Let me say right up front, despite my team ending up on the wrong side of the score, this was a good game. The Vikings took the shots, but stayed competitive right up to the final drive, and with only a bit more luck (Blair Walsh’s first field goal attempt), the game was still winnable for either team right down to the wire. The stats may not be gaudy, but the Vikings showed that they are much improved from last year and the Broncos are probably very relieved to get the win.

Playing in Denver is tough for visiting teams, but the Vikings did almost enough to win the game on Sunday. Rookie wide receiver Stefon Diggs got his first regular season snaps and did a lot of good things in his first opportunity (six catches for 87 yards, but needs to work on keeping control of the ball once he makes the catch). Safety Harrison Smith again showed why he should be high on everyone’s list for this year’s Pro Bowl voting (except for probably getting an unwelcome envelope from the league over a helmet-to-helmet tackle on a Denver receiver), and despite being under siege pretty much all game (taking seven sacks, including the strip-sack to end the game), quarterback Teddy Bridgewater showed that he has what it takes to succeed in the NFL. Cornerback Xavier Rhodes was clearly in the crosshairs of the officials, as he drew more than his fair share of flags during the game, some justified but some ticky-tacky.

Zach Kruse for Bleacher Report:

The NFL isn’t a place for moral victories, but the Minnesota Vikings’ 23-20 road loss to Peyton Manning and the still-unbeaten Denver Broncos has to qualify as something close.

In fact, Sunday’s late defeat probably revealed more about Minnesota’s potential as a 2015 playoff team than either of the club’s two home wins from earlier this month.

The Vikings faced deficits of 13-0 and 20-10 in the thin air of Sports Authority Field, but it still took a scoring drive from Manning and one final sack of Teddy Bridgewater to finally put away Denver’s pesky guests. On the road, against a Hall of Fame quarterback and arguably the league’s best defense, Minnesota nearly upset a team that has now won 42 of its last 52 regular-season games.

The 2-2 Vikings will likely categorize Sunday as a missed opportunity. Come December, it might look like the moment Minnesota knew it belonged among the NFL’s big boys.

The now 4-0 Broncos jumped out to an 13-point lead, largely due to Blair Walsh’s missed field goal and Ronnie Hillman’s 72-yard rushing touchdown on back-to-back plays. The 10-point swing seemed to stagger the Vikings, who looked on the verge of getting blown out midway through the second quarter.

Darren Campbell has hope for the future:

If there’s such a thing as a good loss, we may have seen it today. Up against a great defense on the road and a Hall of Fame QB who owns almost every passing record known to man and women, the Vikings scratched and clawed and lost a coin flip game. It happens.

But it’s also a game that makes the dreadful season-opening performance against San Francisco seem like an anomaly. The Vikings sure look like a good football team to me right now. It’s punt and kickoff coverage teams have been superb. The defense is well-rounded and is creating turnovers. The offense isn’t well-rounded (yet), but it’s getting elite production from its 30-year-old elite running back and it isn’t turning the ball over much. There are concerns and holes (Blair Walsh continues to struggle with accuracy on field goals and then there’s the offensive line), but the Vikings look solid enough that they can hang, and beat, anyone, even on the road. We haven’t been able to say that with any confidence for several seasons.

The most encouraging thing we saw today has to be Teddy Bridgewater’s play. There were a couple of poor throws — he missed an open Mike Wallace twice in the first half, but this is the best I’ve seen him in his young career. It’s remarkable to me that with the amount of sacks (7), hurries and whatnot, Bridgewater still completed 65.8 per cent of his passes against the league’s top defense (so far). The passing game actually had rhythm and looked more than competent. Bridgewater was accurate and made several tough throws under duress. Mike Wallace had his best game as a Viking yet, frequently toasting Denver’s Chris Harris, and rookie Stefon Diggs (six catches for 87 yards) was a relevation — even if Charles Johnson and Jarius Wright are healthy in two weeks, Diggs needs to be active and to play a lot. If this is the kind of QB-ing the Vikings are going to get consistently from Bridgewater in 2015, they should make the playoffs.

If you’re in a cheery mood, you might want to read this official post from the Bridgewater underground new Bridgewater Revolutionary Committee Bridgewater Government:

Look, being the Face Of Vikings Nation is hard. Be patient, and put down the pitchforks and torches

I closed my eyes and rubbed them with my thumb and forefinger, trying to get them to focus. It had been a long day. Too long, actually. But all the days are long now, and sometimes even more tiring than during the revolution. The nights, they can be even longer. Because the administrative work never ends. Never, ever ends.

The day to day monotony that is governing is not nearly as glorious as the heady days when The Bridgewater Underground first formed, and the ensuing revolution, but it’s arguably more essential. Figuring out budgets, allocating resources, prioritizing infrastructure projects — it’s all important. It’s not storming the gates of TCF Bank Stadium, planting the flag of victory, and partying over a lifeless Atlanta corpse … but if these things aren’t done, the whole meaning of The Revolution becomes pointless, doesn’t it?

Because if we can’t entrench ourselves, there will be another revolution, and no one wants that. Not now, when we finally have peace at quarterback. We know that peace and prosperity is at hand, and that we’re more stable at the quarterback President position than we’ve been for awhile…but we’re not sure the rubes the great unwashed the people know this. Because revolutions sometimes happen overnight, and before you know it, I’m on the run, the Bridgewater government is being arrested and tried for Crimes Against Football, and our whole Viking Nation is once again thrown into chaos and tumult.

And I’m swinging at the end of a coaches headset wire off the top deck of US Bank Stadium.

No thanks.

So I put my glasses back on and opened another folder and started reading another memo, this one citizenship or something, and my phone rang.

I chuckled to myself silently as I reflected on my surroundings. I was no longer in a secret underground bunker, staring into a stained mirror at the shell of a man that used to be me, wondering how this would all play out. No, I was a Big Shot now, with some important title in some important office in a more important building on the most important street in the most important city in the Nation Of Bridgewater. Had we failed, I’d be dead and buried in an unmarked grave somewhere. It’s funny what a bad pro day and a pair of gloves can do to change a man’s fortunes, isn’t it?