On Sun, Dec 7, 2025, the Minnesota Vikings hosted the Washington Commanders in a game between playoff teams from 2024 who have fallen on hard times in 2025. The Vikings had lost four straight games in a bad November that will be remembered as a streak that likely shrunk any chance of them competing for a playoff spot. Meanwhile, for Washington, things have gone way worse for them as a solid 3-2 record through five games was squandered with seven straight losses in a losing streak ironically started by the Chicago Bears in Week 6. Injuries sustained by star quarterback Jayden Daniels have derailed the season for the Commanders, who had to use Marcus Mariota in five games as their starting QB. Minnesota, meanwhile, had to bid adieu once again to a franchise legend in Adam Thielen, who requested to be released by the front office after being a healthy scratch in the Week 13 game in Seattle that was a dreadful shutout. Thielen signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but some good news for the Vikings was the return of J.J McCarthy from his concussion that kept him out of the Seahawks game. McCarthy had a full week of practice under his belt and he would be getting a fully healthy offensive line with Christian Darrisaw and Donovan Jackson back on the left side.

McCarthy was looking for his first home win at U.S Bank Stadium as a Viking, with a couple of tough defeats to the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago happening in November. With a game against a 3-9 Commanders team that have suffered through a lot of close defeats and the return of Jayden Daniels onto the field following a fractured left arm in Week 9(the same week J.J helped lead the Vikings to a glorious victory over the Detroit Lions), this was set to be a matchup between two QBs drafted in the top-10 picks in the 2024 NFL draft. In their final seasons in college respectively, Daniels won the Heisman Trophy at LSU while McCarthy led the Michigan Wolverines to a National Championship in the final four-team College Football Playoff. This first ever matchup between these two star passers was less high-stakes, with the Commanders eliminated from playoff contention while Minnesota was on the verge of being mathematically eliminated. The Vikings looked to be the victors in this game between lowly franchises in the NFC.

Minnesota started the game with possession and had good starting position at their 39-yard line after a solid kickoff return by Myles Price. A three-yard run by Jones set up McCarthy’s first pass of the day, which was a completion to tight end Ben Sims, who made his first catch of the year after spending a lot of time on the practice squad, for nine yards and a first down. McCarthy had another completion to a tight end following a seven-yard run by Jones as he found T.J Hockenson for a gain of ten and a first down in field goal range. McCarthy then had a pitch pass to Jalen Nailor, who ran for a good gain of nine yards and that set up an easy five-yard run by Jones for a first down in the red zone. On the next play, McCarthy threw a pass to the left and Josh Oliver caught the ball and went into the end zone for the touchdown. Oliver’s third touchdown catch of the year and from three different players(Carson Wentz in Week 3, Cam Akers in Week 5 and now McCarthy in Week 14). The extra point by Will Reichard was good as the Vikings offense did something that it wasn’t able to do last week and something that they hadn’t done in two weeks(eight quarters), which is make it into the end zone.

For their opening drive, Washington started all the way back at their 15-yard line due to a holding foul on the kickoff return. A four-yard run by Chris Rodriguez Jr was followed by a deep pass by Daniels to Terry McLaurin, who picked up 28 yards and a first down. Daniels utilized another one of his offensive assets on a short two-yard pass to Deebo Samuel and then Rodriguez ran for ten yards and a first down in Minnesota territory. Daniels threw an eight-yard pass to tight end Ben Sinnott and then scrambled for a first down on third and short. A holding foul on John Bates backed up the Commanders, who managed to overcome the setback as Daniels dumped the ball off to Samuel on third down for a 15-yard gain and a first down in the red zone. Another gain of 15 yards was picked up by Rodriguez and it was first and goal. But the Brian Flores defense held their ground and forced a few incomplete passes from Daniels, including on fourth and goal when he threw a pass to the back of the end zone that was unable to be caught by Samuel. The Vikings’ defense did its job in spite of giving up 83 yards on 15 plays to the Commanders, who were unable to finish the job.

