Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson was slow, at times, to get up and even slipped into the blue medical tent at one point during the first half. It was clear that Hockenson, who was limited in practice throughout the week because of a rib injury, was in a world of pain.

Which made Hockenson’s big day all the more impressive, as he helped lead the Vikings to a 27-19 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“That guy’s a fighter,” quarterback Josh Dobbs said.

Hockenson was Dobbs’ favorite target Sunday. He caught 10 passes for 128 yards and scored a touchdown in the first half alone, and in doing so, he became only the second tight end since 1978 to have at least 10 catches, 100 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in a single half, per Elias Sports Bureau.

“To be honest with you, I kind of blacked out,” Hockenson said. “It was just one of those things where you’re just playing, you’re focused on every play, the ball keeps coming to you, and I was kind of reading the defenses real well and just feeling it a little bit.”

Hockenson finished the day with 11 catches for 134 yards, the second most in his career for both stat categories.

His longest reception of the day was a 28-yard touchdown strike from Dobbs in which he caught the ball a few yards short of the end zone and fought off cornerback Lonnie Johnson Jr. for a touchdown in the waning seconds of the first half to open up a commanding lead for the Vikings.

“For him to be able to get open, get into that little seam, and for me to be able to put the ball over (Johnson), it was a huge play,” Dobbs said.

Hockenson also played a pivotal role earlier in the second quarter, helping lead to the Vikings’ first two touchdowns of the day. The 26-year-old grabbed a a third-down pass from Dobbs, bringing it down for 24 yards, then hauled in another short pass to help set up running back Ty Chandler’s first career touchdown.

On the next drive, Hockenson had a 13-yard reception and a 21-yard reception, after which he was shaken up and briefly had to leave the field. Dobbs wound up scrambling into the end zone on that drive for the Vikings’ second touchdown of the day.

Coach Kevin O’Connell said the Vikings tried to do some mixing and matching with their personnel to ensure Hockenson would be on the field to make some of those huge plays.

And he sure delivered.

“T.J. wanted to be out there for everything,” O’Connell said. “He was out there, had some big blocks in the run game, and just all the way around, T.J. was phenomenal today.”

While Hockenson said he knew his coaches wanted to protect him a little bit, he said he kept telling them that he wanted to be out on the field as much as he possibly could.

A win, he said, “helps every bruise.”

“You get a hit a few times, you feel it. But at end of the day, you get back up and you want to go back,” he said. “As much as it hurt, you just want to go back in and show them that even at 80 percent, you can still do this. I just wanted to go out there and play with my guys. They all balled today.”

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