On Sun, Dec 21, with their playoff hopes extinguished, the Minnesota Vikings played against the New York Giants after a complicated flight situation that had them arrive in the Tri-State area way later than usual. Having won two straight games against NFC East opponents, the Vikings sought a third win in a row and looked to keep their hopes of not finishing in last place in the NFC North alive. But they had to do so with an injury-depleted roster as they made some moves of putting a few of their key players on injured reserve. During the week leading up to this game, Minnesota placed left tackle Christian Darrisaw(knee) linebacker Jonathan Greenard(shoulder) and safety Joshua Metellus(shoulder) on IR, shutting them down for the rest of the season. So, the offense and defense for the Vikings was short-handed for their final three games. Roster elevation moves were made adjacent to those injured reserve moves and Minnesota prepared to face the Giants, who were on an eight-game losing streak entering this game with rookie QB Jaxson Dart and an injured-plagued offense in losing two star assets in wideout Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo to devastating injuries earlier in the season.

Having fired head coach Brian Daboll and with Mike Kafka as the interim head coach, the Giants were in prime position for the number-one overall pick in next year’s NFL draft. The Vikings were hoping to win their final road game of the season after a mixture of good road wins, including primetime wins in Chicago and Dallas, and bad losses against the Chargers, Packers and Seahawks. J.J McCarthy was seeking two consecutive road wins and three overall great offensive performances in a row after a career game against the Cowboys. This was his ninth start of the season and of his young career and he was looking for a good win outside of the Big Apple. Let’s see how the Vikings did in Week 16 of this 2025 season.

Minnesota started the game with possession and they began their first drive from their 40-yard line after New York kicker Ben Sauls kicked the ball out of bounds. The first play from scrimmage was a McCarthy incomplete pass to Aaron Jones, who was tackled for a loss of a yard on the next play. On third and long, McCarthy threw a slant pass to Justin Jefferson, who ran up the middle with the caught ball and slithered his way for a 13-yard gain and a first down. Jordan Mason then got a carry for five yards and on second down, McCarthy would throw an underhand pass to Josh Oliver, who ran with the ball for a good gain of 13 yards and a first down. On the next play, Mason was tackled for no gain by Chauncey Golston. Then, on second down, McCarthy dumped the ball off to Mason, who ran for six yards and was taken down with a hard hit. Mason had to be taken off the field with an ankle injury and his return to the game was uncertain at the time. On third down, McCarthy threw a deep pass to the left that was heading towards Jordan Addison, who grasped the ball in the end zone but he could not control it all the way through and it was ruled incomplete. A missed opportunity for an early touchdown there and instead the Vikings had to settle for a field goal by Will Reichard, who drilled a 43-yard kick to give Minnesota an early 3-0 lead.

The ensuing kickoff by Reichard was returned by Deonte Banks for 26 yards to give the Giants the ball at the 35-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Tyrone Tracy had a strong run for 18 yards and then he ran for a good gain of 13 for back-to-back first downs. Already in field goal range, New York had Tracy run the ball on back-to-back carries for only two yards on them both. On third down, there were offsetting penalties for pass interference on Byron Murphy and offensive holding on guard Aaron Stinnie. On the redo of third down, Dart was sacked by Harrison Smith, but there was a flag thrown on the hit by Smith for roughing the passer. An automatic first down into the red zone for New York, which had three straight carries from Tracy but none of them picked up the first down. On fourth down and five yards to pick up, the Giants offense went for it and Dart scrambled around in the pocket. But he got sacked by Jalen Redmond to end the drive on a thrilling note for the Brian Flores defense.

After that good red zone stop, the offense started their next drive from the 15-yard line and McCarthy had a design scramble for eight yards. On second down, Zavier Scott came in to get a carry and he ran up the middle for a gain of four yards and a first down. On the next play, McCarthy threw an incomplete pass to Jefferson and then he got sacked for a loss of two yards. On third down, McCarthy aimed a short pass to Jefferson, who caught the ball and he did a YAC move once again for a gain of 14 yards and a first down. After a Scott run for no gain, McCarthy threw a pass towards Jalen Nailor, who had no dropped passes on the season coming into this game. But Nailor somehow had the ball go off his hands and not only that, but the ball was grabbed by cornerback Paulson Adebo for an interception. Adebo went out of bounds at the Minnesota 44-yard line with both feet down in bounds and another critical mistake had been made by McCarthy. With 12 interceptions on the season, this was a rough moment for J.J in his quest to develop into a pure NFL passer.

