Minnesota Vikings vs Cincinnati Bengals: Player Stats and Match History
The Week 3 file from U.S. Bank Stadium, September 21, 2025 — five Cincinnati turnovers, two Isaiah Rodgers return touchdowns, a 62-yard franchise-record field goal, and the full 16-game head-to-head record.
Case 16
Case 16 · Regular season · Week 3 · Television: CBS
Cincinnati10
Minnesota48
Closed — Minnesota winSeptember 21, 2025
Final: Vikings 48, Bengals 10
Halftime: Vikings 34, Bengals 3
U.S. Bank Stadium · Both teams 2-1 after the game
Film-room treatment, drawn in SVG on this page. No player names, scores or statistics appear in it.
Incomplete source · Gap 4a
The banner brief was cut off mid-sentence. The owner's instruction ended at “Do not show readable player names, scores, statistics or real…” and the rest of the paragraph was lost. What survived — a dark football film room with a desk, tablet, notebook, an overhead stadium photograph, a frozen frame of players lining up, purple light from one screen and faint orange light from another — has been built as a vector treatment. No photograph has been generated or hotlinked, and nothing has been invented to fill the missing sentence.
Exhibit A
The game in six numbers
Minnesota's latest game against Cincinnati was settled by one of the most productive defensive performances in Vikings history. The Vikings forced five turnovers, returned two of them for touchdowns and defeated the Bengals 48-10 at U.S. Bank Stadium on September 21, 2025.
Cornerback Isaiah Rodgers became the central figure. He scored on an 87-yard interception return, produced a 66-yard fumble-return touchdown and forced two fumbles, all before halftime.
48Points scored by Minnesota
38Vikings' winning margin
5Bengals turnovers
31Minnesota points following turnovers
2Defensive touchdowns by Isaiah Rodgers
62Yards on Will Reichard's franchise-record field goal
Minnesota's victory tied the all-time series at eight wins each. The Vikings also improved to 7-0 in home games against Cincinnati.
2025 matchup information
Cincinnati Bengals at Minnesota Vikings — Week 3, 2025
Six stat groups, a team filter and sortable columns. Select a player's name to open their summary in place. Every row below is a line the source brief actually documents — where a group was never supplied, the tab says so instead of showing a fabricated box score.
Case 16 · player data
Vikings 48, Bengals 10 · September 21, 2025 · U.S. Bank Stadium
Team
Passing — documented lines. Max Brosmer's interception total was not supplied and is shown as not documented.
MIN
14
20
173
2
0
Carson Wentz · Minnesota Vikings
14 completions
20 attempts
173 yards
2 touchdowns
0 interceptions
70% completion rate
Wentz made his first start for Minnesota in place of J.J. McCarthy. He completed 70% of his attempts, threw two touchdowns and did not need to chase difficult throws after the defence created a large early advantage.
He did not produce a huge yardage total because Minnesota did not need him to — the running game and defence controlled the remaining possessions. More quarterback context is on the Vikings quarterbacks page.
MIN
2
4
29
0
—
Max Brosmer · Minnesota Vikings
2 completions
4 attempts
29 yards
0 touchdowns
Brosmer entered after the outcome had been decided. His appearance was the undrafted former Minnesota Golden Gopher's first regular-season NFL action.
His interception total was not documented in the source material, so it is left blank rather than assumed to be zero.
CIN
19
27
140
1
2
Jake Browning · Cincinnati Bengals
19 completions
27 attempts
140 yards
1 touchdown
2 interceptions
3 sacks taken
Browning started because Joe Burrow had undergone surgery on a toe injury. Minnesota intercepted him twice and sacked him three times. His fourth-quarter touchdown pass came after Cincinnati had fallen behind 48-3.
Browning entered the NFL with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and spent time on the Vikings practice squad before joining Cincinnati.
No passing lines for this team
The source brief documents no passing line for the team you have selected. Switch the filter to see the lines that were supplied.
Rushing — one documented line. No Cincinnati rushing figures were supplied.
MIN
16
116
7.3
2
Jordan Mason · Minnesota Vikings
16 attempts
116 yards
7.3 average
2 touchdowns
Mason produced the leading offensive performance. He averaged more than seven yards per carry and scored the first two touchdowns of his Vikings career. His second, a four-yard run in the third quarter, extended Minnesota's lead to 41-3.
