After intercepting Jameis Winston three times in a Week 3 victory, Minnesota Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes spoke about how takeaways can be contagious.
So, too, it appears, are dropped interceptions.
Minnesota lost the turnover battle 3-0 on Sunday in its 14-7 loss to the Detroit Lions but had ample opportunities to take the ball away.
“Part of the deal,” said head coach Mike Zimmer, “I felt like we had to win the turnover battle today going into the football game, and we didn’t do that.”
The Vikings had four excellent chances to intercept Matthew Stafford’s passes — one in each quarter. Rhodes nearly picked off the Detroit quarterback on the first drive of the game when he got inside position on Marvin Jones and Stafford threw the ball late.
“We missed out on a lot of turnovers,” said Rhodes, who had a career-high five interceptions last year, “but like I said, we have to look at the film and correct where we messed up at and definitely need to win the turnover battle.”
If Rhodes made the interception, he likely would have fallen out of bounds at the Vikings 48-yard line. Detroit ended up punting on the next play, gaining them 22 yards of field position.
Opportunity No. 2 came in the second quarter when Anthony Barr jumped a route on 2nd and long. Barr made a great read on Stafford’s pass to Eric Ebron but came up just shy as he dove to his right. Detroit punted two plays later to pin the Vikings at their own 18, a 39-yard swing in field position.
“Obviously we want to catch the football when we’ve got the chance,” Zimmer said. “Stafford is an excellent quarterback, and he’s not really going to throw them to us.”
The third quarter miss might have been the most detrimental to the Vikings. With Detroit trailing by one and facing a 1st and goal, Trae Waynes did a great job covering T.J. Jones while Stafford scrambled to his left, then dove in front of Stafford’s pass and got both hands on it for the break-up.
If Waynes intercepts the pass, the Vikings keep the lead and take the ball back. As it was, Detroit scored on the next play, converted a two-point conversion and took a seven-point lead.
“It would’ve been a tough play,” said Zimmer of Waynes’ effort. The third-year corner, who intercepted Winston last week, reacted as if he should have made the play.
Finally, Mackensie Alexander had a ball go off his hands along the sideline early in the fourth quarter.
The interception would have required some good footwork by Alexander to get his feet down, but he didn’t have to deal with any bodies around him and had both hands around the ball. This turned out to be a huge field position swing as former Vikings punter Jeff Locke proceeded to pin Minnesota at its own five-yard line — 50 yards beyond where Alexander nearly caught the ball.
All together, the Vikings lost approximately 129 yards of field position, not to mention eight points, by failing to bring in four errant Stafford passes.
While intercepting all four would have been a lot to ask, even two or three would have helped counteract the short fields Minnesota gave Detroit with its three fumbles.
“When you turn the ball over three times and you don’t get any on defense,” said Zimmer, “you really don’t have much of an opportunity to win.”
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