On the ensuing drive, the Giants’ offense continued its run-first mentality as Devin Singletary got three straight carries for a first down. The first quarter concluded with the ball in assumable field goal range for the inexperienced Ben Sauls. The first play of the second quarter was a handoff by Dart to Wan’Dale Robinson, who ran for a three-yard gain before being taken down by Jay Ward. On second down, Tracy came back in and went up the middle for five yards and on third down Dart ran with it himself for a gain of three that was good enough for a first down. The next two plays were carries by Tracy for seven and four yards respectively for a first down. On the next play, Dart had his first passing attempt of the game for an underhand throw that was dropped by tight end Theo Johnson. On second down, Singletary ran for a three-yard gain and an injury timeout occurred as left tackle Andrew Thomas was hurt. On third down, Dart scrambled in the pocket and looked to throw it into the end zone but he was sacked by Eric Wilson. The field goal unit for New York came out and Sauls attempted a 27-yard kick, which he made to tie the game at three apiece. The Giants could not get the lead off the interception on McCarthy as the red zone defense continued to be outstanding for Minnesota.

The following kickoff by Sauls was returned by Myles Price to the 23-yard line and the first play from scrimmage was a run by Jones for five yards. On second down, McCarthy threw a pass to the left that was caught by Jefferson for a gain of 16 and a first down. McCarthy then found Addison, who caught the ball for a gain of six. Before second down, T.J Hockenson was called for a false start and being five yards back wasn’t good, as Jones was tackled for a loss of a yard. Before third down, another procedural penalty was called on the Vikings for a delay of game and they now needed to pick up 15 yards for a first down. On the third down play, McCarthy passed the ball up the middle to Jefferson, who nearly had another YAC play for a first down as he was brought down one yard short of the line to gain. On fourth and short, Kevin O’Connell opted to keep the offense on the field and the play was a McCarthy handoff to Jones, who went up the middle for a gain of three yards and a first down. But Ryan Kelly suffered an injury in the mush pile and had to be taken out of the game. There was also a flag for an unnecessary roughness foul on New York cornerback Dru Phillips for trying to jar the ball out of Jones’ hands after the play had been blown dead by the officials. At the Giants’ 29-yard line, the next play was a McCarthy pass to Addison for a gain of 20 yards into the red zone. On 1st & goal, Jones ran for a gain of a yard and on second down McCarthy threw an incomplete pass up the middle to Jefferson. On 3rd & goal, disaster was averted as a pick-6 by Jevon Holland was negated due to rookie linebacker Abdul Carter being called for an offsides penalty. On the redo of the play from the four-yard line, McCarthy got sacked by Golston for a loss of nine yards. On fourth & goal, Reichard made a 31-yard field goal to give the Vikings a 6-3 lead in this tough and defensive game.

The ensuing kickoff was returned by Gunnar Olszewski to the 29-yard line and on first down Dart got sacked near the line of scrimmage by Levi Drake Rodriguez. On second down, Dart threw a pass downfield that was almost caught by Robinson, but the pass was broken up by Isaiah Rodgers and incomplete. Before third down, New York was called for a delay of game foul that backed them up five yards. On third and longer, Dart threw a pass that was heading towards the tight end Johnson but the ball went off his hands and was intercepted by Murphy, who ran with the ball for 15 yards into the red zone. Murphy had his first interception of the season and the Vikings were set up in premier position to take control of this game.

From the 16-yard line, McCarthy handed the ball off to Jones, who ran for a gain of seven yards. On second down, McCarthy threw an incomplete pass to Jones but a flag was on the field for an offensive holding foul on Justin Skule. The redo of second down was a McCarthy completion to Jones for a gain of seven yards and on third down after the Giants called a timeout, McCarthy waited in the pocket and scrambled to the right as he got enough yardage for a first down and then budged his way into the end zone for a touchdown. An amazing play there by McCarthy as he had his fourth rushing touchdown of the season. The extra point by Reichard was good and the Vikings scored seven points off the interception thrown by Dart.

The ensuing kickoff returned by Olszewski put the game into the two-minute warning in the first half. On the first play of the Giants drive, Dart threw an incomplete pass but a flag was thrown for offensive holding on Tracy. The penalty was accepted and on the redo of first down, Dart threw a short pass to Robinson for a gain of two yards and was taken down in bounds by Rodgers. On second down, Dart threw another incomplete pass that was almost picked off by Andrew Van Ginkel, who had a pick-six in the season-opening game at MetLife Stadium for the 2024 season. On third down, Dart looked to scramble but he only got four yards as Van Ginkel caught him. O’Connell called the second timeout of the half for the Vikings and the punting unit came out for New York. Jamie Gillan booted the ball down to the Minnesota 23-yard line, where Price caught it and ran forward for a 12-yard return. With under one minute left and one timeout, the Vikings had a chance to get another score before the half in being up by ten points.