Starting from the two-yard line on their next drive, the McCarthy-led offense would get a first down on a scramble by J.J on third down that picked up enough yardage. The first quarter ended with the team at the 15-yard line, but a good pass by McCarthy to Nailor picked up nine yards and a first down. Following an incomplete pass thrown towards Jordan Addison, Jordan Mason got a handoff and ran for a good gain of 12 and a first down. McCarthy got sacked for a loss of a few, but then he refocused and found Nailor for another dozen-yard gain for a first down at midfield. On a third down following a coverage sack, McCarthy threw a deep pass to Addison, who caught the ball for a solid gain of 21 yards and a first down. McCarthy then found Justin Jefferson for his first target of the day, but it was a loss of two yards. But a couple of plays later, the two JJs hooked up on a slant pass that picked up 13 yards and a first down in the red zone. A couple of good runs by Mason set up a third and short run by Mason for ten yards and a touchdown. Mason had his sixth score of the season and the extra point by Reichard was good. A 14-0 lead for the Vikings, who had their first double-digit lead since Week 9 against the Lions. Just like that game, McCarthy had led two TD drives to start the day out well. And this drive took 19 plays and drained off 12 minutes of game time off the clock, as it went for 98 yards. It was the longest drive by the Vikings in this 21st century. An incredible feat there.

The Minnesota defense held Daniels to a three-and-out, as a third down scramble had the young QB pushed out of bounds by the old grizzled safety Harrison Smith. The Vikings got the ball back and Jones ran the ball three times to start the next drive, with him picking up the first down after the third run. Jones ran the ball again before the two-minute warning and after the break, the offense got pushed back due to a false start on Darrisaw and then on third down McCarthy got sacked by Von Miller. Dan Quinn called a timeout to preserve time for Washington and the ensuing punt by Ryan Wright was fair-caught by Jaylin Lane at the 33-yard line.

With plenty of time to work with and a chance to get into field goal range before the end of the half, Daniels completed a six-yard pass to McLaurin to start out the drive. Daniels found McLaurin again on a third down pass that picked up seven yards, but threw a couple of incomplete passes that stalled out the drive with under thirty seconds left. Tress Way punted the ball and pinned the Vikings deep, as a short return by Myles Price led to McCarthy taking a knee to end out the half. The Vikings were off to a good start in this game with those two solid touchdown drives. The key thing was that McCarthy hadn’t made any major mistakes yet and that was a good thing. Throwing balls to people he was comfortable with catching them was key. The defense was continuing its good effort against opposing QBs over the past few weeks, as Daniels was held in check with only a 50% completion percentage and only a few significant passes thrown. With the second half coming, the Vikings needed to continue padding their lead and holding the Commanders offensive attack down. A 14-0 lead was good, but it could be wiped away if momentum changed. Minnesota needed to make sure they kept momentum on their side for the rest of the game.

To start out the second half, Washington had Daniels sacked by Jalen Redmond for a yard and then a pass interference foul was called on Fabian Moreau that gave the Commanders a first down. A couple of runs by Rodriguez set up a third and short play where Daniels was strip-sacked by Eric Wilson and the ball was recovered by Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, who ran the ball back 20 yards. But there was a flag on the field for too many men on the turf on the Vikings because Jonathan Allen failed to get to the sidelines before the ball was snapped. So, the turnover was negated and a first down was awarded to Washington. A couple of runs set up a fourth and short pass play from Daniels to Zach Ertz, who picked up 11 yards for a first down. A couple of runs by Jacory Croskey-Merritt led to a third down pass thrown by Daniels that was incomplete. On fourth down, the Commanders’ offense stayed on the field and Daniels looked to throw the ball, but his pass was deflected and intercepted by Andrew Van Ginkel, who sprinted with the ball all the way down the field from the Vikings’ 30-yard line to the other 30-yard line for a 40-yard interception return. On the return, Daniels got blocked by Isaiah Rodgers and landed down on the synthetic turf of U.S Bank Stadium hard. Daniels’ elbow on his left arm got banged up again and he had to be attended to by his team’s training staff on the sidelines, as he suffered another tough injury. Marcus Mariota was getting ready on the sidelines to come in and play for Daniels again while the Vikings’ offense looked to score off a turnover.

The drive started with an odd sequence of offsetting holding penalties, then a short three-yard run by Jones was followed by two incomplete passes thrown by McCarthy to Jefferson and Hockenson respectively. The Minnesota offense went three-and-out, but being already in field goal range, Will Reichard came out and made a 45-yard kick to increase the Vikings’ lead to three possessions. Up 17-0, the Vikings had their biggest lead since Week 3 and prepared to face another QB in Mariota. The drive for Washington started from their 20-yard line and Mariota completed a first down pass to Deebo Samuel for 11 yards. After a short one-yard run by Croskey-Merritt, Mariota aimed the ball to the left, but the pass was intercepted by Harrison Smith, who had an 11-yard return for his 38th career interception. It must be noted that a couple of Smith’s old defensive teammates from the Mike Zimmer era in Anthony Barr and Linval Joseph were in attendance for this game, with Barr blowing the Gjallarhorn before the opening kickoff. Perhaps their presence was inspiring the Brian Flores defense to play with more effort and now with forcing back-to-back turnovers, the offense looked to capitalize again.