It was Mason's first 100-yard rushing performance for Minnesota. See the wider Minnesota Vikings players index.
No rushing lines for this team
Cincinnati's rushing figures were not supplied. The brief records only that Cincinnati never established an offensive rhythm because turnovers repeatedly shortened Minnesota's path to points.
No receiving box score was supplied
The source material contains no per-player receiving figures for either team. Rather than fabricate a table, this tab is left empty. The following receiving data is missing:
Targets and receptions
Receiving yards and yards per catch
Longest reception
Receiving touchdown totals per player
What is documented — T.J. Hockenson's five-yard touchdown reception, Justin Jefferson's role, and Drew Sample's four-yard touchdown catch for Cincinnati — appears as prose in receiving highlights further down the page.
Defence — only the individual plays named in the source. Tackle counts and per-player sack totals were not supplied.
MIN
1
2
2
153
Isaiah Rodgers · Minnesota Vikings
87-yard interception return TD
66-yard fumble return TD
2 forced fumbles
12 points scored by halftime
Pressure affected Browning's throw, and Rodgers intercepted it before returning the ball 87 yards for a touchdown. He then stripped tight end Noah Fant, recovered the ball and returned it 66 yards for another touchdown. He later forced Ja'Marr Chase to lose the ball, and Minnesota converted the resulting possession into another touchdown.
No defensive player in NFL history had previously combined two forced fumbles with an interception-return touchdown and a fumble-return touchdown in the same game.
The 153 return yards shown above is the sum of the two documented return distances (87 + 66). No other return yardage was supplied.
MIN
1
—
—
—
Josh Metellus · Minnesota Vikings
1 interception
Metellus intercepted Jake Browning. Minnesota turned the resulting possession into the drive that produced T.J. Hockenson's touchdown.
No other statistics for Metellus were documented.
No defensive plays documented for this team
The source names individual defensive plays for Minnesota only. Cincinnati's defensive figures were not supplied.
Partial defensive record
Minnesota was credited with three sacks of Jake Browning, but the source does not say which players recorded them, so no sack column is shown. Tackles, passes defensed and per-player snap counts were not supplied either.
Kicking — one documented line. No Cincinnati kicking figures were supplied.
MIN
2
62 yards
Will Reichard · Minnesota Vikings
2 field goals
62 yards, longest
Reichard converted a 62-yard field goal on the final play of the first half. The kick established a Vikings franchise record, passing Greg Joseph's 61-yard game winner against the New York Giants in 2022.
The kick started toward the right side before moving back inside the upright. It had sufficient distance and gave the Vikings a 34-3 advantage.
No kicking lines for this team
Cincinnati's kicking figures for this game were not supplied.
No kick or punt return box score was supplied
The source material documents no special-teams return lines for either team. The following return data is missing:
Kickoff returns, yards and average
Punt returns, yards and average
Longest return and fair catches
The only returns documented in this game are Isaiah Rodgers' two defensive returns — 87 yards on an interception and 66 yards on a fumble. Those appear under Defence and in the return diagram.
Two of the six tabs are deliberately empty. Receiving and Returns carry no rows because no per-player receiving or special-teams return figures exist in the source. Rushing and Kicking hold Minnesota lines only; the Defence tab lists only the individual plays that were named. The console retains every qualifying player it was given and invents none.
Evidence 2 · Turnover file
Five turnovers, 31 points
The Bengals lost three of their five fumbles and threw two interceptions. Four of those turnovers came during the first half. Minnesota scored 31 points after Cincinnati turnovers — the defining statistic of the game.
Turnover responsibility
Each Cincinnati turnover and what Minnesota did with it
Turnover
Minnesota result
Browning interception to Isaiah Rodgers
87-yard defensive touchdown
Fumble forced and recovered by Rodgers
66-yard defensive touchdown
Fumble forced from Ja'Marr Chase
Vikings offensive touchdown
Additional lost fumble
Minnesota possession
Browning interception to Josh Metellus
Hockenson touchdown drive
Table scrolls sideways on small screens.
Return diagram: the two Rodgers scores
Incomplete source · Gap 4b
This section is reconstructed from a partial instruction. The owner's design brief was truncated: an entire play-diagram section was lost, and the only surviving fragment reads “RETURN” … “Add two forced-fumble markers” … “Do not recreate the exact play routes unless reliable [text lost] the strongest historical visual.”
