On Sun, Sept 27, the Minnesota Vikings faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a road game at Raymond James Stadium. The Vikings were coming in with a 2-0 record after defeating two division rivals in the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, with the defense playing a big role in both those games. Kyler Murray made his return onto the field after missing the Week 2 victory with a concussion and he had a full week of practice to prepare him for his first full game in his eighth NFL season. After Carson Wentz filled in admirably for him in both victories, Murray would seek to get into a good rhythm following the concussion against Green Bay. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers were coming off a tough defeat in Week 2 against the Cleveland Browns to start out 0-2 and Baker Mayfield was under pressure to help Tampa Bay avoid their first 0-3 start in 12 years. The stakes were certainly high for both teams in the NFC who used to be divisional opponents before realignment in 2002. Let’s see if the third matchup for Minnesota against Mayfield would be the charm in terms of defeating him.
The game started with the Vikings having the first possession and the ball was at the 24-yard line. Murray took the first snap and threw the ball up the middle and Justin Jefferson made the catch for a gain of 22 yards and a first down. On the next play, Aaron Jones ran the ball for a gain of eight yards into Bucs’ territory and then got another carry that he ran for nine yards and a first down. Jones was plugged up on the next two plays and Murray scrambled for a loss of a yard on third down, with there being a flag on the field for offensive holding on Donovan Jackson. Todd Bowles chose to enforce the penalty and on the redo of third down, Murray found Jefferson, who regained all that penalty yardage and was tackled at the Tampa Bay 36. The field goal unit came on for Minnesota and Will Reichard sought to keep his long active streak of consecutive made field goals going. It was a 54-yard kick for Reichard, who made it through to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Kenny Gainwell had a good return of 40 yards and the Buccaneers offense came on, with Bucky Irving getting a couple of carries for only four yards and one yard respectively. On third down, Mayfield threw a ball towards Jalen McMillan, who was unable to catch the ball and it was incomplete. On fourth down, the punting unit for Tampa Bay came on and Riley Dixon booted it downfield to the Minnesota 14-yard line, where Myles Price made the catch. But then Price ran with the ball through the Tampa Bay punt blockers and sprinted down the field for a long return of 86 yards. An incredible touchdown from Price, who had the tied-for longest punt return TD in franchise history. A big contribution from the special teams unit and the PAT from Reichard was good. With a 10-0 lead, the Vikings were off to a great start at RayJay, where plenty of their fans were cheering them on.
The Buccaneers began their next drive from the 20 and Mayfield threw an incomplete pass on the first play. But then he passed the ball off to Cade Otton, who gained 14 yards for a first down. Irving then ran for eight yards and then picked up a first down on a three-yard run that also came with a flag on Dallas Turner for grabbing Irving on the face mask. On the next play, Mayfield threw a deep pass to Ted Hurst III, who ran past the secondary and caught the ball for a 40-yard TD reception. The extra point by Chase McLaughlin was good and Tampa Bay was only down 10-7 now.
The next offensive drive for Minnesota was disrupted by an offensive holding foul on Josh Oliver on second down and Murray threw a short pass to Hockenson for five yards. On third down, Murray scrambled outside the pocket and ran all the way past the line of gain for a 12-yard run and a first down. A couple of short carries by Demond Claiborne preceded a third down pass by Murray to Tai Felton that was incomplete. Felton was in due to Jefferson going into the injury tent because of an ankle injury that he sustained earlier in the first quarter. The athletic trainers escorted Jefferson to the X-Ray room inside the stadium for more imaging. Johnny Hekker was the punter for the Vikings this week as Brett Thorson was out with a hamstring injury. Hekker punted the ball down to the Tampa Bay nine-yard line, where Tez Johnson returned it for 16 yards.
The first quarter ended after the Buccaneers went three-and-out on their ensuing drive and Murray threw a pass to Jordan Addison for four yards. At the start of the second quarter, the Minnesota offense faced a third down and Murray was sacked in the pocket by Alex Anzalone. The next drive for the Buccaneers began with Mayfield getting sacked by Kyle Van Noy for a loss of seven yards and following a timeout, Mayfield threw an incomplete pass on second down. On third down, Mayfield found Chris Godwin for a gain of 13 yards, with Isaiah Rodgers and Josh Metellus stopping him. The offensive struggles continued on the next drive as Jones had two runs and Murray got sacked by David Walker for a loss of nine yards. Hekker’s next punt was not as good as it bounced barely past midfield and the Tampa Bay offense had good field position for their next drive.
