On a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings played their third game of the 2025 season and they had Carson Wentz start for them at quarterback in place of J.J McCarthy, who is out for the next few games at least with a high ankle sprain. The Vikings hosted the Cincinnati Bengals, who had just lost Joe Burrow to a nasty turf toe injury that could keep him out for the remainder of the year and they had Jake Browning start for them at QB. In a battle between backups, the score was expected to be close. However it was anything but that as the Vikings used an efficient offensive approach with an experienced veteran passer to pair with a powerful defensive performance that had one player score two defensive touchdowns and force three turnovers on his own. Cincinnati would not have any dramatic comeback against Minnesota this time as a bounce back game for the home team Vikings happened in Week 3 at U.S Bank Stadium.

The Vikings also got some much needed reinforcements as Christian Darrisaw and Harrison Smith made their season debuts after coming back from a knee injury and an illness respectively. Andrew Van Ginkel and Jeff Okudah also returned from concussions, something that Ryan Kelly could not come back from. The offensive line and defensive backs group were both more healthy heading into this Week 3 game against the Bengals, who have a very dangerous set of offensive weapons to complement whoever is playing for them at quarterback. In this case, it would be Browning, who played against the Vikings in a Week 15 game in the 2023 season and led Cincinnati to a home overtime victory. With Zac Taylor as the Cincinnati head coach, the Vikings lost twice on the road to the Bengals in overtime games that were won at the last second(literally) on game-winning field goals by Evan McPherson. So, hopefully the third time would be the charm against Cincy with Carson Wentz under center. Being on his sixth team in six seasons, Wentz continued his streak of starting for each of those six teams over that stretch, achieving something that no QB in NFL history has ever done. A lucky journeyman with at least one start under his belt over the past several years, Wentz was now playing for the team he grew up watching in Bismarck, North Dakota as he became a stud QB and played collegiately for the North Dakota State Bison and won a couple of championships for the FCS dynasty in Fargo. With family and friends in attendance, Wentz was looking to put on a show as the seventh different QB to start a game for the Vikings since Kevin O’Connell became the team’s head coach in 2022.

The Vikings started the game with possession and the offense started from the 36-yard line, with a good run by Jordan Mason(taking on a starting role at RB in place of Aaron Jones, who was placed on IR after suffering a hamstring injury in Week 2) for 10 yards being assisted by a defensive holding penalty that tacked on five yards. Wentz then threw his first pass in purple, aiming for Justin Jefferson, who caught the ball but was taken down for a gain of a yard. However, there was a flag on the play for an illegal low block below the waist on Bengals cornerback Dax Hill, who went low on Adam Thielen. The fifteen-yard penalty helped put the Vikings in field-goal range, just like that. Wentz then threw the ball up the middle to Jefferson, who made the catch and gained 16 yards for a first down in the red zone. After an incomplete pass, Mason ran for five yards and then on third down Wentz scrambled to the right and found Josh Oliver, who caught the ball and went into the end zone for a touchdown. Wentz threw his first TD pass as a Viking(and first in nearly two seasons) and had completed three of his four passes on that opening drive. The extra point made it a 7-0 lead early on for the Vikings, who accomplished something that they could not do in the Week 2 primetime game against the Falcons. There would be a lot more end zone scores on the way in this one.

