The Minnesota Vikings lost their undefeated season, falling to the division-favorite Detroit Lions 31-29. The Vikings started the game off hot again, putting up 10 points before the quarter ended. Most would’ve expected the Vikings to continue to pile up points like they had before. Instead, the Lions counterpunched and took a 21-10 lead before the half was over.
Though the team would twice rally back from 11-point deficits, even taking the lead late in the fourth quarter, the Lions’ offense and their domination in the middle of the game proved to be too much for the Vikings to overcome as they fell victim to a game-winning field goal on a last-second drive engineered by the Lions’ offense.
Here are some numbers to break down the game.
58-3
Through the first six weeks of the season, the Vikings are outscoring opponents 58-3 in the first quarter. They kept this trend going by jumping to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Vikings started hot, forcing the Lions into a fourth-and-long, where Detroit decided to go for a surprise fake punt. The Vikings sniffed it out and capitalized with a 34-yard Aaron Jones touchdown run.
Minnesota kept the good momentum going with another three-and-out, and the defense was able to stifle Detroit’s high-powered offense. The offense moved the ball far enough for Will Reichard to bury a 57-yard kick to make it 10-0.
5:10
The Vikings burned all three of their first-half timeouts with just 5:10 left in the first quarter. Since the start of the Kevin O’Connell era, the Vikings have always had trouble with time management, and this manifested again in the first quarter as they wasted all three timeouts. Twice, the team had to call timeouts pre-snap, once to stop a potential delay of game and another to avoid drawing a flag for too many men on the field.
Minnesota challenged and lost on Harrison Phillips‘ forced fumble, which would have extended the momentum and allowed Minnesota’s offense to take over deep into Lions territory. Instead, losing all three timeouts would prove catastrophic. At the end of the half, Detroit had possession of the lead, the ball, and the clock to boot, and they were able to wind down the clock to less than 30 seconds as they took a two-score lead and gave the Vikings no time.
4
The Vikings were dominated in the middle period of the game, allowing the Lions to score four touchdowns in the second and third quarters. Minnesota’s defense came out hot with two consecutive three-and-outs in the first quarter, dominating the proceedings early. That changed starting in the second quarter when the Lions rattled off four scoring drives in a row.
It started when Jahmyr Gibbs ran for a 45-yard score. After that, it felt like the Lions had figured out this Brian Flores defense that has given so many coaches and coordinators fits. They were able to hit Amon-Ra St. Brown over the top for a 35-yard touchdown on a perfectly executed cover-0 pickup and then put in another score before the end of the half to make it a two-possession game when Gibbs and the Lions offense caught everyone on the defense off guard with an eight-yard touchdown run on third-and-seven.
While the offense made it a one-possession game again after their first drive of the half, the Lions, in turn, responded with a 21-yard score to Kalif Raymond on a crossing route. While the offense and defense did play much better in the fourth quarter with key stops and scores, it was too little, too late; their inability to control the middle two quarters and those four drives will haunt them.
37:12
It took 37 minutes and 12 seconds of game time before the Vikings forced Jared Goff into his first incompletion. Before the game, everyone had expected that the way for the Vikings to get Goff and Detroit’s offense to be a bit more stagnant would be to get them off rhythm early. They could not do this as Goff went 15 for 15 to start the game and was incredibly efficient. It wasn’t until Pat Jones II’s pass deflection that Goff had his first incompletion.
While the blitzes and pressures that Flores had dialed up early did seem to create some sort of frustration for the Lions’ offense and play-caller Ben Johnson on the first drive. They were quickly able to adapt and figure out how to negate the pressure bringing in an extra man in on protection.
For example, Tim Patrick set the edge on the St. Brown touchdown to nullify the extra pass rusher and give Goff time with a clean pocket when the Vikings were in a cover 0 look. Goff got in a rhythm and hit wide-open receivers. Minnesota’s inability to get pressure during this time, combined with the Lions’ running game keeping them ahead of the sticks, made Goff’s job much easier.
1
O’Connell has now has his first loss when the Vikings either win or tie the turnover battle, breaking his 22-0 record in these such games. The offense stagnated in the second quarter, and when it looked like they were finally moving the ball and making some progress, Darnold threw an interception to Brian Branch, who undercut a Jordan Addison route for an interception.
The Vikings got a takeaway and scored points of their own. Ivan Pace Jr. scooped and scored a David Montgomery fumble to give them the lead with under six minutes left in the fourth quarter. Per ESPN’s metrics, this play flipped the win predictor 42.8% in Minnesota’s favor. The offense couldn’t convert the following two-point conversion to make it a three-point game. The defense got another stop with around four minutes and 20 seconds left in the game.
The offense followed with a subsequent three-and-out, which gifted the Lions the ball back. The Lions were then able to salt the game away after Jake Bates hit a game-winning 44-yard kick, giving the Vikings the ball with just 15 seconds left.
BONUS
Minnesota’s loss was the first time an undefeated team lost after their bye week at home. Previous teams were 9-0 and won by an average of 19.8 points.
