CBS assigned Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to Vikings-Bengals back in August, expecting a showcase between J.J. McCarthy and Joe Burrow. Instead, they got Carson Wentz facing Jake Browning, and somehow, that was exactly what Minnesota needed.
The Vikings routed Cincinnati 48-10 on Sunday, finally ending the NFL’s weirdest broadcasting curse. Minnesota hadn’t won a game with Nantz in the booth since Sept. 29, 2013, when they beat Pittsburgh in London with Phil Simms as his broadcast partner.
The drought with Nantz and Romo calling games was even more brutal. The duo went 0-6 on Vikings assignments, watching Minnesota get outscored 182-76 across those losses, according to Judd Zulgad. That’s an average defeat of more than 17 points per game.
Isaiah Rodgers made sure there wouldn’t be a seventh loss. The Vikings cornerback put on a defensive clinic that had his teammates fanning him with their arms on the sideline, becoming the first player in NFL history to score two defensive touchdowns and force two fumbles in a single game, per ESPN’s Field Yates.
Rodgers grabbed an 87-yard pick-six in the first quarter, then punched the ball out of tight end Noah Fant’s hands and returned the fumble 67 yards for another score. He forced a third fumble on Ja’Marr Chase later in the half, helping Minnesota build a 34-3 halftime lead.
“I’ve never seen nothing like that,” Vikings safety Joshua Metellus told ESPN. “I’m still lost for words.”
The performance couldn’t have come at a better time for Rodgers, a free agent pickup who spent 2023 suspended for violating the NFL’s gambling policy and had been quiet through his first two games in Minnesota.
For the Bengals, the 38-point loss marked the largest defeat in franchise history. For Vikings fans, it was the end of 12 years of misery whenever they saw Nantz take the microphone.
The curse that started with a 31-24 loss at Carolina in 2017 — one of only three defeats for a 13-3 Vikings team — is finally dead. It took a journeyman quarterback matchup and a career day from a former exiled player to do it, but Minnesota will take it however it comes.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.