GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The immediate taste will be bitter, in the hours after a game the Minnesota Vikings played well enough to take from the Arizona Cardinals and could have easily won. The Vikings fumbled three times in Cardinals territory, once on a clumsy reverse and once on the game's final play as Teddy Bridgewater tried to fire the ball out of bounds, and it kept them from going to 9-4 even though they were without three of their best defensive players.
But past the initial sting of the Vikings' 23-20 loss to the Cardinals on Thursday night, there could be a more important, longer-lasting benefit to what happened in the desert.