Minnesota's latest win featured a couple of historic performances by players in purple.
In only his 70th career game, Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson passed Torry Holt for the most receiving yards through a player's first five seasons. Jefferson had six catches for 81 yards on Sunday, climbing to 6,811. Holt's old record of 6,784 was achieved over 80 games and stood for 20-plus seasons.
Vikings outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel also joined the history books.
"Gink" upended a Tennessee scoring chance in the final minute of the first half with back-to-back sacks near midfield. On the first, he beat tight end Chig Okonkwo and right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere with lightning-fast finesse moves. The very next snap, Van Ginkel flew off the same edge and beat the same players en route to Titans QB Will Levis. The sequence raised Van Ginkel's 2024 sacks total to a single-season career high of 8.0.
His stunning efforts catapulted him to rare air.
Van Ginkel is the fourth player in NFL annals with at least eight sacks and two interceptions returned for touchdowns in a single season, and first since Terrell Suggs had exactly that many for the Ravens in 2008.
The list also includes Hall of Famer Jason Taylor, who recorded 13.5 sacks and two pick sixes with Miami during his 2006 Defensive Player of the Year campaign, and Dolphins DE Bill Stanfield (8.0 and 2) in 1969.
Van Ginkel's feat returns us to an early-season conversation. … He's deserving of Defensive Player of the Year consideration.
The 29-year-old already has bested his previous highwater mark for sacks (6.0 in 2023) and is on pace to match Taylor's award-winning tally of 13.5; Taylor also forced nine fumbles and recovered two that year.
Van Ginkel has forced only one fumble and recovered none through Week 11, but he leads the league with 13 tackles for a loss, and impacts each game with his intelligence, instincts and artistry off the edge.
Will Ragatz of Minnesota Vikings on SI wrote Monday about Van Ginkel's worthiness:
Van Ginkel doesn't have the national star power of players like (Pittsburgh OLB) T.J. Watt, (San Francisco LB) Fred Warner, or (New York Giants DL) Dexter Lawrence, but he's having the type of season that could warrant some dark horse DPOY consideration if he continues to stuff the stat sheet down the stretch run.
He's been arguably the most valuable player on the NFL's best defense this season (the Vikings are No. 1 in defensive DVOA, opponent EPA per play, opponent success rate, and takeaways per game).
Ragatz mentions that Van Ginkel is a longer shot stacked against perennial contenders for the award such as Watt, San Francisco's Nick Bosa and Kansas City's Chris Jones, as well as defenders loudly breaking out like Lions safety Brian Branch and Bengals edge Trey Hendrickson, but that his case could grow with time.
" 'Gink' is perhaps the best embodiment of the versatility and complexity of Brian Flores' scheme," said Ragatz, noting the argument that Jonathan Greenard or Blake Cashman are as important to the defense.
Check out the complete article here.
Historic GMFB game ball
Let's jet the convo back to "Jets."
In addition to resetting an all-time record, Justin Jefferson extended his streak of games with 5-plus catches to eight (longest active run in the NFL) and earned a game ball from Good Morning Football's Jamie Erdahl.
Jefferson, by the way, joined Cris Carter in 1994, 1995 and 1996 and Adam Thielen in 2017 and 2018 as Vikings players with that caliber of reception streak within a season.
Erdahl, who was born and raised in Minnesota and ventured to U.S. Bank Stadium several weeks ago to sound the Gjallarhorn ahead of the Sunday Night Football game against the Colts, watched the 23-13 Vikings win over the Titans with her father and said they spent time reminiscing about Vikings of old.
"We just started talking about Randy Moss and watching the Vikings in the '90s and how fun that was, and how close the Vikings got [to a championship] on a lot of those teams," Erdahl shared on set. "I'm not saying this is the year for the Vikings – it could be, and that would be awesome – but please, for the love of God and for the love of talent that Justin Jefferson has, leave him as a Viking forever and do something with it and win something with it, just because it would make it that much more fun."
Erhdal's spiel resonated – Jefferson's impact is undeniable and inevitable each game – but there was pushback by co-host Kyle Brandt on the possibility that Jefferson has eclipsed Moss on the greatness scale.
"I'm amused that there's a sect of the dark web that is building and working on the 'Jefferson is better than Moss case,'" Brandt said. "There's definitely a strong case to be made. The touchdown disparity is not great in Justin's favor because Randy scored so many touchdowns, but it's fun to talk about."
To Brandt's point, Moss lived in the end zone in his first seven NFL seasons with the Vikings, racking up 90 scores in that span. Later, he established the record for most receiving touchdowns in a single season, with 23, for the Patriots in 2007. In Moss' initial 70 games, he produced 55 TDs – 20 more than Jefferson.
"I think there's room for both," Erdahl quipped.
Watch the entire segment to find out which other players received Week 11 game balls here.
