Winners and losers: 5 takeaways from Vikings much-needed win over Colts

It wasn't the prettiest of victories, but it was a victory nonetheless, as the Minnesota Vikings ended their two-game losing streak on Sunday night with a 21-13 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

The Minnesota defense was easily the best unit on the field at U.S. Bank Stadium, as Brian Flores' group put on one of its best overall performances of the season.

The same can't be said about the Vikings' offense, as Sam Darnold had an up-and-down outing but did just enough to help his team get a much-needed victory. As per usual, Justin Jefferson was fantastic, and it was certainly great to see T.J. Hockenson back in action, even if he wasn't Minnesota's top-performing tight end.

But we'll get to that in just a moment. Before that, though, let's take a look at the dominant defense as we break down the winners and losers from the Vikings' Week 9 win over the Colts.

Winner: The Vikings' pass defense

As the Vikings were allowing the third-fewest rushing yards in the NFL coming into this game, it wasn't overly surprising that they held the Colts to just 68 yards on the ground and just 3.6 yards per carry. And 25 yards of that total came on two carries, a 13-yarder from Jonathan Taylor and a 12-yarder from Ashton Dulin.

What was a touch surprising was how Minnesota stifled Indy's passing attack.

Entering Week 9, the Vikings had allowed 263.0 passing yards per game, the third-most in the league. On Sunday, however, they held Joe Flacco to just 179 yards and only allowed him to complete 16 of 27 passes.

In three starts this season, Flacco had thrown seven touchdowns against just one interception. Against Minnesota, however, he failed to find the end zone and doubled his number, as Byron Murphy Jr. added to the Vikings' league-leading interception total with his team-leading third of the year.

Overall, Minnesota only allowed Indy to accumulate 229 yards of offense, the lowest total of any opponent this season. This was simply a strong all-around effort.

Winner: Justin Jefferson

Justin Jefferson just makes things look so easy, doesn't he?

As Jordan Addison, Jalen Nailor and Josh Oliver were the recipients of Darnold's three touchdown passes, it almost went unnoticed that Jefferson had his biggest game of the year on Sunday night, catching seven passes for a season-high 137 yards.

Jefferson has 252 yards in his last two games, and with his performance against the Colts, he now leads the entire league with 783 yards.

Winner: Josh Oliver

As referenced earlier, the return of T.J. Hockenson after a 315-day absence was great to see. And the two-time Pro Bowler performed well, catching three passes for 27 yards.

The Vikings' best tight end against the Colts, however, was Josh Oliver, who caught five passes for 58 yards, the second-highest total of his career. And it was his 14-yard touchdown with just over two minutes remaining that put the game out of reach.

With Hockenson back in the mix, Oliver has to know his touches are going to go down. But the fact that the second option at tight end can go out and produce like this is nothing but a good thing for Kevin O'Connell's offense.

Winner and Loser: Sam Darnold

It was quite the night for Sam Darnold, wasn't it?

On the one hand, he completed a season-best 82.4% of his passes for a season-high 290 yards and threw three touchdown passes, all three of which came in the final 30 minutes.

On the other hand, however, he was one of the primary reasons why the Colts were more competitive in this game than maybe they should have been, as he committed three turnovers, throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble that was returned 38 yards for a touchdown by Kenny Moore II.

Truth be told, this was kind of a classic Joe Flacco-looking game for Darnold. He can get away with these types of things against lesser opponents, but games like this won't get the Vikings wins against tougher teams.

Loser: Will Reichard

Well, it finally happened.

After not missing a single kick of any kind in his first seven games as a professional, Will Reichard missed not one but two field goals on Sunday night, first failing on a 53-yard try with just under six minutes remaining in the second quarter and then again on a 31-yard attempt just a few minutes later.

It was revealed that the rookie was dealing with a right quad injury, so that obviously played a factor, as he clearly didn't look comfortable. Reichard was able to connect on all three extra-point attempts, but his status for the Vikings' Week 10 matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars will be worth monitoring as the week progresses.