What follows is built strictly from the two distances that are documented — an 87-yard interception return and a 66-yard fumble return — plus the two forced-fumble markers the fragment asks for. No play routes have been drawn, because none were documented, and the field positions of the two forced fumbles are unknown and are not implied.
Interception return
Isaiah Rodgers · touchdown
87 YD
Fumble return
Isaiah Rodgers · touchdown
66 YD
Forced fumbles — field position not documented
Noah Fant stripped
Ja'Marr Chase stripped
Bar widths are the share of a 100-yard field.
Interception return, 87 yards
Fumble return, 66 yards
Forced fumble marker ×2
Both plays were Minnesota scores, so both bars are Vikings purple; the two are told apart by label and by the hatched fill, never by colour alone.
Isaiah Rodgers' historic afternoon
Rodgers did not merely collect two loose balls. He created both of his first-half touchdowns. Pressure affected Browning's throw, and Rodgers intercepted it before returning the ball 87 yards for a touchdown — points without requiring Minnesota's offence to enter the field. He then stripped tight end Noah Fant, recovered the ball and returned it 66 yards for another touchdown. He later forced Ja'Marr Chase to lose the ball, and Minnesota converted the resulting possession into another touchdown.
By halftime, Rodgers had directly scored 12 points and created the possession that led to seven more. No defensive player in NFL history had previously combined two forced fumbles with an interception-return touchdown and fumble-return touchdown in the same game. Reuters' game report confirms the record, player statistics and turnover totals.
Why the score became 48-10
The game did not become a blowout through a steady difference of one touchdown per quarter. It turned during a short burst before halftime. Minnesota scored 17 points in the final 1:47 of the second quarter. The sequence ended with Reichard's 62-yard field goal and sent the Vikings into halftime leading 34-3.
The Bengals entered the game with a 2-0 record. By halftime, their five-possession margin had effectively removed the normal passing-game contest between the two teams. Minnesota could lean on Mason and protect Wentz from unnecessary risk. Cincinnati had to continue throwing into a defence that was already controlling the passing lanes.
A record defeat for Cincinnati
The 38-point difference was the largest defeat in Bengals franchise history. Cincinnati's previous largest losing margin was 37 points. The Bengals also trailed by 45 points when Minnesota moved ahead 48-3, which became the largest deficit Cincinnati had faced at any moment in a game.
Those records were driven primarily by possession losses:
Five turnovers
Three lost fumbles
Two interceptions
Four first-half turnovers
31 Minnesota points following turnovers
Cincinnati's 48-10 loss was not simply its lowest offensive showing of the season. It was a franchise-level result.
Evidence 3 · Player performances
Two backup quarterbacks, two different afternoons
The Bengals and Vikings started backup quarterbacks, but their circumstances quickly became very different.
Minnesota Vikings · winning quarterback
Carson Wentz
14 completions
20 attempts
173 yards
2 touchdowns
0 interceptions
Wentz made his first start for Minnesota in place of J.J. McCarthy. He completed 70% of his attempts and did not need to chase difficult throws after the defence created a large early advantage.
He did not produce a huge yardage total because Minnesota did not need him to. The running game and defence controlled the remaining possessions. Depth-chart context sits on the Vikings quarterbacks page.
Cincinnati Bengals · losing quarterback
Jake Browning
19 completions
27 attempts
140 yards
1 touchdown
2 interceptions
3 sacks
Browning started because Joe Burrow had undergone surgery on a toe injury. Minnesota intercepted him twice and sacked him three times. His fourth-quarter touchdown pass came after Cincinnati had fallen behind 48-3.
Browning was forced to play from behind for almost the entire game.
Jordan Mason's 116-yard game
Mason carried 16 times for 116 yards. His 7.3-yard average gave Minnesota an efficient way to continue drives without exposing Wentz to unnecessary pressure. The performance included two touchdowns:
A first-half rushing touchdown following a Bengals turnover
A four-yard third-quarter touchdown that made the score 41-3
It was Mason's first 100-yard rushing performance for Minnesota. Jordan Mason does not have his own page on this site; he is listed with the rest of the squad on Minnesota Vikings players.
Will Reichard sets the distance record
Minnesota already held a commanding lead when Reichard lined up from 62 yards at the end of the first half. The kick started toward the right side before moving back inside the upright. It had sufficient distance and gave the Vikings a 34-3 advantage.
