The Vikings beat Colts 16-10 in Minneapolis on Sunday, and they did it the way they have won all season: badly, stubbornly and with their defence holding the door shut at the end. Minnesota trailed for most of the afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium, scored its only touchdown early in the fourth quarter on a 5-yard Kyler Murray pass to T.J. Hockenson, and then watched 37-year-old Harrison Smith intercept Daniel Jones in the final minutes to preserve a 6-0 start — the franchise's first since 2009 — and, with San Francisco losing in Atlanta, leave the Vikings as the NFL's only unbeaten team.
One touchdown in the fourth quarter was all the offence Minnesota could find
Indianapolis scored first and, for a long time, looked the more comfortable team. On the Colts' first possession, Jonathan Taylor took a pitch left, weaved through the line and outraced the secondary for a 38-yard touchdown — his eighth touchdown in seven games — and a 7-0 lead. Minnesota's answer came in instalments from its kicker. Will Reichard made a 28-yard field goal in the opening seconds of the second quarter, then struck from 47 yards with 6:37 left in the half. That second kick was his 36th consecutive made field goal, breaking Gary Anderson's franchise record of 35, set in 1998. Spencer Shrader's 43-yarder as time expired still sent Indianapolis in ahead, 10-6.
The third quarter produced no points at all, and Shrader missed from 56 yards after head coach Shane Steichen passed on a fourth-and-1. The breakthrough finally arrived early in the fourth: Murray scrambled for 35 yards, the biggest play of Minnesota's day, then looked left and fired to Hockenson, who reached the ball across the left pylon for a 5-yard touchdown and a 13-10 lead with 14:36 to play — Minnesota's first lead of the game, on National Tight Ends Day, in its first game back from the bye.
A blocked kick, a missed kick, and then Smith closed the door
The last ten minutes were a contest in missed chances. Grover Stewart tipped Reichard's 59-yard field-goal attempt — the Colts' official account noted it was Stewart's fourth career blocked field goal — handing Indianapolis the ball near midfield with eight and a half minutes left. Taylor and Seth McGowan pushed the Colts to the Minnesota 30, but Shrader's game-tying 48-yard attempt drifted wide right, his second miss of the day. Minnesota then thought it had finished the job when Murray hit Jordan Addison deep, only for a holding penalty to erase the play; the Vikings settled for Reichard's 52-yard field goal and a 16-10 lead with 1:39 remaining.
That left Jones one drive to win it, needing a touchdown. He moved the Colts off their own goal line area with a completion to Josh Downs, but his next throw was intercepted by Smith near midfield and returned 15 yards, and Minnesota kneeled out the clock. It was Smith's first interception of the season, and it put the veteran safety in one of the rarest clubs in league history: players with at least 40 career interceptions and at least 20 career sacks, company that includes Hall of Famers Charles Woodson and Ronde Barber. "It was good to seal the win," Smith said afterwards.
What the numbers actually say
Start with how little offence won this game. Minnesota managed 275 total yards; Murray finished 14 of 24 for 150 yards and the one touchdown, Justin Jefferson was held to four catches for 44 yards on seven targets, and Jordan Mason — back in the lineup after a stint on injured reserve — led the ground game with 68 yards on 15 carries. Aaron Jones left the game with a knee injury, which NBC Sports reported and local coverage described as an aggravation of a knee that had been evaluated before. Indianapolis actually ran the ball better: Taylor rushed for 95 yards and the touchdown, and the Taylor-McGowan pairing totalled 141 yards on 29 carries. But Daniel Jones completed just 13 passes for 108 yards, was sacked four times and threw the interception, and the Colts were shut out for the entire second half. By one tally, Minnesota has now scored a touchdown in only eight of its 24 quarters this season — and is 6-0 anyway, because its defence keeps turning afternoons like this into wins. Shrader's two misses, from 56 and 48, were worth six points in a six-point game; so was Steichen's decision to hand a key third down to McGowan rather than Taylor on a drive that ended in one of them.
Why this matters
Two very different stories left the same field. Minnesota's is the happier puzzle: a team that cannot reliably score touchdowns is the last unbeaten team in the NFL, its first 6-0 start since 2009, built on a defence that has now shut out an opponent for a full half and a 37-year-old safety who was released in the offseason and re-signed a week before the season — and who just produced the season's defining defensive play. The honest caveat travels with the record: 275 yards of offence and one touchdown will not beat Detroit, Buffalo or January football, and head coach Kevin O'Connell spent part of his postgame taking responsibility for an opening fourth-down call that set the day's tone. The Vikings are winning the games in front of them while openly admitting the offence is not yet one of them.
Indianapolis's story is grimmer, and it extends beyond one afternoon. This was the Colts' third straight loss, dropping them to 2-5 a week after general manager Chris Ballard was fired — a move head coach Shane Steichen survived, as NBC Sports noted, while warning that performances like Sunday's will not strengthen his case. The Colts' problems are compounding: a running game good enough to win, undermined by a passing game producing 108 yards, a kicker who had made 18 field goals this season missing twice in a six-point loss, and a quarterback question that NBC openly raised — whether the team owes it to itself to look at Anthony Richardson. It is a familiar pattern for Colts fans, who watched a winnable game slip away late in our Titans' 26-20 comeback win over Indianapolis earlier this month.
What happens next
Minnesota's unbeaten start gets its hardest test immediately: a trip to Detroit next Sunday, where the Lions can pull the division race tight in one afternoon and where 150 passing yards will almost certainly not be enough. Indianapolis travels to Jacksonville still searching for a first win in a month, with the trade deadline approaching and, per NBC's reporting, the possibility of changes before or after that game. Sunday's other 16-10 finish, the Steelers' 16-10 win over the Saints in Paris, underlined the same lesson Minnesota keeps teaching: in this season's NFL, a defence that travels and a kicker who does not miss — Reichard's record day came in the same game the Colts' kicker missed twice — can carry an ordinary offence a very long way. The Falcons team that knocked off previously unbeaten San Francisco to leave Minnesota alone at the top did it the opposite way, outscoring the 49ers in the kind of shootout the Vikings keep refusing to play, a contrast with Atlanta's wilder weeks such as the Bears' 31-23 win over the Falcons. Six weeks in, there is exactly one perfect record left, and it belongs to the team scoring the fewest style points in the league.
Sources
Reuters (via FLM), "Vikings take over late to edge Colts, move to 6-0," October 25, 2026; NBC Sports / Pro Football Talk, "Vikings shut Colts out in second half, improve to 6-0 with 16-10 win," October 25, 2026; Indianapolis Colts official, "Colts fall to Vikings in cagey Week 7 matchup," colts.com, October 25, 2026; Deadspin, "Vikings take over late to edge Colts, move to 6-0," October 25, 2026; Sports Illustrated (Vikings on SI), "3 Things That Mattered Most in Vikings' 16-10 Win Over Colts in Week 7," October 25, 2026; Pro Football Focus, "NFL Week 7 Recap: Indianapolis Colts 10, Minnesota Vikings 16," October 25, 2026; Sportradar final score, quarter-by-quarter and play-by-play, Vikings vs Colts, October 25, 2026.