Vikings Blow Two-Score Lead, Fall to Bengals in Overtime Thriller
That one's going to sting for a while.
The Vikings had a two-score lead entering the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against the Bengals, but missed all kinds of opportunities on both sides of the ball and wound up losing 27-24 in an overtime thriller. With the loss, they fell to 7-7 and saw their playoff odds drop back down to roughly a coin flip. Had they made one extra play and won the game, the odds would've been up near 75 percent.
It was a wild afternoon in Cincinnati as two backup quarterbacks duked it out. Nick Mullens threw two awful interceptions in the first half and later had a pick-six overturned by an offsides penalty, but he also threw for 303 yards and a pair of improbable touchdowns to Jordan Addison. Jake Browning threw a pick directly to Akayleb Evans at one point, but he threw for 324 yards and two scores and made all kinds of impressive plays outside the pocket — including the game-winner.
Approaching the halfway point of OT, the Bengals faced a third and 9 from their own 43. Browning escaped the pocket, rolled to the right, and threw a perfect pass to Tyler Boyd for a 44-yard gain that set up an easy Evan McPherson field goal to win it.
That's not the play the Vikings will be thinking about most, though. A little over a minute earlier, their offense faced third and 1 on the edge of field goal range and tried a tush push with Mullens. He didn't get it. Then they tried it again on fourth down, but Mullens didn't handle the snap cleanly and he didn't even come close. So instead of Greg Joseph getting a chance to kick a game-winner, the Vikings turned it over on downs.
Interestingly, the player the Vikings put behind Mullens on the two failed sneaks was wide receiver Brandon Powell — one of the smallest guys on the roster at 5'8", 181 pounds. Hindsight is always 20/20, but should the Vikings have used someone a bit bigger in that role? Or should they have just given it to Ty Chandler — who ran for 132 yards and a touchdown — at least once?
This was a rough collapse from the Vikings. Offensively, they had the two Mullens interceptions in the red zone in the first half, two three-and-outs in the fourth quarter, and the failed sneaks in overtime. Defensively, Brian Flores' group fell apart after only giving up three points in the first three quarters. The Bengals had touchdown drives of 75, 74, and 75 yards in the second half to take a 17-3 game into overtime at 24-24. Flores seemed to get a bit too passive with his zone looks, but there were also times where he sent pressure after Browning and it didn't get home.
The Vikings had so many opportunities to win this one. Ivan Pace Jr. nearly stuffed Joe Mixon on the Bengals' second touchdown. Evans got mossed and Mekhi Blackmon bizarrely stopped playing on Tee Higgins' absurd game-tying touchdown. Byron Murphy Jr. was inches from breaking up the decisive pass to Boyd.
In the end, the Vikings probably deserved to lose. Evans got away with what looked like clear pass interference on the opening possession of overtime. Kevin O'Connell will take heat for the sneak calls and once again being unable to extend a lead and put a team away. The Mullens INTs were bad and there could've easily been one or two more. The defense completely fell apart in the fourth quarter and overtime.
That's how the Vikings managed to lose on a day where they had five sacks — two of them by Danielle Hunter — on defense and 424 yards of offense behind big performances from Chandler, Addison, Justin Jefferson, and T.J. Hockenson.
The good news is that even at 7-7, the Vikings still occupy a playoff spot and still control their own destiny. This avoidable loss just puts a lot more pressure on next Sunday's Christmas Eve showdown against the Lions.
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