DISASTER AVERTED

VIKINGS 19

LIONS 17

Wow. That was close.

This was an unloseable game for the Vikings. Going in. As the game was going on. Late into the 4th quarter. No way this could not go their way. 

So how in the fuck did this game come down to Greg Joseph hitting a 55 yard field goal at the gun? 

For 3 and a half quarters this was playing out, in rather snoozy fashion, as your classic example of an ugly win. The Lions grabbed a 3-0 but the Vikings tied it up immediately, then took the lead, then built on it a little. There was just never a point where I was worried at all about them getting the win.

Then the last 5 minutes happened. We'll get back to that. 

Okay, just a quick recap of the pre-chaos portion of the day. 

The Vikings offense was without Dalvin Cook, but Alexander Mattison did put up over 100 yards (one 48 yard burst accounted for a lot of that), and scored a touchdown on a reception. Justin Jefferson had a big first half. Christian Darrisaw saw some action. Kirk wasn't his sharpest but did get pretty good.pass pro most of the day.

The defense was excellent. They had a few too many missed tackles and gave up a handful of 3rd downs, but they brought good pressure, covered well, and held them to 3s. They also forced a couple of turnovers. Yeah, I know, Just The Lions, but this is 3 games in a row allowing under 20 points.

The offense again stalled in the 2nd half. There were some penalties (including a pair of big BS calls on Chris Herndon). Mattison accumulated yards but never really got anything going consistently. We had a couple dropped passes, one turned into a deflection pick. Playcalling was super vanilla throughout.

But there was just never a point where I felt like this game wasn't comfortably in hand. And when Greg Joseph drilled a 55 yard field goal with under 5 minutes left, that absolutely felt like a dagger and if that wasn't the dagger, then surely DJ Wonnum's 4th down sack a few moments later was.

The Vikings had a 10 point lead. They had the ball at Detroit's 43, with 3 and a half minutes left. Their defense was fully in control. It was absolutely impossible in that moment to think the Vikings were in any danger whatsoever of losing.

But then a pair of nothing Mattison runs happened. And a 3rd down pass attempt was incomplete. And Joseph came up short on a 49 yard field goal. But okay, it's still a 10 point game, and the Lions burned off timeouts.

But the Lions put a little drive together and kicked a field goal. It only took 43 seconds. But okay, it's still a 7 point game and we get the ball back.

But after we got the ball back, a couple runs were stuffed. Then on 3rd down right after the 2 minute warning we run again, cause then even after a punt the Lions will have barely a minute left and no timeouts.. Disaster happened though. Mattison was stood up, and had the ball ripped out. Detroit recovers and in a blink a game that was unloseable and in control was suddenly on the verge.

The defense that had done more than its share all day was put in an awful spot. It took just 3 plays for the Lions to get in the endzone. Then, because Detroit is a winless team on the road with nothing to really lose, they went for 2...and got it. 

In less than 3 minutes of actual game time we had gone from a 10 point lead with the ball on their side of the field to trailing. It was pure shock from my end.

Everything was about 37 seconds away from ending. The game. This season. Quite possibly the Zimmer era (this is the kind of loss that does get coaches fired). A snoozer had swung fully into panic mode.

But hey, we DID still have hope in those 37 seconds. Kirk threw 3 passes, with two big gainers to Thielen. It only got the ball to the Lions 36, but it set up a kick that quite literally may have held the future of the franchise at stake. 

On comes Greg Joseph, whose week 2 miss still lingers. Who just came up short on a shorter field goal minutes earlier. A chaotic finish to this game. 

And maybe it was adrenaline, or the football gods giving us one, or whatever. But Joseph NAILED that thing. Split the uprights with room to spare. Jubilation. Disaster averted. Jobs saved. A season still alive.

The emotional whiplash of these final minutes was unbelievable. Just look at that win probability chart. 

It absolutely should not have come to this. Mike Zimmer's job security has never been so tenuous, and he picked a bad time.to have legit one of his worst games as head coach. Sure his defense was good. But his game management was very bad today. And his inexplicable decision not to put Darrisaw in, but to then put Hill BACK in made no sense. Some of the things Zimmer's detractors hit him with are just narratives, but today he really was annoyingly conservative. Sitting on the ball before halftime was also a first guess mistake. 

 

I'm glad they won though, for sure. I will never turn down an ugly win, even one of the ugliest ever, and any time you can kind of escape like this it feels like found money. This game does nothing to calm the "Fire Zimmers" or even the Kirk haters, but let them bitch and moan while I enjoy the win.

No doubt this level of performance cannot repeat itself going forward. But when things looked at their lowest today this team got it done. They're still fighting.