To start the drive, McCarthy completed another deep pass to Addison for a 20-yard gain into the red zone. A couple of runs by Mason led to another first down inside the ten-yard line. McCarthy then had a good drop back and threw the ball to the right to Oliver, who went into the end zone for his second touchdown catch of the game. The extra point by Reichard was good and the Vikings now had a 24-0 lead in scoring ten points off those two turnovers. Everything was starting to go right for Minnesota on a day that the fan base had been waiting on for a while.

On the next drive for the Commanders, a devastating ACL injury occurred as Ertz got hit hard by Jay Ward and had to be helped off the field. On the next play, Mariota got sacked by Wilson for a loss of eight yards and it was a three-and-out. The ensuing punt had offsetting personal fouls on the Washington long snapper Nick Bellore and Ivan Pace, with the Vikings having the ball at the 34-yard line. The next drive started with a good scramble by McCarthy for 16 yards to midfield and a first down. A nine-yard run by Jones concluded the third quarter, with the fourth quarter starting with a first-down run of five yards by Jones. McCarthy threw an incomplete pass to Jefferson that was defended by Mike Sainristil, but a good run for 18 yards by Jones got the Vikings back into the red zone. On the next play, McCarthy had a short pass to Jones for five yards, but there were a couple of flags on the field. The first penalty that was announced by referee Brad Allen was an ineligible man downfield foul on Donovan Jackson, but it was superseded by the second foul, which was a roughing the passer on Jacob Martin, who knocked McCarthy down onto the field. The personal foul was enforced half the distance to the goal line and gave Minnesota an automatic first down. A seven-yard run by Jones got the Vikings close to the goal line, but a sack on McCarthy by Bobby Wagner and an incomplete pass to Addison to the end zone forced a fourth and goal. The offense stayed on the field and McCarthy threw a short pass to the right to Hockenson, who caught the ball and broke through a couple of tackles to go into the end zone for a touchdown. Three touchdown passes by McCarthy, with all of them to tight ends. The PAT by Reichard was good and the Vikings had a massive blowout lead now.

There would be only one more drive from each team, as the defense got one more takeaway on the Commanders when Javon Hargrave forced the ball out of the grasp of Mariota and recovered the ball in bounds. McCarthy completed a couple of more passes, including one to Tai Felton for the rookie receiver’s first career catch in a regular season game. Some carries by Zavier Scott, including on a fourth and short play before the two-minute warning, basically concluded the game as the Vikings had successfully defeated Washington 31-0 and delivered a shutout one week after being shut out themselves. That was the first time an NFL team had done that since the Denver Broncos in 1992.

The game was won with fantastic offensive execution by McCarthy, who completed 16 of his 23 passes for 163 yards and he threw three touchdowns with no interceptions. The first game of his NFL career with no turnovers, McCarthy looked very much like his old self from his college days at Michigan. He also scrambled six times for 19 yards, with him having a good running game to lean on. Jones and Mason combined for 128 yards on 25 carries, with a spread-the-wealth receiving game as eight different players caught a pass from McCarthy in this game. The defense had their first game with multiple turnovers since Week 3, with interceptions on both QBs for Washington, which lost its eight straight game. The Vikings’ had their biggest shutout since 1980 over the Lions and with a 5-8 record, their slight playoff hopes will remain alive for at least one more week.

Their next game will occur on Sun, Dec 14 in a primetime game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. The Cowboys are a bizarre record of 6-6-1, with their playoff chances on life support after a tough Thursday night loss in Detroit. With Dak Prescott as the QB and dangerous offensive assets such as CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Javonte Williams and Jake Ferguson, Dallas will definitely give the Vikings defense a real challenge. The Cowboys defense made some upgrades at the trade deadline as they have Logan Wilson as one of their linebackers and Quinnen Williams on the defensive line. So, McCarthy will have to face a rough challenge on the road once again as the Green Bay Packers gave him a hard time at Lambeau Field. But for now, the Vikings are victorious and look to have a solid last four games to close out this hard and trying 2025 season strong.