On the opening drive for the Bengals, the Brian Flores defense had a good start to the game by forcing a three-and-out against Browning and a long punt by punter Ryan Rehkow followed. On the second offensive drive of the game, a couple of runs by Mason were negated by a false start penalty by Darrisaw on third down and Wentz got split sacked. A tough three-and-out in response that proved to be one of the only bad drives of the day for Minnesota. The Cincinnati offense had good field position and a chance to potentially tie the game if they did well enough. A couple of good runs and an efficient pass by Browning to Noah Fant put the Bengals in field goal range for McPherson. On a first down play from the line of scrimmage, running back Chase Brown was tackled by Eric Wilson and he lost control of the ball. Brown recovered the fumble after it was forced out. Barely avoiding an early turnover, the fragile Cincinnati offense got back into the formation. On the next play, something happened that made them wish that the fumble had been recovered by the Vikings. Browning threw a daring pass towards Brown, but the ball was tipped by Harrison Smith and intercepted by cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, who ran with the ball down the sidelines. Rodgers kept going as he sprinted past all the offensive players of the opposition and past the opposing team’s sideline to take the ball all the way to the house for an 87-yard interception return touchdown. An incredible Pick-6 by Rodgers, who had the first interception by the Vikings in the 2025 season. It just happened to result in a touchdown, continuing a massive trend of turning turnovers into points that the Minnesota defense has been successful in doing since the 2024 season. And just like Andrew Van Ginkel in the season opener last year, Isaiah Rodgers’ first interception as a Viking ends up being a Pick-6. A massive point swing denied the Bengals of points and added to the Vikings lead in granting the team with horns on their helmets their first double-digit lead of the season. A 14-0 lead after the successful PAT by Will Reichard definitely set the tone for this game early on.

A couple of three-and-outs transpired near the end of the first quarter and the second quarter began after an odd sequence of a virtual measurement replay being used that ruled Bengals RB Samaje Perine was short of the line to gain on a long third down run, but Zac Taylor challenged the ruling on the field and the replay angles showed that Perine had the ball cross over the line to gain while his knees were still above the field. So, referee Ron Torbert announced that the ruling on the field had been reversed and Cincinnati was awarded the first down. That incident could have spelled misfortune for the Vikings defense, but it did not as an offensive holding penalty negated a third down pass to Ja’Marr Chase from Browning, who handed the ball off to Perine and the defense stuffed him this time on a third and long run. The Bengals punter Rehkow had another bad punt that gave the Vikings’ offense excellent field position again. The offense started from the Cincinnati 43-yard line and a couple of runs from Mason garnered an immediate first down. Zavier Scott then got his first carry of the game, as he ran for a 12-yard gain, but it was wiped out by an illegal block above the waist foul called on Will Fries. Thankfully, the offense overcame that penalty as Wentz completed a pass to T.J Hockenson that got the Vikings back into comfortable range. Scott then had back-to-back short runs that got the team a first down right near the red zone. Wentz threw a couple of incomplete passes and the field goal unit came on for Will Reichard to attempt a 35-yard kick, which he made to give the Vikings a 17-0 lead. However on that third down incomplete pass to Jalen Nailor, Wentz got hit in the helmet by safety Geno Stone, who launched himself helmet-first into Wentz’s personal space. The refs did not call an unnecessary roughness penalty or roughing the passer flag, something that has been called a high amount of times so far through the first few weeks of the season. The drive should have continued, but it didn’t. That missed call could have potentially proved costly in this one.

The next Cincinnati drive was their only good one in the first half(and the entire game for that matter), as Browning threw a pass up the middle on a third down to Tee Higgins, who made the catch and then got hit hard by Jeff Okudah in the helmet. A flag was immediately thrown and Torbert announced that it was a personal foul for unnecessary roughness on Okudah, tacking on fifteen yards to the 15-yard play. So, apparently the refs threw the flag for a hit by Okudah, but didn’t on the helmet-to-helmet contact made by Geno Stone on Wentz. The Bengals took advantage of immediately getting back into Vikings’ territory and had a first down picked up on a pass play to Brown. The Minnesota defense held its ground and did not allow another first down on the drive. McPherson came out and attempted a 47-yard field goal, which he made to get Cincy on the board down 17-3.

The next drive for the Vikings was littered with a couple of false start fouls and that unfortunately led to Wentz getting sacked for a third time in the first half. Making matters worse was a kick catch interference foul committed by Tavierre Thomas, who slightly interfered with Bengals punt returner Charlie Jones’ effort to make a fair catch on the punted ball by Wright. That penalty put the ball in Vikings’ territory to start this next drive for Cincinnati, which was trying to score a touchdown to get back into this game. Before the two-minute warning happened, the Bengals had already picked up a first down and were back in field goal range with a couple of timeouts at their disposal. Cincinnati was set to receive the second-half kickoff, so this was a huge moment for them. But it would all be wasted when Isaiah Rodgers forced a fumble by punching the ball out of the grasp of Noah Fant’s hands after the tight end made a catch on a short pass from Browning. Rodgers recovered the fumble and ran all the way back, running past Browning and an offensive lineman to score another defensive touchdown. An unbelievable moment there as Isaiah Rodgers had accounted for two touchdowns defensively in this game. And it was still the first half. An amazing historic feat there as the final two minutes of this first half would prove to be a fumbling sequence of failure for the Bengals.