A couple of runs by Irving occurred and then on third down, Mayfield threw the ball to Otton, who caught it and ran quickly down the field for a gain of 37 yards down into the red zone for a first down. The Buccaneers were on the verge of taking the lead, but would be pulled back by two straight offensive holding fouls on first and goal. Mayfield threw a pass to Emeka Egbuka for 13 yards and then dumped it off to Irving for a gain of four. On third and goal, Mayfield tried to throw the ball into the back corner of the end zone, but Gainwell was unable to make the catch. The field goal unit came on for Tampa Bay and McLaughlin kicked the ball through the uprights on a 28-yard kick to tie the game up at 10-10.
With less than six minutes remaining in the first half, the Vikings came onto the field at the 27-yard line and Murray threw a deep pass to Addison, who caught the ball and got both of his feet down in bounds for a gain of 30 yards and a first down. Bowles thought that Addison did not get both of his feet in bounds on the catch and threw the challenge flag. After the review, the ruling on the field was upheld and the offense was in a good spot. Murray threw a short pass that was too high for Jones to catch and it was incomplete, then Jones ran for a short two-yard gain. On third down, Murray stepped back in the pocket and threw a deep pass that was caught by Addison, who landed down near the end zone and then rolled untouched past the goal line. It was a 41-yard TD connection for Murray’s first TD pass of the season and Addison’s first end zone reception of 2026. The extra point by Reichard was good and Minnesota was up 17-10 on the Bucs.
The rest of the first half featured no significant offensive action from either team and the Vikings had the edge over Tampa Bay. Murray was not completing all of his passes, but he had made enough big plays to have the team ahead on the scoreboard. The punt return TD by Price was definitely a huge difference-maker in this matchup. Meanwhile, the Brian Flores defense was doing everything it could to contain Mayfield, who had completed a couple of good passes and was sacked on the final drive of the half by Andrew Van Ginkel and Eric Wilson. With another 30 minutes left to play, the possibilities were endless for how the rest of this game would fare. With Jefferson being ruled out with an ankle sprain, Murray would have to find other key players to throw the ball to and Addison was becoming his top target. Let’s see how that factored into the second half of this game.
The Buccaneers had possession to start out the second half and a couple of plays involving Irving led to a first down. The Vikings stopped the Tampa Bay offense after Mayfield threw an incomplete pass to Egbuka. The first second-half drive from Minnesota started with a 14-yard run for Jones, but the drive stalled out from there as Murray began to struggle with working in the pocket. Another three-and-out ensued for the Bucs and Price ran back the ensuing punt to the 32-yard line.
The first couple of plays for the Vikings offense were not good and on third down, things took a turn for the worse when Murray threw a pass that was deflected by Vita Vea and then was tipped by Blake Brandel off his arm. A’Shawn Robinson ended up grabbing the ball for a wild interception at the 22-yard line. A very unfortunate turn of events there for Murray, who gave his former college teammate in Mayfield a chance to tie the game up. The defense would stop the Buccaneers as Mayfield got sacked on third down by Wilson. The field goal unit came on and McLaughlin made a 38-yard kick that put Tampa Bay down 17-13.
The next five drives ended with a three-and-out, with both defenses taking over. Murray had a stretch where he only completed one of his seven passes to start the half and Mayfield was continuing to be pressured by the blitzes brought by the B-Flo defense. A deep bomb touchdown by Mayfield to Godwin was nullified due to a holding foul on Luke Goedeke and another punt occurred. The fourth quarter began with Mayfield being split sacked again by Turner and Metellus as he was given no room to scramble. Murray continued throwing balls that were missing their targets and the Vikings’ offense was going nowhere.
With 13 minutes left to go in regulation, Tampa Bay got a huge play as Mayfield threw a pass to Egbuka, who gained 22 yards for a first down. But penalties continued holding the Bucs back as a Mayfield scramble for a first down was called back for offensive holding on Payne Durham and Mayfield got sacked by Blake Cashman for a loss of ten yards. On third down, Mayfield threw a short pass to Egbuka, who caught the ball and gained ten yards before being tackled by Metellus and Byron Murphy Jr. But there was a flag thrown onto the field for a personal foul on Metellus, who hit Egbuka helmet-to-helmet, and Tampa Bay was awarded with an automatic first down. The penalty inadvertently led to the Bucs getting points as after a third down stop at the 36-yards line, McLaughlin kicked a 54-yard field goal through the uprights. The Vikings’ lead was only a single point now and Murray had to do something to lead a scoring drive to increase the lead.
