JoJo Domann's arms, before a convoy of Colts escorted the linebacker into the end zone to make it 10-0. A Cook fumble led to a 17-0 Colts lead.
With the Colts leading 23-0, referee Tra Blake whistled Michael Pittman's third-down catch dead before Sullivan stripped him and returned the ball for a touchdown. Instead a punt pinned the Vikings in their own territory, and Julian Blackmon intercepted a Cousins throw behind Reagor and returned for a touchdown to make it 30-0. The Colts tacked on another field goal before halftime.
The only time the Vikings had ever trailed by more than 33 at halftime was at Seattle in 2002, when they were down by 35.
"When we walked out at halftime, I told them, 'This team, nine of 10 of their [wins] have been one-score games,' " Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday said. "We didn't overlook them. We understood how explosive this offense is."
In their retelling, some of the fans who booed the Vikings on their way out the U.S. Bank Stadium gates might insist they never left, but the numbers were on their side. Teams that trailed by 30 or more at halftime were 1-1,548-1 in NFL history.
To most pragmatic observers, getting five touchdowns seemed like too much.
"Not to us," Peterson said.