The Vikings now had a 21-point lead over Cincinnati, who would try their best to respond but on the third play of their next drive Browning threw the ball to Chase, who would have a 15-yard gain on his hands but he ran into the turnover machine known as Isaiah Rodgers, who forced the ball out of Chase’s hands and it was a loose ball for a fumble. Okudah recovered the ball and the Vikings had their third turnover of the half(the second in less than 30 seconds of game time). A couple of flags were down on the field, but both penalties were on Cincinnati as the Vikings were in great position now. The offense returned onto the field and looked to take immediate advantage of this turnover that did not result in a defensive touchdown. On the first play of the new drive, Wentz threw a short pass to Jefferson, who in turn ran with the ball for a big gain as he powered his way through defenders looking to tackle him and finally was brought down inside the 20-yard line for a massive gain of 36 yards. A big first down there as the Vikings were looking for a nail-in-the-coffin score here. Wentz passed the ball to Hockenson on the next play and T.J got pushed out of bounds for an 11-yard gain at the five-yard line. On first and goal with the clock stopped, Wentz simply handed the ball to Jordan Mason, who ran through the hole created in the middle by the offensive line and scored his first TD as a Viking. The PAT by Reichard was good and the Vikings had scored their third score off of a Cincinnati turnover.

With 33 seconds left in the half and the lead being 31-3 in favor of the Vikings, you would think that the Bengals were going to take a knee and head into halftime knowing they would get the ball first to start the second half. But that’s not what happened as Perine returned the ball to the 30-yard line and the Cincinnati offense was not in kneel-down formation. Perine would get the handoff and he ran into a trap immediately, as he had the ball ripped from his grasp by Jalen Redmond. Another fumble as Perine nearly recovered the ball, which bounced uncontrollably and was recovered by Jonathan Allen. The fourth turnover of the first half and the third inside two minutes. Now with timeouts and good field position, the Vikings offense had a chance to score again before the half ended. In spite of an illegal formation penalty backing them up on the first play of the drive(which was a trick play backwards pass to Jefferson, who threw a completion to Zavier Scott that did not count), the offense remained steady and Scott ran for a good gain of 8 yards on second down. After a couple of timeouts were taken, Wentz threw an incomplete pass on third down and thankfully there were still a few seconds left on the clock. At the Cincinnati 44-yard line, the field goal unit came onto the field and Will Reichard was set to attempt a 62-yard field goal. If he made this kick, it would be the longest made field goal attempt in Vikings’ franchise history. The snap by Andrew DePaola occurred, Ryan Wright nailed down the hold and Reichard kicked the ball high up into the air. The ball sailed well high into the right side of the uprights and the kick was good. Reichard made another long field goal before halftime, continuing a trend that the Vikings have achieved in their first three games. It was a 34-3 lead for Minnesota at the half and 24 of those points had come off turnovers forced by the Brian Flores defense. Three of them were forced by Isaiah Rodgers, who was already the player of the game at this point. This game had turned into an old-fashioned blowout and there was no way that the Bengals would come back from this deficit.