The ensuing kickoff by Price was aided by an unnecessary roughness foul on the Bucs and the drive started from the 45-yard line. Following a short run by Jones, Murray threw a pass to Addison, who caught the ball and gained ten yards for a first down. Murray then threw a short pass to Jones for a gain of five yards and then found Jones again for a gain of four. On fourth down, Kevin O’Connell decided to keep the offense on the field to go for it and Jones ran up the middle for a gain of two yards and a first down. But the offense went backwards on the next set of downs as Murray got sacked by Anthony Nelson for a loss of five, an offensive holding foul on Will Fries and an illegal block above the waist foul on Donovan Jackson. Murray ended up throwing a short pass to Jones, who gained 11 yards to get back into field goal range for Reichard. On fourth down, the field goal unit came on for Minnesota and Reichard kicked a long 56-yard field goal that was made to put the Vikings up 20-16.
With three minutes remaining in regulation, the Buccaneers needed to get a touchdown against the B-Flo defense in order to retake the lead. The crucial drive started from the 29-yard line and began with Mayfield completing a pass to Gainwell for 13 yards out of bounds for a first down. The defense stepped up as Van Noy tackled Gainwell for a loss of four yards and Gainwell only gained one yard on a pass from Mayfield. The two-minute warning came as a big third down play awaited. Mayfield would throw a ball that was incomplete towards Egbuka. On fourth down and thirteen yards from the line to gain and with three timeouts, Tampa Bay could have chosen to punt the ball and use their defense to try and get the ball back for one last possession. Instead, Bowles decided to keep his team’s offense on the field to go for it as Mayfield took the snap from the shotgun. Mayfield scrambled in running out of the pocket and trying to avoid pass rushers from the Vikings who were looking to sack him. Mayfield eventually threw the pass but got hit hard by Cashman on his throwing hand. The ball made it back to a couple of yards behind line of scrimmage, where it was intercepted by Van Ginkel. Mayfield was injured and lying on the field with the athletic trainers tending to him. Mayfield eventually got up and walked off to the sidelines to have his hand injury examined.
Having the ball in plus-territory, the Vikings’ offense looked to seal off this game with a first down or two. They got an immediate first down on a Murray pass to Jones for a gain of 12 yards. Bowles called his team’s first timeout of the half as Minnesota needed one more first down to clinch the victory. Deejay Dallas got a carry and gained two yards before the second timeout for the Bucs was called. On second down, Jones came back in and only picked up a yard as Bowles called his team’s final timeout. On third down, O’Connell played it safe and had Murray hand the ball off to Jones, who gained only one yard. The clock rolled down to 37 seconds and O’Connell called a timeout. The field goal unit came on to increase the lead to a more comfortable seven and Reichard made his third attempt of the game from 43 yards out.
With Mayfield out, the Tampa Bay offense would have to rely on a rookie backup quarterback by the name of Jalon Daniels, who competed at Kansas University before going undrafted. With the final drive starting from the 31-yard line, Daniels tried to throw a deep pass but it was incomplete with Rodgers defending it well. On second down, Daniels decided to scramble with the ball and ran out of bounds for a gain that initially granted him a first down, but after replay assist looked at the play, they ruled that Daniels went out of bounds a little short of the line to gain. With only 13 seconds left, on third down Daniels threw an incomplete pass towards Gainwell. On fourth down, Daniels tried to throw a Hail Mary pass towards the end zone and when it came down, the ball was caught by Rodgers for a game-ending interception.
The Vikings had won 23-16 in holding off the Buccaneers in a hard-fought defensive game. The offensive struggles were real as Murray completed only 15 of his 29 pass attempts for 168 yards and was sacked three times. But Murray had some good moments in completing big passes to Jefferson(before he came out) and Addison(5 rec, 90 yards, 1 TD). The Brian Flores defense had a field day with Mayfield, who only completed half of his passing attempts and was sacked six times. Big defensive performers included Wilson(10 tackles, 1.5 sacks), Cashman(8 tackles, 1 sack), Van Noy(5 tackles, 3 tackles-for-loss, 1.5 sacks), and Van Ginkel(3 tackles, half sack, interception). With this win, the Vikings showed that they can win in spite of not having an efficient second-half offense. Murray had his struggles, but a lot of them were due to Jefferson being out for most of the game with an ankle injury. His status is currently unknown, but he can hopefully be available for the next game for Minnesota, which will be back home against an 0-3 Miami Dolphins team.
With eight consecutive wins dating back to Dec 2025, the Vikings sit on top of the NFC North and are one of only five teams thus far to achieve a 3-0 record in this season. Joining the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers, the Minnesota Vikings are looking like an improved version of themselves thus far. With two games to go until the bye week, there will be a legitimate chance to continue this remarkable stretch of winning for quite a few weeks.
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