Kirk Cousins Throws Late TD Pass to K.J. Osborn, Vikings Beat Lions 28-24
The Vikings were toast — until they weren't.
With a little over two minutes remaining in their game against the Lions on Sunday, safety Camryn Bynum was called for defensive holding, which is an automatic first down. The Lions needed one more first down to end the game. Things looked bleak.
The Vikings gave themselves a chance by stopping three runs in a row, setting up fourth and 4 at their 36 yard-line with 1:14 to play. If the Lions went for it — something they had already done six times in the game — and converted, the game would've been over. If they punted and pinned the Vikings deep, Kirk Cousins and Minnesota's offense would've had a long way to go with no timeouts.
Instead, Lions head coach Dan Campbell chose the third option: kicking a long field goal. Austin Seibert, who had missed one attempt and made one already, sent the 54-yarder wide right. All of a sudden, the Vikings had life.
A 28-yard completion from Cousins to K.J. Osborn moved the Vikings into field goal range. They could've played it fairly safely to set up a game-tying attempt from Greg Joseph and tried to win it in overtime. But head coach Kevin O'Connell wasn't thinking that way.
"I wanted to score — I wanted to score a touchdown," O'Connell said. "I wanted to win this football game in front of our fans, in regulation, put maximum pressure on those guys."
So he dialed up an aggressive call. Osborn broke his route towards the front corner of the end zone, ended up wide open, and Cousins made the throw. Touchdown. The crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium, which had watched the home team struggle for much of the afternoon, erupted. Almost out of nowhere, the Vikings had their first lead of the game.
There was still time for the Lions — 45 seconds, to be exact. Jared Goff's second pass of the drive picked up 25 yards, setting Detroit up at midfield. That's when safety Josh Metellus, starting in place of the injured Harrison Smith, decided to end the game himself. Metellus nearly sealed the deal on second down, but he couldn't hang onto a potential interception. On the very next play, Goff was pressured, threw up a prayer, and Metellus came down with it to send the Vikings to an improbable 28-24 victory.
For most of this game, the Lions looked like the better team. They got out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter, with the Vikings' defense looking far too much like it did in the first half of Monday night's loss to the Eagles. Goff seemed to always have a receiver wide open, making his life fairly easy. The Vikings couldn't get pressure on him, either.
But the Vikings persisted. They mounted their first of two comebacks in the first half, tying the score via milestone touchdowns for Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook.
Then, in the second half, the Vikings had to do it again. The Lions pushed their lead back to double digits late in the third quarter on a Jamaal Williams touchdown run, going up 24-14. When Cook fumbled with a minute left in the quarter — a play that caused him to leave the game with a shoulder injury — it started to look, once again, like the Lions were going to pull off the upset.
But the Vikings' defense, which stepped up to hold the Lions scoreless in the fourth quarter, came up with a couple big stops, and an Alexander Mattison touchdown run got the Vikings back within a field goal.
"With the group of guys we have, we’re never out of it," Mattison said. "With the coach we have leading the way, we’re never out of it."
After another defensive stop, the Vikings turned it over on downs. Two plays later, Bynum's penalty happened. Then Campbell made the strange call to attempt a long field goal, and the Vikings stunned the Lions in the final minute.
The end result is all that matters. The Vikings bounced back from last week's loss to the Eagles with another home win over an NFC North foe, making the day an unquestioned success. But with that said, there's a lot the Vikings need to improve going forward. The defense made things far too easy on the Lions, and Cousins and the offense went just 2 for 9 on third down. Frankly, the Vikings got a bit fortunate to escape this game with a win.
They'll take it.
"So proud of our team," O'Connell said. "There was a long list of adversity throughout that football game, dating back to last week. All our guys do is continue to believe in each other. We're going to continue to improve as a football team, but for us to be at our best when it was required and play complementary football the way we did, to finish it, it's good to have that feeling."
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