The previous franchise record belonged to Greg Joseph, who converted from 61 yards against the Giants in December 2022. Reichard's field goal was more than an additional three points. It showed that Minnesota could still score after taking possession with very little time remaining.
Receiving highlights
Minnesota receiving — the contributions that were documented
Player
Notable contribution
T.J. Hockenson
Five-yard touchdown reception
Justin Jefferson
Helped move the offence without carrying the scoring load
Incomplete source · Gap 1
This table lost its third row. The owner's message was truncated part-way through a third entry — it began “| T” and then ran into a stray URL fragment. The player, the contribution and the link it pointed at are all unrecoverable, so only the two complete rows are published. Nothing has been reconstructed in the missing row's place.
For Cincinnati, tight end Drew Sample caught the Bengals' only touchdown, a four-yard pass from Browning in the fourth quarter.
Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase
Jefferson and Chase were teammates at LSU before becoming leading NFL receivers. The 2025 game did not become the expected receiver showcase. Minnesota's defensive scoring and short fields reduced its need to force the ball through Jefferson, while Chase lost a fumble forced by Rodgers.
Their individual career reputations should not be used to invent a direct one-on-one matchup. They play against opposing defences, not against each other. A future game with both starting quarterbacks available could create a very different statistical pattern.
Where to find complete Bengals vs Vikings statistics
Use the full box-score interface for:
Passing attempts and completions
Rushing attempts and yards
Targets and receptions
Defensive tackles
Sacks
Interceptions
Fumbles
Return yards
Kicking
Punting
Penalties
Third-down efficiency
Red-zone efficiency
Time of possession
The article summarises the decisive numbers; the interactive box score should retain every qualifying player. Several of those categories were never supplied for this game and are marked as missing inside the console above.
Evidence 4 · Match history
Bengals vs Vikings head-to-head record
The 2025 result left the all-time regular-season series tied.
All-time series, after September 21, 2025
Series category
Record
Total meetings
16
Vikings wins
8
Bengals wins
8
Ties
0
Playoff meetings
0
Vikings home record
7-0
Latest result
Vikings 48-10
Largest recent margin
Vikings by 38
The home and away split is highly unusual. Minnesota has never lost a home game against Cincinnati. The Bengals have produced nearly all their success when hosting the Vikings.
Recent Bengals vs Vikings results
Incomplete source · Gap 2 · Results table pending
The results table is not published because its data rows did not survive. The owner's message contained the header row — Date, Venue, Result — and was then cut off mid-line. No dates, venues or results came through.
The table will be added when the owner re-sends it. It has deliberately not been reconstructed from the prose below, because the prose does not carry the dates and venues the columns need.
Bengals 27, Vikings 24 in overtime in 2023
Incomplete source · Gap 2 · Heading written here
The heading directly above was written for this page, not supplied by the owner. The original was lost with the results table. It states only what the paragraphs beneath it already say: Cincinnati won 27-24 in overtime in 2023. Replace it if the owner's wording turns up.
Browning completed 29 of 42 passes for 324 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Both touchdown passes went to Tee Higgins.
Nick Mullens threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns for Minnesota but was intercepted twice. Ty Chandler added 132 rushing yards and one touchdown.
Higgins tied the game with 39 seconds remaining. A 44-yard Browning completion to Tyler Boyd then set up Evan McPherson's winning field goal in overtime. The Associated Press game recap details the comeback.
Bengals 27, Vikings 24 in 2021
Cincinnati also won the 2021 season opener in overtime.
Overtime twins
The same score. The same winner. Two years apart.
The matching scores and venues make the two results easy to confuse.
Season 2021
27-24 OT
Cincinnati won
Winner
Cincinnati Bengals
Venue
Paul Brown Stadium
Overtime
Yes
Cincinnati won the 2021 season opener in overtime. No individual statistics from this game were documented in the source.
Season 2023
27-24 OT
Cincinnati won
Winner
Cincinnati Bengals
Venue
Paycor Stadium
Overtime
Yes
Browning threw for 324 yards and two touchdowns, both to Tee Higgins. Higgins tied the game with 39 seconds left, and Evan McPherson kicked the winner in overtime.
Paul Brown Stadium and Paycor Stadium are the same venue under different naming agreements. Only the year, the players and the game story change.
