No Longer Perfect

LIONS 31

VIKINGS 29

The Vikings aren't actually any good. Their 5-0 start was a mirage, and now they are going to sink out of the playoff race. And the Lions are the best team in the NFL and a lock for the Super Bowl.

Well, those are all the narratives you can expect to hear ad nauseum now, since the Vikings lost their 1st game of the season, on a field goal in the final seconds to the Detroit Darlings.

I picked the Vikings to lose this game, just because they aren't going to win every game, and this seemed like a logical one to drop. But it was within the Vikings grasp a few times, so this will go down as one that got away.

As it has been all season, the Vikings started fast. Crazy Dan Campbell illogical ran a fake punt on the opening drive, which was stuffed, handing the Vikings superb field position. They quickly cashed in as Aaron Jones busted a long TD run.

The defense forced a for real punt, and the Vikings moved just close enough for Will Reichard to boom a 57-yard field goal. So, 10-0 and things were looking good.

Unfortunately, the Vikings then had their worst quarter of the season.

Early in the 2nd, the Lions got on the board quickly on a long Jahmyr Gibbs run. Then they quickly scored again on the next drive. Then Sam Darnold threw a terrible interception to nuke the next drive. And Detroit drove, again with little resistance, to a third touchdown just before halftime.

It was a complete meltdown on defense. And the offenses inability to keep up looked to have this game getting out of hand.

But the Vikings did respond after halftime. The struggling Darnold, and the stifled run game got going. For one thing, they stopped running right, and stopped having unforced penalties. And Darnold threw his best pass of the day, a 25-yard dart into the endzone for Justin Jefferson.

The defensive implosion wasn't over. The Lions drove to one more touchdown to go back up 11. But that was their last endzone trip of the day.

But the Vikings offense also never saw the endzone again. A pair of 4th quarter drives neared the redzone, but Darnold took a couple of bad sacks that killed drives and forced us to settle for field goals.

Still, the Vikings' defense had awoken some, getting to Jared Goff a few times, and then they made a massive play. After cutting the score to 28-23, Josh Metellus knocked the ball loose from David Montgomery. Ivan Pace scooped up the ball and raced down the sideline for the touchdown. All of a sudden, the Vikings had the lead. Crucially, they did not get the 2-point conversion, but that seemed like it might not matter when an Andrew Van Ginkel sack forced a Lions punt with just 4 minutes left.

The Vikings were in this position against both the 49ers and Packers, needing a late drive not to take the lead but to preserve the lead and ice the game. They succeeded in those games. But not today. This time, a pair of short runs and then a Darnold misfire meant a punt with still plenty of time left for the Lions to go get a field goal.

And sadly, the defense that made a few plays to get the Vikings in position to win now reverted to its 2nd quarter self. It took just 4 plays for the Lions to go 48 yards into pretty easy field goal range. And since we missed the 2, they merely needed to run the clock and kick to win. And they did. The field goal split the uprights. 

We did have a few seconds left, but that amounted to nothing. So we lost.

It's very disappointing to lose this game, even if I did pick the Vikings to lose. They were going to lose a game, guys. Sucks they had a chance to secure the win on both ends and neither the offense or defense came through.

A win would have given the Vikings a real stranglehold on both the division and conference. But I do think it says something about this team that they were able to hang in there and get a late lead in a game where they made so many mistakes, and against a good team.

Keep some perspective. Little was expected from this team, and they got through easily the hardest stretch of their schedule 5-1. The next 4 games are Rams, Colts, Jaguars, Titans. None of those teams can do what the Lions can. Darnold bounced back some today. You WILL have TJ Hockenson for at least some of those games (I thought it was a big mistake not activating him for this game). There's no reason you can't be sitting at 9-1 heading to Chicago the weekend before Thanksgiving. 

Expectations have changed. This is a legit very good team, and a definite playoff team. No reason they can't get up to 12 or 13 wins with the remaining schedule. Will that be enough to win the division? Who knows. But one frustrating loss does not change anything. There is a lot of fun left to be had the rest of the season.