On the first play of the new drive, McCarthy handed the ball off to Jones, who gained six yards on the play. Oddly enough, the offense did not hurry to the line of scrimmage for the next snap and O’Connell didn’t call the final timeout. Instead the snap happened with around thirty seconds left and McCarthy dropped back to pass. But he got hit by Brian Burns and the ball was jarred loose. Safety Tyler Nubin recovered the fumble and ran back with it for 27 yards and a touchdown for the Giants. A very unfortunate strip-sack fumble that also had a painful end result. McCarthy’s throwing hand was injured on the play and when the Vikings’ training staff checked it out, J.J reacted painfully when a specific area of his hand was touched. So, he had to go to the locker room early before halftime to have it checked out. The extra point by Sauls was good and New York was only down by three points now. A massive point swing there.

Following a touchback into the end zone, Max Brosmer came out and the Vikings simply took a kneeldown to end the half. The score was not what the team wanted it to be and now with J.J McCarthy hurt, the offensive game plan had to be completely altered. Before exiting, McCarthy had an up-and down game with some missed opportunities, including the near touchdown caught by Addison on the first drive. Overall, he had completed a good amount of his passes and for over 100 yards. That one interception was not his fault, but it lead to the only offensive score for New York. McCarthy wasn’t the only fatality in the first half for Minnesota as Ryan Kelly had been lost to another concussion in spite of wearing a Guardian Cap to protect his head. Michael Jurgens had come in to play center and Jordan Mason was lost to an ankle injury. Jones had a similar ailment but was able to continue as Zavier Scott and C.J Ham would have to suffice as backup options behind him. This was a grinder of a game thus far and Brosmer would have to potentially step up in an emergency situation. New York would get the ball first to start out the second half, so there was a chance for Brosmer to come in either with a three-point lead to work with or with no lead or a deficit. Either way, the Vikings would have to rely on their defense to continue doing well against Jaxson Dart in order to win this game. Let’s see how the second half played out.

To start out the second half, the Giants got the ball at the 31-yard line following the dynamic kickoff return by Olszewski. A one-yard run by Tracy was followed by an encroachment penalty on Rodriguez, then an offensive holding penalty on Chris Manhertz and finally a pass by Dart to tight end Daniel Bellinger for 13 yards that was one yard short of the line to gain, but New York got a first down on a defensive holding foul on Dallas Turner. After a couple of short runs by Tracy, on third down a false start occurred and being five yards back hurt New York as Dart threw a short pass to Tracy, who was taken down by Blake Cashman and Jonathan Allen five yards short of the first down marker. The Giants’ punting unit came out and Gillan punted the ball 40 yards and Price fair caught the ball, but there was a flag for offensive holding on Ivan Pace during the punt and the Vikings would be backed up ten yards.

Max Brosmer was going to be the quarterback for the rest of the game for Minnesota as McCarthy had been ruled out of the game with his right hand injury. Brosmer was looking to have a better experience than the four-interception mess that he had in Seattle in his first career start. The drive started with a 15-yard run by Jones and then two more runs by Jones for a pair of first downs. After Addison suffered a leg injury, Brosmer threw his first pass of the game for a two-yard completion to Hockenson. Jones then ran the ball for a gain of five yards and on third down Brosmer completed a pass to Tai Felton for a six-yard gain and a first down. On the next play, Jones ran the ball for six yards but there was a flag for holding on Hockenson. Brosmer would complete a pass to Jefferson on the redo of first down for seven yards and on second down he found Oliver for another gain of seven. On third down, Brosmer threw an incomplete pass to Nailor and on fourth down the punting unit came onto the field. Ryan Wright did his best to pin the ball deep as Olszewski only had a five-yard return. But five yards were added on due to an illegal formation foul on Vikings’ special teamer Sione Takitaki(one of the roster elevations).

It was a solid drive led by Brosmer, but one that did not end in a score. The New York offense looked to take advantage of that and their drive started out with three straight runs by Singletary, in which he picked up a first down on the second one. A pass by Dart to Singletary lost a yard and a false start occurred on the third down play. On third and long, Dart threw a pass up the middle to Robinson for a gain of 14 yards and a tackle by Smith put the ball a couple of yards short of the line to gain. On fourth down, the Giants stayed on the field to go for it and Dart completed a clutch pass to Darius Slayton for a first down and a gain of eight yards. A four-yard run by Singletary was followed by a sack on Dart by Jonathan Allen for six yards and the third quarter ended. The fourth quarter began on a third down play and Dart was sacked by Wilson. But a flag was on the field for a roughing the passer call on Wilson, who made contact to Dart’s head on the sack and the 15-yard penalty gave New York a big first down. Alex Moore and his crew had called two controversial roughing the passer calls on the Vikings in this game and they were dishing out a lot of other flags in this sloppy game. Singletary would get three straight carries that put the ball in the red zone and on a fourth one, the play would not count as there was a flag for offensive holding on Stinnie. On the next play, Dart threw the ball to Tracy for only a gain of three yards. On third down, Dart had another short completion to Robinson, who was tackled by Cashman for a three-yard gain. On fourth down, the field goal unit came on for the Giants and Sauls made a hooking 39-yard field goal to tie the game at 13.

