NFL: Minnesota Vikings 15 Dallas Cowboys 17 recap and analysis

The thirteenth thursday night of the season took place at the beautiful US Bank of America Field of Minneapolis where the Vikings hosted the best team in the NFL the Dallas Cowboys, after Bridgewater, Peterson loss they missed also coach Zimmer due to an eye surgery. The game has been scoreless until 2:28 left in the first quarter when the Vikings thanks to a very good starting field position and some precise short passes by Bradford haven been able to arrived in field goal range where Kai Forbath scored the first 3 points of the game. At the beginning of the second quarter the Vikings defense forced the first turnover of the game when Everson Griffen punched the ball out the ball of the hands of Whitehead and that allowed Kendricks to recover it around midfield giving another good field position to his offense who didn't take advantage of it ending the drive with a punt. The Cowboys offense finally woke up around the half of the second quarter when Bryant received a Prescott's pass on a double move that resulted in a 56 yard one that brought them on the 1 yard where Elliott scored on a power run. The rest of the first half saw the defense dominate the scene taking away the running games  and putting a good pressure to the QBs, the same happened until there were 2:36 left in the third quarter when the Vikings ended one of their best drive who saw a very precise Sam Bradford in the pocket bring his team inside the Cowboys field when Kai Forbath scored other 3 points due to a 36 yarder. Two minutes later Brian Robison beat Doug Free bad and let Prescott fumble the ball inside the Dallas 20 yards where the Vikings defense recovered it giving their team a great field position, unfortunately for them their offense went three and out scoring just 3 points with another Fortbath's field goal that gave them the first lead of the night. With 10:30 left to play in the game the Cowboy's speacial team recovered on the 8 yards the fumble made by Adam Thielen and just one play later Prescott threw his first TD pass to Dez Bryant on a wide receiver screen to beat Rhodes. Vikings special teams continue to struggle, this time the punter Locke made a very bad punt giving the ball to Dallas around midfield, once there Elliott made a couple of very good run that brought his team in the field goal range where Bailey extended their lead with a 39 yards field goal. The Vikings had their last chance to try the game on the last drive of the game and they finished so close to do that because Bradford drove the ball down field so well with short passes until he found McKinnon on a flat route to score 6 points, to tie the game they needed the 2 points conversion so they tried to it but after a false start penalty Bradford missed high Rudolph in the end zone for the incompletion that ended the game in favor of the Cowboys.


Offensive MVP: Dez Bryant
Defensive MVP: Sean Smith