Distractions? What Distractions?

A bus crash?

A massive protest?

A potential plea bargain involving the face of your franchise?

Those things would be weird anywhere else. In Minnesota, we refer to that as "Sunday."

Yes, to say that it was an eventful day in the Twin Cities would be a pretty massive understatement. On the field, however, the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins produced some second-half fireworks in a game that was kind of boring for the first thirty minutes. . .and, if you're a Vikings fan, pretty hard to watch as well.

Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, seeing his first action since Week 2, looked sharp early on for the Redskins, and the Vikings didn't appear to have an answer for Alfred Morris, either. But just before halftime, the momentum swung towards the purple with Captain Munnerlyn's second interception in two weeks and setting up a drive that concluded with Teddy Bridgewater finding Chase Ford from 20 yards out for Ford's first career touchdown.

That set up a second half that saw five different lead changes, as both sides exchanged punches for the final thirty minutes. After Matt Asiata's third touchdown of the afternoon, the Vikings found themselves in the same situation that they had found themselves in each of the previous two weeks. . .a lead late in the ball game and their defense on the field.

This time, unlike the previous two games, the Vikings' defense stood tall when they needed to, and when Griffin short-hopped Pierre Garcon on 4th-and-6 with just over a minute left, it all but sealed the team's second consecutive victory and a chance to go into their bye week with some momentum.

Bridgewater played a very impressive second half, but man. . .there were some passes in the first half that he would have loved to have back, including a deep shot to Cordarrelle Patterson that he missed after Patterson had beaten his defender by 15 yards. But Bridgewater came up big when he needed to. In the second half, he completed 11-of-14 passes for 120 yards, and extended drives with his legs on a couple of occasions as well. If Bridgewater ever gets the deep ball figured out, he's really going to be special.

The Vikings' rushing game collected just 14 yards on seven carries in the first half, but came to life after halftime, with Jerick McKinnon putting together some big runs and Matt Asiata doing what Matt Asiata does. . .scoring touchdowns three at a time. Asiata has played 36 career NFL games. . .he has 33 games with zero rushing touchdowns, and three games with three rushing touchdowns. But even when the Redskins knew it was coming down in the red zone, they couldn't stop it, and between the three touchdowns and a two-point conversion today, Matt Asiata was responsible for 20 of Minnesota's 29 points.

The pass rush continues to impress, racking up five sacks for the third consecutive week. And even though the Redskins kept sending the proverbial house after Bridgewater, he was only sacked twice. Most important of all, the Vikings committed zero turnovers in today's contest. . .something that has happened in all four of their victories this season.

Now, the Vikings can go into their bye week with a 4-5 record and take some time to get away from all the distractions that have surrounded the team thus far. Well, except for the one where their superstar running back might be pleading out of his court case this week and all the inevitable "what's going to happen now" hoopla that surrounds it.

But, you know. . .that's just another day in Minnesota football.

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