The Buffalo Bills beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-6 on Monday night, November 9, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, grinding out a Monday Night Football win behind James Cook and a defence that never allowed a touchdown. Josh Allen threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Keleki Latu with 44 seconds left before halftime, and Cook carried 31 times for 107 yards and a late score as Buffalo improved to 7-1.
The win matched the best eight-game start in Bills history since 1993, the season that ended with the last of the club’s four straight Super Bowl losses, according to the Associated Press game report. Minnesota fell to 6-2 with a second straight defeat, and its only points came on two Will Reichard field goals, from 43 yards in the first quarter and 53 yards as the first half expired.
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Cook Grinds The Game Away
Buffalo knew this was never going to be a style-points game. Minnesota sent blitzers at Allen from every angle and sacked him four times, and an early third-and-23 heave from Allen was intercepted by Byron Murphy and returned 55 yards. The Bills still found a lead before halftime, when Allen rolled right, took a hard hit from Andrew Van Ginkel and found Latu open in the back of the end zone for the tight end’s first career touchdown.
The closing drive showed what Buffalo wanted the night to be. The Bills held the ball for 42 minutes and 32 seconds in total, and their decisive fourth-quarter march ran 15 plays and 84 yards over eight minutes and 32 seconds. Cook carried nine times on that drive alone before scoring on a five-yard run for a 20-6 lead, and Tyler Bass added a 52-yard field goal to close the scoring.
We stuck with it, stuck with it, and eventually we broke it. We knew what type of game it was going to be, a bloody game.
Cook’s workload was the plan made visible. Thirty-one carries against the league’s most aggressive defence is a statement that Buffalo trusted its line and its back more than it trusted a shootout, even with starting left tackle Dion Dawkins and starting left guard Alec Anderson inactive.
A Defence That Never Let Minnesota Breathe
Minnesota finished with just 178 total yards and no touchdowns. With Kyler Murray sidelined by a hamstring injury, Carson Wentz started at quarterback and endured one of the worst nights of his 11-year career, completing 8 of 25 passes for 81 yards with three turnovers. Linebackers Terrel Bernard and Dorian Williams each intercepted Wentz, and a first-quarter backward pass sailed too high for Justin Jefferson and was lost as a fumble near midfield.
Wentz completed only one of eight passes in the second half and was replaced by Max Brosmer midway through the fourth quarter after being checked in the medical tent for an apparent lower leg injury. Jefferson, the Vikings star receiver, finished with three catches for 58 yards on 11 targets. Minnesota also failed to convert a single third down, going 0 for 8, according to Sports Illustrated’s game analysis.
Put tonight 100 percent on me. It is not about any one particular player. But we have got to improve offensively, at a rapid pace.
That was Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell after the game, and he pointed at his own play calling, noting that running backs Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones combined for only 11 carries on a night when the passing game was clearly off the mark. Four straight Minnesota possessions in the first half started beyond the home team’s own 40-yard line, and none of them reached further than the Buffalo 48.
Allen Reaches A Manning Mark
Allen finished 21 of 31 for 234 yards, one touchdown and one interception, with his rushing work pushing his total offence higher on a night built on patience. Bass made all three of his field goals, stretching his franchise-record streak to 24 straight makes.
The night also carried a milestone. Allen’s touchdown pass took him to 322 regular-season touchdowns in total, made up of 232 passing, 88 rushing and two receiving, tying Peyton Manning for the most by any player in his first 10 seasons in NFL history. Allen reached the mark halfway through his ninth season.
It is just a mindset of going out there and not being result-driven, going out there and being process-driven and understanding what they are trying to do. At the end of the day, having fun playing the game of football.
What The Win Means Next
For Toronto area fans, the Bills are the adopted team across the border, and this version of Buffalo is winning the kind of game contenders have to win in November: on the road, against an elite defence, with two starting linemen out and the offence held well below its league-leading scoring average. Head coach Joe Brady praised the absence of panic when the early breaks went against his team, and the possession time tells the same story. Buffalo made Minnesota play a game it did not want to play, then leaned on it until the fourth quarter opened up.
Buffalo visits the New York Jets on Sunday, while Minnesota travels to Green Bay. The Vikings leave Monday night with the harder questions. A 6-2 record still sits well in the NFC, but two straight losses and an offence that produced six points at home will follow them into Green Bay, and the quarterback position, with Murray hurt and Wentz struggling, is now the whole conversation in Minnesota.
