How the Vikings lost to the Lions despite historic offensive day
It’s never good when the factoids come out.
For example, per ESPN, Kirk Cousins was the first quarterback in five years to throw for 400 yards, complete 75% of his passes, throw zero interceptions and lose. The Minnesota Vikings have now given up 400-plus yards in five straight games, marking the longest streak in franchise history.
You’d be hard pressed to find two more telling statistics than those when it comes to the Vikings’ 34-23 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Sunday.
How did this bizarre dichotomy happen? Let’s have a look…
Coverage issues
From the outset, it was bound to be a long day for the Vikings’ secondary. On the second drive, Goff threw a 41-yard touchdown to rookie Jameson Williams, who was running wide open in the Vikings’ defensive backfield.
“It sounds like we were in kind of a quarters coverage structure, and they were just able to get one of our safeties to nail down and opened up the explosive,” O’Connell said.
Corner Cam Dantzler, returning from IR and playing for the first time since Week 9, did not follow Williams as he ran a post route. Cam Bynum dropped out of the deep coverage to pay attention to a crossing route, leaving Williams in free space.
The Lions’ attack wasn’t just made up of a long Williams touchdown and a 48-yard TD to DJ Chark. They ended the day with eight receivers that had at least one catch of 10-plus yards.
“We need to take a look at what we can do to potentially help our guys be in a position to make more plays, be a little bit more aggressive possibly, but ultimately I think we need to generate more rush however we do it,” O’Connell said. “Then just try to limit explosives. And what that looks like, it’s a variety of things, but I think if we’re doing our jobs effectively we’ve got to take a look at it to try to improve our football team.”
The Vikings have notably been averse to blitzing this year. If there was a team to send extra pressure, it should have been the Lions considering Goff averaged just 5.8 yards per pass attempt while under duress coming into Sunday, per PFF.
Goff finished the day with zero times sacked, only three QB hits and with a 120.7 QB rating.
A fumble, special teams, coaching decisions
Vikings-Lions was a back-and-forth affair until one play helped Detroit gain an advantage that they would not cede. With 1:06 remaining in the first half and the Vikings down by seven, O’Connell dialed up a halfback pass. Dalvin Cook got hit quickly in the backfield and fumbled the ball, keeping the score at a seven-point deficit.
“We had some interior penetration on the play and Dalvin was actually going to attempt to throw that football to Johnny Mundt and he was open in the back,” O’Connell said. “We just wanted to make sure number one there was no penetration there and ultimately trying to be aggressive in that moment. With goal line defense in there, not a lot runs from the three-yard line and we had to play setup, just didn’t execute and the ball went the other way. It was a critical, critical error, we got to go back and look at it. I’m always going to rely on our guys to make that play and execute in that moment. But ultimately huge play in the game.”
O’Connell said he had no regrets about making the call.
“We practiced it quite a bit,” he said. “I felt comfortable with him executing that play in that moment.”
That wasn’t the only risky call that went against O’Connell. Detroit’s first score of the game came after the Vikings failed on a fourth-and-1 run up the middle in their own territory.
“I felt like we needed to be aggressive today,” O’Connell said. “I felt like that scenario with that fourth-and-1, we had an opportunity to continue that drive. I’ve got a lot of confidence in our guys and expect in that situation regardless, that we can potentially try to get a yard right there. We had a play with some different variances to it, depending on how they lined up, and it ended up being a play where we thought we could get (Vikings RB) Dalvin (Cook) kind of in a space one-on-one, maybe with the corner to try and get a yard. They just made a play.”
The other notable miscue came on special teams, which hasn’t often happened against the Vikings this year. They allowed a fake punt to turn into a 42-yard run and eventually a Lions touchdown that put the cats ahead 21-7.
“Huge play,” O’Connell said. “A lot of respect for that. The special teams coordinator over there we knew at some point, it’s pretty well documented that they’re going to try and steal a possession at some point. And they were able to do that against us which was unfortunate.”
The Lions did not slow Jefferson this time
The last time the Lions played against Justin Jefferson, they gave up just 14 yards on three catches. Jefferson indicated that the Vikings had a plan to get him more opportunities this time. And boy did they ever. He left Ford Field with the franchise single-game record for receiving yards.
“In Week 3, I think there were eight pass interference, holding-type calls….We felt that the League acknowledged that there were probably a few more as well, so that can always impact things,” Cousins said. “They didn’t have as many of those, but it all works together. You’ve got to have great play design, you’ve got to have great protection, you’ve got to be able to make the throw and you’ve got to have the other guys doing their part to threaten the defense, and then Justin has to be special. And when it all comes together, that’s when you get to see him do what he does.”
Sunday marked the eighth time Jefferson has gone over 100 yards this season and the third over 150.
“I think he is just as talented as anybody I have ever been around,” O’Connell said. “Then he’s an ultimate, ultimate competitor. Had a great week of preparation, he was dialed-in from the jump. And then ultimately just trying to do whatever he could to make the plays required.”
Amazingly, he could have had even more yardage had he not errantly been ruled out of bounds on a play that looked like a 71-yard touchdown. He was determined out of bounds after 39 yards but replay appeared to show him keeping his feet in bounds.
Lack of running game
In Dalvin Cook’s career, he has only had two games where he averaged fewer yards per carry than on Sunday against the Lions. Cook ran 15 times for just 23 yards.
“We’ve tried to be consistent with it and have been able to grind out some 25, 27, 28-plus carry type of games that four or five a carry,” O’Connell said. “It’s one thing to not really have those explosives, but it’s another thing to have the negatives. I think we had five today, so first and foremost, we’ve got to eliminate the negatives in the run game.”
Cook’s longest run was five yards. Alexander Mattison saw two carries for minus-1 yards.
Finding other weapons
Sunday’s game was hardly the first time Jefferson has dominated but it was the Vikings’ best all-around game with tight end TJ Hockenson picking up 77 yards on six receptions, Adam Thielen gaining 65 yards and scoring a touchdown and KJ Osborn getting into the mix with a touchdown as well.
“I think we’re at our best when we can kind of get all of those guys contributing,” O’Connell said. “We’ll look to continue to do that in the weeks ahead.”
Jalen Reagor, who O’Connell said he wanted to see more, was targeted just once at the end of the game but was on the field for an early third down.
On Cousins’ performance in particular, his 425 yards tied for the fourth most of his career and he posted his highest single-game QB rating of the season.
“I thought he was attempting to will our football team to a victory,” O’Connell said.
Missing pieces
The Vikings were without three starters against the Lions: LT Christian Darrisaw, C Garrett Bradbury and S Harrison Smith.
O’Connell repeated what he said last week: That the Vikings are being extra cautious with injuries knowing that they are in position to get as healthy as possible down the stretch and into the playoffs.
“We were just really in a game where we were coming in with everything we had,” O’Connell said. “We just wanted to be smart as we get into December with some of our players that have been banged up, but no real long term concerns with either of those two players.”
Credit the Lions
The Lions have now won five of their last six games and become one of the best offenses in the NFL. After starting 1-6, they have put their hat back in the ring for the playoffs by winning five of the last six games.
“Now we’re making the play, we’re making the one extra play,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. “And we’re able to overcome some of these mistakes we were making earlier…Our guys, they know they belong. They know they belong and they know when they play football like we’ve been playing the last six weeks we can play with anybody. That’s the truth.”
Related: 5 things that stood out in the Vikings' loss to the Lions
Related: Did the refs blow it? Justin Jefferson says 'give me my TD'