The Vikings’ defense did well to prevent another offensive touchdown from happening and now the offense needed to have a scoring drive of some type with Brosmer under center. On the kickoff, Price returned the ball to the 31-yard line and there were offsetting fouls for holding on Pace(again) and a personal foul on the Giants. On first down, Jones ran with the ball for only a gain of two yards and on the next play Brosmer got sacked by Carter for a loss of nine yards. However, there was an injury timeout as Brian Burns was hurt. On third and long, a conservative play call by O’Connell was expected to happen. But instead Brosmer stepped back to pass and threw a high-arcing pass to Jefferson, who caught the ball in bounds for a big gain of 21 yards and a first down. An amazing throw by Brosmer that kept this drive going. C.J Ham then got a carry for a short gain of three and on second down Jones ran for a gain of two yards, but there was a flag on the field for defensive holding on Dexter Lawrence. The five-yard penalty gave the Vikings an automatic first down in New York territory. Brosmer threw an incomplete pass to Oliver and on second down Lawrence got called for a neutral zone infraction. The next two plays were good runs by Jones that resulted in a first down. After another run by Jones for three yards, Brosmer dumped the ball off to Scott, who rumbled his way for a first down in the red zone. After a timeout was called by Mike Kafka, a couple of more carries occurred for Jones, who picked up minimal gains. On third down, Brosmer had a short pass to Jones for only one yard and with under four and a half minutes left a smart move was made in bringing the field goal unit out. Reichard had an easy 30-yard field goal and he made it to give the Vikings the lead back.

A good scoring drive led by Brosmer, but it could have resulted in a touchdown. The New York offense still had a chance in this game and it was now up to the Minnesota defense to stop them. Deonte Banks returned the ensuing kickoff to the 34-yard line and the drive didn’t start out good for the Giants. But a flag was thrown on a third down incomplete pass for illegal contact on Murphy. A couple of runs by Tracy had another third and short situation occur, as Dart threw an incomplete pass toward Robinson that was deflected by Redmond. On fourth down with around two minutes left, the Giants had to go for it and Dart would be sacked by Van Ginkel for a loss of eight yards. It was the two-minute warning and the Vikings were in position to win this game.

With two timeouts left, New York could still stop the clock twice as the Minnesota offense needed just one first down to basically seal off the game. On the first carry, Jones lost a yard and Kafka called his team’s second timeout of the half. On second down, Jones got another carry and was taken down after gaining three yards. The final timeout was called by the home team and before the third down play, Jones looked a little winded. But he stayed on the field and got the ball on the handoff, with there being good blocking up the middle by the offensive line. Jones ran through the hole and got the first down with a gain of nine yards. It was game over as Brosmer knelt down twice and the Vikings had won their third straight game by a final score of 16-13. A good gritty win to close out the road games on the schedule at a record of 5-4 away from Minnesota. This game might not have been easy, with penalties and injuries happening. But the Vikings found a way to win and keep their hopes of not finishing in last place in the NFC North intact.

The offense had an up-and-down game, with McCarthy’s injury cutting short a day where he did fairly well. He completed nine of his 14 passes for 105 yards along with two scrambles for 20 yards and his rushing TD before exiting after that forceful sack that caused the hand injury. Brosmer had a solid statline of seven of his nine passes completed for 52 yards, including a couple of good ones to Jefferson. Aaron Jones had a good day running the ball, with 21 carries for 85 yards. Jefferson had his best game in a while with six catches for 85 yards, with him leading the team in the receiving categories. The Brian Flores defense had another checkered performance with five sacks on Dart and an interception as well. McCarthy’s current status is that X-rays on his hand came back negative, so that is a good sign. Whether he progresses in a short week of practice back home is unknown.

Regardless, the Vikings will be home for a Christmas Day game at U.S Bank Stadium against the Detroit Lions, whom they beat in an epic 27-24 victory back in Week 9. Detroit suffered a gut-wrenching home loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-24 and with the Chicago Bears defeating the Green Bay Packers, they will not be able to win a third straight NFC North title. But at 8-7 and Green Bay at 9-5-1, the only chance the Lions have to get into the playoffs is by winning their final two games and for the Packers to lose their last two contests. The Vikings have an opportunity to knock out their division rivals from the Motor City out of the playoffs altogether. And a win on Christmas will put them out of last place in the NFC North. In spite of all the hard times this team has faced, they will have a shot to finish above .500 and in third place in one of the toughest divisions in the league this year. With two games at home in front of a fan base that has seen too many failures at home this season, Minnesota will look to give their fans a gift to close out this hard season strong. For now, they have been serenaded on the road with some support from bold fans chanting out “Skol”. There will be more of that on an afternoon Christmas game in downtown Minneapolis.