An early sack by Van Ginkel in the third quarter forced Cincy to punt again, with a face mask penalty on a Bengals kick defender placing the Vikings in better field position than what they were in. Jordan Mason had a couple of good runs to start out this opening drive of the second half for the Vikings’ offense, which made its way back into scoring range in spite of a couple of penalties backing them up. Wentz completed all four of his passes on the drive to Nailor, Jefferson and Hockenson(two of them by him). Mason then got his second touchdown of the game to cap off the drive and give the Vikings the biggest lead they have held in a game since 1998. A 41-3 lead would be extended after Joshua Metellus intercepted Browning for the fifth turnover of the game(and the third one in Vikings’ territory). A couple of long chunk plays of a Mason run and a Wentz pass to Nailor got the offense back in scoring position. After a couple of runs, Wentz threw his second TD pass of the game to Hockenson to make the Vikings’ lead as big as 45 points. This was most definitely the biggest blowout that the Vikings have had in the 10-season history of U.S Bank Stadium and one of the largest in franchise history. The margin was lowered when the Bengals offense finally decided to score a TD in the fourth quarter on a Browning pass to tight end Drew Sample.

For the rest of the game, the backups played and Max Brosmer got his chance to lead the offense on a couple of drives in the fourth quarter. Making his first professional appearance in his NFL career, Brosmer mostly handed the ball off to running backs, including Cam Akers, who is back with the team for a third straight season following Aaron Jones being placed on IR. Brosmer completed two of his four passes, both completions being caught by Tai Felton and Zavier Scott. The Vikings concluded this game with a 48-10 statement win over Cincinnati, who suffered their biggest blowout defeat in franchise history. It was a good day at U.S Bank Stadium for a lot of Vikings, including Carson Wentz and Isaiah Rodgers. Wentz only needed to play three quarters, so in a blowout game like this, there wasn’t a sample size over a full game to dissect Wentz’s talents and how good he can be at leading the offense in a close game situation. Overall, Wentz completed 14 of his 20 passes for 173 yards and threw two touchdowns while only being sacked three times behind a powerful offensive line that had Christian Darrisaw make his season debut. The guys targeted most by Wentz were Justin Jefferson and T.J Hockenson, both of whom had five receptions. Tight end production was definitely up as Oliver and Hockenson had the two TD receptions thrown by Wentz, who did a good job playing with his family in attendance. The leading rusher was obviously Jordan Mason, who had 16 carries for 116 yards and two TD runs. Zavier Scott had a good game as the backup RB, having eight carries for 30 yards that picked up some first downs. As for the defense, Ivan Pace Jr had a bounce back performance in having 9 tackles on his own power while Eric Wilson had 7 tackles and forced a fumble that wasn’t recovered. The defense had four sacks, two of them by Van Ginkel back from his concussion issues. Undoubtedly the player of the game(and probably Defensive Player of the Week in the NFL) was Isaiah Rodgers, who had two defensive TDs, an interception(that he returned for his first TD) and two fumbles forced(one he returned for his other TD, another that was recovered by Okudah and led to another TD). Only three tackles on his spreadsheet, Rodgers proved himself to be a force in having a starting cornerback role for the first time in his six-year career. After winning a Super Bowl ring with the Philadelphia Eagles, Isaiah is hungry to bring a championship to Minnesota and he definitely proved himself to be the better “Rodgers” addition in the offseason than some guy called Aaron, who the Vikings will play next week in Dublin, Ireland.

As for the rest of the division, the Chicago Bears defeated the Dallas Cowboys for their first win of the season while the Green Bay Packers were upset by the Cleveland Browns, who came back from down 10-0 in blocking a go-ahead field goal by Brandon McManus and having their kicker Andre Szmyt kick the game-winning field goal as time expired. So, now the Vikings are tied with Green Bay for the division lead but the Detroit Lions could join them if they defeat the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night football. The Vikings will prepare to go on their international tour as they are set to play back-to-back games in different countries north of the English Channel. They will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first-ever NFL game in Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin and then the next week they will go over the Celtic/Irish Sea to play against the Browns in London, England at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So, with no J.J McCarthy, this team proved how powerful they could be, but now they must prove themselves on the road in front of excited international audiences on back-to-back Sundays. Adjusting to the time zone will be important as the Vikings are set to fly over to Dublin on Thur, Sept 25. They will spend 10 days overseas and hopefully can win both games before returning home for a much-deserved bye week. For now, the Minnesota Vikings are 2-1 and in a good position after this blowout win that restored this team’s confidence about winning in an adverse situation.