It’s always a bold claim to say something is the greatest thing ever just right after being able to witness it before your very eyes. However, after back-to-back days with matches involving American football and worldwide football where historic achievements were made and unforgettable events were displayed, I would be hard pressed to not think of a particular weekend in a longtime that had been amazing for sports fans everywhere. The rarity of being able to witness history like we’ve never seen before in two particular competitive matches that could have not been played in any more different circumstances. The games I’m referring to is the match-up between the Indianapolis Colts and the Minnesota Vikings that took place on Saturday December 18th and of course, the World Cup finale between the countries of Argentina and France that was played Sunday, December 19th! Two games that didn’t really have anything to do with each other but was still shocking to watch.
33-0 Is The New 28-3!
On paper, the game between the Colts and Vikings didn’t really seem all that destined to be a classic. Compared to the other game that I will later discuss, it seemed rather inconsequential. While the Colts went into this game with a poor 4-8-1 record and had been struggling for the majority of the season, the Vikings with a strong 10-3 record needed one more victory of the season to secure a division title, their first since 2017 and clinch a playoff birth, their first since 2019. Little did anyone know that this would result in the best comeback ever along with the perhaps the greatest choke job ever in NFL history!
Everything was going the Colts way in the first half of the game at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Indianapolis’s defense had absolutely shut down the offense of the Vikings and spur some offense of their own with two touchdowns on an interception and blocked punt, which were both later returned for touchdowns. After the first two quarters and halftime rolled around, Colts were leading an absolute laugher at 33-0 in front of a Minnesota home crowd who were just anxious to see their Vikings clinched the title on their home field! However, just as we’ve seen numerous times over the course of this season in football as well as some other recent history (*cough* Super Bowl LI *cough*), the game is never over until it’s over. Thankfully for Minnesota and their fans, the Viks would later seem to agree.
Once the second half roll around, the stars had finally aligned for the Vikings. The defensive lines were able to come back strong by allowing only one field goal the entire second half and the offense finally woke up by scoring a total of five touchdowns, including an incredible 64-yard run by running back Dalvin Cook just before the two-minute warning hit. It’s then that quarterback Kirk Cousins passed the ball to tight end T.J. Hockenson in a successful two-point conversion to tie the game. What was 33-0 before was now a tie ball game at 36-36 to end the regulation, with the Vikings overcoming a massive 33 point deficit. Inevitably, Vikings kicker Greg Joseph pulled off the finishing touches by successfully kicking a 40-yard field goal just as time expired in overtime. Just like that, Minnesota won the game 39-36, the largest comeback any team has overcome in National Football League history!
While this was certainly not the biggest football game ever, it was able to achieve the kind of history we’ve technically never seen before. The previous largest comeback took place in the 1992 Wild Card round where the Buffalo Bills overcame a 32-point deficit to beat the Houston Oilers, 41-38. And of course, who could forget that jaw dropping Super Bowl LI, where the New England Patriots overcame a 28-3 deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons to win it all, another heartbreaking choke job that quarterback Matt Ryan was a part off. What could have been a forgettable clincher of game for a sports town that has had their own fair share of heart break over the years turned out to be one for the absolute history books! I guess we will find out in the coming months if the momentum from this stunning victory will be able to carry over to the playoffs.
Greatest Game Ever?!
If you ever wonder why there is such love, heart, and passion for soccer/football or any sport, all you have to do is watch this game and know why. Not only was the final of the 2022 World Cup between Argentina and France is everything you can possibly ask for, it is instantly up there as an absolute classic in sports history and will easily go down as one of the greatest game, if not THE greatest game of all time! There were both countries that had won two prior World Cups with France itself winning the previous one. If they won this game, they would be the first country to pull off back-to-back titles since Brazil in 1958 and 1962. On Argentina’s side, there was the legendary Lionel Messei who is looking to call it a career after this game. The only thing missing from Messei’s phenomenal resume was winning a World Cup and was hoping to help Argentina win their first one since 1986. At Lusail, this match-up had perhaps the highest stakes and most tension than any game in any sport that has ever been played.
Similar to the Colts and Vikings game, it started off being a rather one-sided match-up. Argentina stroke first when Messi scored a penalty kick at the 23rd minute and would get another thanks to Angel Di Maria at the 38th minute. Once the first half came to a close, Argentina had taken a 2-0 lead. If you watch soccer, you would know goals are really rare to come by, especially in a World Cup game. With fields as massive as the ones in this sports along with players who get more tired and exhausted the longer the game goes, it can be quite hard to get points on the board. Any sort of comeback down two later in a World Cup game would take a miracle. Despite having nearly all odds gets them, France was determined to come back to make it game.
After failing to make an attempt on goal until the 70th minute, France finally got on the board when Kylian Mbappe scored on a penalty kick at the 80th minute, to make it 2-1. Then, in a massive 1uick turn of events, less than two minutes later, Mbappe scored again to tie up the game 2-2. In an absolute stunner, France was able to take away the lead that Argentina held for the majority of the game just like that. After 90+ minutes were completed, the game remained tied and when into extra time.
At the 108 minute mark, Messi scored his second goal of the game to give Argentina a 3-2 lead with around ten minutes. However, thanks to the advance of yet another penalty kick, Mbappe was able to complete the hat trick by scoring his third goal of the game to tie the game once again making it 3-3. Both teams failed to score for the rest of extra time and it went to shootout. Yes, unfortunately, we live in a world where a game as glorious as this had to end in a merely shootout. It’s a sad world we live in but it is the only world we live in.
With the way this game has gone, you would think France is the team destined for victory here. After all their amazing comebacks they pulled off, you would think they would be more than deserving in winning their second consecutive World Cup. However, the sports gods seemed to have other thoughts. Argentina, thanks to successful goals by Messi, Dybala, Paredes and Montei, beat France in penalty shots, 4-2, where they won the game 4-3, and won the World Cup! With all that hard fought effort, France simply ran out of miracles and Messi is now able to leave the game fully on top like he deserves. A stunning yet storybook ending thanks to an absolute excellent game played by both sides!
Sports Can Be Meaningful
As much as one can give credit to these comebacks being even remotely possible thanks to controversial calls by the referees or B.S. overtime rules of both sports, it’s games like these two that are so rare to see at around the same time but always remind us all why we love sports. It’s games like these that shows why one can easily become so invested in something that they love so much. It shows that sports can be meaningful to just it’s fans but also it’s players.
These two games involved teams being forced to crawl their way back into it after being down for so long. One team was rewarded for overcoming such adversity while the other team wasn’t so lucky. Regardless, the fact that either one of these games were close or actually ended up having some sort of competition to it is astounding. As much as fans of teams would always love for their side to secure an absolute drama-free victory for each big game, for fans of the sport, they always want to be action and competitiveness down to the last play. While I’m sure millions to billions of hearts were in stomachs from fans of all four teams, that is what sports it’s all about and why we love it so much. While the Colts and France will look back to how they let their chance at victories slip away in heartbreaking fashion, the Vikings and Argentina will be able to look at the right side of history as being able to overcome immense pressure to win a nail biter.
Sports are made for games such as these. Because of that, I don’t think we have ever had a weekend of sports that perfectly displays the meaningfulness of it than we did for these two games. Let’s see the Super Bowl top this in two months!
Adam's Blog 