Minnesota Vikings 30, Seattle Seahawks 17: Minnesota finally knocks off Russell Wilson

Prior to today, the Minnesota Vikings had not beaten the Seattle Seahawks since December of 2009 and had never beaten the combination of Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll.

Both of those demons have officially been slain, thanks to the combination of Kirk Cousins and Alexander Mattison.

Cousins had three first half touchdown passes to three different receivers and Mattison put together his second career 100-yard game in place of the injured Dalvin Cook to power the Vikings to a 30-17 victory over the Seahawks in Week 3 action.

Seattle got on the scoreboard first, taking the opening drive of the game and marching 75 yards, concluding the drive with a 10-yard pass from Russell Wilson to D.K. Metcalf to make the score 7-0 less than five minutes into the contest.

The Vikings answered on their opening possession, as Kirk Cousins found Tyler Conklin for a 7-yard touchdown pass on a very impressive opening drive, with Greg Joseph’s extra point tying things at 7-7.

Seattle added more points just before the end of the first quarter, as Jason Myers connected on a 53-yarder. . .his 37th consecutive made kick. . .to put Seattle back on top by a score of 10-7 with seconds left in the first quarter of play. After a three-and-out from the Vikings’ offense, Seattle added more points courtesy of a 30-yard touchdown run from Chris Carson to extend the lead to 17-7 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the first half.

Minnesota answered back on their next possession after what would have been a three-and-out was negated by a holding penalty on the Seattle defense. The Vikings pushed down the field again and got into the end zone on a 15-yard strike from Cousins to Adam Thielen for a touchdown. The extra point made it 17-14, Seattle, with just over five minutes left in the half.

After Myers missed a 44-yard field goal, his first miss in his last 38 attempts, the Vikings marched down into Seattle territory and burned most of the time off of the second quarter clock. Cousins then got his third touchdown pass of the first half, this time hitting Justin Jefferson for a 3-yard score to make it 21-17 going into the locker room at halftime.

Minnesota added to their lead after a long drive to open the third quarter. They had to settle for a 43-yard field goal from Greg Joseph, but took eight and a half minutes off the clock in the process and extended their lead to 24-17. Those were the only points of the third quarter, and Joseph extended the lead for the Vikings again to start the fourth with a 34-yarder to make the score 27-17 with just under fourteen minutes left in regulation.

The Vikings then made another deep push into Seattle territory in the fourth quarter and found themselves facing a 4th-and-goal from the 1 with four and a half minutes remaining. Rather than go for it, the Vikings got another field goal from Greg Joseph, this one a 20-yarder to extend the lead to 30-17.

The Seahawks had a couple of opportunities at the end, but their desperation passes to the end zone fell incomplete and the Vikings got their first victory over the Seahawks since 2009 and their first win over the Pete Carroll/Russell Wilson regime.

The Vikings get their first win to move their record to 1-2 and will host a very good Cleveland Browns team next week at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Seahawks fall to 1-2 and will travel to take on their division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, in Week 4.

The Minnesota Vikings get their first victory of the 2021 season, knocking off the Seattle Seahawks by a final score of 30-17. Thank you to everybody that got their coverage of this week’s game right here at The Daily Norseman!