Historical meeting archive
Sixteen meetings, split eight and eight
The 8-8 balance
Vikings 8 winsBengals 8 wins
Total meetings 16
Ties 0
Playoff meetings 0
Vikings home record 7-0
Documented on this page 5 of 16
Partial archive
Five of the sixteen meetings are documented; eleven are not. The source records the 2025, 2023, 2021, 2017 and 2009 games. No scores, dates, venues or results survived for the other eleven, so no cards have been generated for them — the summary bar above still shows the true 8-8 balance across all sixteen. Some documented cards are also missing a venue or a leading player, and say so in the card itself.
2020s 3 documented
Season 2025
48-10
Vikings won
Winner
Minnesota Vikings
Venue
U.S. Bank Stadium
Overtime
No
Leading player
Isaiah Rodgers
Open game details
Week 3, September 21, 2025. Minnesota forced five turnovers and returned two for touchdowns. Halftime: Vikings 34, Bengals 3.
Rodgers scored on an 87-yard interception return and a 66-yard fumble return, and forced two fumbles. Will Reichard kicked a franchise-record 62-yard field goal.
Season 2023
27-24 OT
Bengals won
Winner
Cincinnati Bengals
Venue
Paycor Stadium
Overtime
Yes
Leading player
Jake Browning
Open game details
Browning completed 29 of 42 passes for 324 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Both touchdowns went to Tee Higgins.
Nick Mullens threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns for Minnesota but was intercepted twice; Ty Chandler added 132 rushing yards and a touchdown. Evan McPherson kicked the winning field goal in overtime.
Season 2021
27-24 OT
Bengals won
Winner
Cincinnati Bengals
Venue
Paul Brown Stadium
Overtime
Yes
Leading player
Not documented
Open game details
Cincinnati won the 2021 season opener in overtime, at the venue now named Paycor Stadium.
No individual statistics for this game were supplied.
2010s 1 documented
Season 2017
34-7
Vikings won
Winner
Minnesota Vikings
Venue
Minnesota home game — venue not documented
Overtime
Not documented
Leading player
Not documented
Open game details
Recorded in the source only as one of Minnesota's recent home wins in this series: Vikings 34-7 in 2017.
2000s 1 documented
Season 2009
30-10
Vikings won
Winner
Minnesota Vikings
Venue
Minnesota home game — venue not documented
Overtime
Not documented
Leading player
Not documented
Open game details
Recorded in the source only as one of Minnesota's recent home wins in this series: Vikings 30-10 in 2009.
Home-field control
Minnesota's 7-0 home record is one of the clearest trends in this matchup. The seven Vikings home victories include games at different Minnesota stadiums and across several generations of players. Cincinnati has never won the road half of the series.
Recent Minnesota home results have not been close:
Vikings 48-10 in 2025
Vikings 34-7 in 2017
Vikings 30-10 in 2009
Cincinnati's recent victories came at home and were generally much tighter. This is historical context, not a prediction about a future meeting.
Player connections between the teams
The matchup has involved several players with connections to the opposing side. Jake Browning entered the NFL with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and spent time on the Vikings practice squad before joining Cincinnati. His two latest starts against Minnesota produced opposite outcomes:
Jake Browning against Minnesota
Game
Browning result
Passing yards
TD
Int
2023
Win, 27-24 OT
324
2
1
2025
Loss, 48-10
140
1
2
The difference illustrates how heavily game situation and turnovers can affect a quarterback's final line.
Case notes
Frequently asked questions
Incomplete source · Gap 3 · Partial section
This FAQ is incomplete. Only the first question survived the owner's message, and its answer was cut off after the word “Minn”. Every other question and answer was lost. The single question below is answered from the article body on this page; no additional questions have been written, because inventing them would mean inventing the owner's editorial choices.
Who won the latest Bengals vs Vikings game?
Minnesota won. The Vikings beat the Cincinnati Bengals 48-10 at U.S. Bank Stadium on September 21, 2025, leading 34-3 at halftime. Minnesota forced five Cincinnati turnovers and returned two of them for touchdowns.
The brief also asked for a Cincinnati Bengals vs Minnesota Vikings highlights page and individual player pages for Carson Wentz, Jordan Mason, Justin Jefferson and Isaiah Rodgers. None of those pages exist on this site, and this site has no per-player pages at all, so those names are left as plain text or pointed at the squad index rather than linked to a page that would return a 404. The Minnesota Vikings injury report link resolves to /injuries/, which is live.
