When Mack Wilson Sr. drilled Sam Darnold for a crushing sack in the second half on Sunday – it felt similar to the hit Kyler Murray endured against the Jets, save for the helmet flying off – the Cardinals' defense was in control. Like control control. Like that confidence that has been growing had reached DefCon 5. In a good way.

The end of the game was hurtful. "At the most crucial time, we didn't make the plays," Wilson said after the loss to the Vikings.

Having Darius Robinson back will help. The Vikings normally score more. They move the ball better. I would guess that the Vikings would rather not meet the Cards in the postseason if it came to that.

More importantly, while there has always been conversation about what the offense is doing and how it has performed, the defense – regardless of Sunday's end – has shown something not a lot of people expected.

"I believe in this unit," cornerback Garrett Williams said. "We're not going to point fingers. We did a lot of really good things. We're not going let one bad half – and I won't even say bad, just a half not up to our expectations – take away from what we have been doing."

-- When the Cardinals scored their touchdown on the Marvin Harrison Jr. catch, they were up 18-6. There is a school of thought for the team to go for two at that point and extend the lead to 14. The Cardinals kicked the extra point, and in hindsight (as with many things), trying to get that additional point mattered.

But in the moment (and later when the Cardinals were up three after a Vikings field goal) it wasn't an option. Asked if there was a thought to going for two, Gannon said "there was no thought there" to trying it.

-- Michael Wilson doesn't make a lot of catches but he's making memorable ones. He had two fantastic grabs on one of the Cardinals' first-half field-goal drives, including a one-handed snare of a tipped Kyler pass to gain 15 yards.

-- James Conner surpassed 1,000 yards from scrimmage this season with 82 total against the Vikings. He was seven yards short coming in. That said, the result continued to show how the Cardinals need 100 scrimmage yards from Conner to be confident in a win.

-- L.J. Collier had a sack for a second straight game for the first time in his career.

-- A very tough day for rookie tight end Tip Reiman, who was called for four penalties, including the last false start when the Cardinals looked like they would score a game-sealing TD (although some were saying it was a bad call.) Reiman was called for three false starts in the game, a tough way to be introduced to the very loud environment.

-- Zay Jones didn't have a catch, but he drew a 38-yard pass interference on a great play call – without the PI, he makes a TD catch probably – that helped the Cardinals score their TD.

-- The Cardinals have now lost 12 straight games in Minnesota. Felt like that streak was gonna end.

-- The Vikings were giving up 74.7 rushing yards a game. The Cardinals churned out 154. An impressive showing, by everyone. Conner was clearly wearing the Vikings down by the end.

-- Murray had a season-high 45 pass attempts, and that doesn't include his handful of scrambles -- so a lot of pass plays called.

-- The reality is, beat the Seahawks next week, and the Cardinals are back in first place and have control of their own destiny, if you're into that cliché. Beating the Vikings would've been helpful. The margin for error shrunk. But it still is a good place to be.

Time to fly home.