All the little things added up in Vikings' loss to the Chiefs
MINNEAPOLIS — Didn’t this game just happen a few weeks ago?
On Sunday at US Bank Stadium the Minnesota Vikings lost 27-20 in a game where you could point the finger at an opening-drive fumble, two key flags (one of which was picked up) or Kevin O’Connell burning through three timeouts too early in the second half.
Or you could look at the Vikings only going 2-for-4 in the red zone and 6-for-14 on third down. Or you could place blame on a few footballs that fell to the ground after hitting the hands of a tight end or running back.
Or you could look at the totality of the quarterback play, which produced just 284 yards on 47 pass attempts.
Choose your own adventure but all of it led to the same place: Another close loss in a game that the Vikings both needed badly and could have had.
Let’s have a look at it all, piece by piece…
The Vikings only had one turnover but it was a big hit. Their eighth lost fumble of the year, which matches all of 2022, came on the first play of the game when tight end Josh Oliver gained 15 yards and had the ball popped out of his hands.
“I was trying to make a play and was doing too much,” Oliver said after the game. “It’s something I try not to do. You have to tuck in when you are in traffic and I didn’t do that today and I let the Vikings down, that’s on me.”
The fumble put the Chiefs is pristine position to start the game and they took advantage with a 45-yard touchdown drive to take an early lead.
The Vikings responded with a quality drive but it ended when a wide third-and-7 pass couldn’t be hauled in by TJ Hockenson.
“I think my ball location tonight was too high,” quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “I felt like it was consistently high and I don't have a great answer for that. But I felt that it was showing up and yeah, maybe catchable, but it shouldn't be that hard on [Hockenson]. The ball needs to be right in their chest. I was frustrated with that.”
After getting a stop and keeping the game to 10-3, the Vikings had another chance at putting the ball in the end zone early in the game and failed. This time a third down throw whizzed by KJ Osborn’s head. The play looked strange, like Osborn wasn’t looking for the ball to make an adjustment. Cousins explained that the play is designed to potentially look his way at a later part in the route.
“I was early, I saw Justin getting doubled and I think in hindsight, I'd probably just take Justin in the flat even though he's doubled because I think he gets the first down,” Cousins said. “I saw him getting doubled and I thought, ‘Let me progress.’ By getting off Justin so quickly I was ahead of where K.J. was, and I felt like, ‘Let me just put the ball out there with touch,’ but I knew that I was ahead of it, so it was a lot to ask of K.J. to get his head around and make that play. I wish I had worked Justin in the flat. I wish I had taken a little longer to get back to K.J. and I wish I had thrown a little more touch and put it out in front of K.J. more. Even with coming through it so quickly, if I put it out in front of him and put some touch on it, I think he still catches it.”
Cousins said after the game that he had about a dozen throws where he wished he had made a different throw or decision.
The Vikings offense did bounce back from its struggles in the red zone with a touchdown to Jordan Addison before the end of the first half. Addison had six catches for 64 yards, almost all of them in big moments, which was particularly big on a day when Justin Jefferson only had three catches for 28 yards and left the game with a hamstring injury in the second half.
“Jordan is the real deal,” Cousins said. “We hit on that draft pick. He's a great player.”
To start the second half, Mahomes converted a third-and-18 by heaving a ball to the middle of the field and receiver Justin Watson pulled it down over Cam Bynum. That kickstarted a touchdown drive, capped by Rashee Rice’s 8-yard touchdown.
The following Vikings three-and-out featured another throw that came close to a chunk play to Hockenson but was a bit out of reach.
“I think we were just on different pages,” Hockenson said. “I thought he was going to put it high and back cause I felt the backer inside and then he put it out in front and it was just kind of like, “Oh s—.” Those things are always tough.”
Mahomes didn’t need an invitation to go up by two scores. He did, however, need a little assistance from a penalty. On fourth-and-1 from the Vikings 48-yard line, the Chiefs went for broke, throwing a deep pass. Harrison Smith was called for pass interference on a play that looked like the receiver may have had more contact than Smith.
“A lot of times I think when you don't get your head around as a defender, I think it becomes a pretty quick trigger there,” O’Connell said. “But I'd like to see that in real time. I know what it felt like in real time. But I've got to take a look at it.”
The play set up a touchdown to Travis Kelce that gave the Chiefs a 27-13 lead.
Overall the Vikings defense gave up 333 yards and only 6.2 yards per drop-back from Mahomes but did allow 9-for-15 on third down and 3-for-3 in the red zone.
“There's a couple plays there that [Mahomes] is famous for, and is the standard of the position for how he's able to overcome some adverse circumstances and get first downs and chunks and things like that but I thought for the most part, we had a good plan,” O’Connell said. “I like the way we're able to get home with some rush without having to send maximum pressure guys and then the timely pressures here and there.”
The Vikings, never ones to go away, came back again with a touchdown drive and brought the game to one score. After a third-and-7 incompletion that Cousins was kicking himself about after the game, they got a delay of game penalty and were set up with fourth-and-12. Cousins lofted the ball in the air toward Addison, who appeared to be held up by the Chiefs’ cornerback. A flag hit the ground and then was picked up, resulting in a turnover on downs.
Asked what he was told about the reasoning for the flag being picked up.
“Not much,” he said. “When the flag came out in the first place, I was not surprised in that moment that that was called a flag. You know, I guess trying to figure out where and when that veered the other way. Want to be careful on this one. But that was very unfortunate.”
By ESPN’s Gamecast metrics, the Chiefs’ odds to win shot from 76% when the Vikings had first down at the KC 22-yard line with 5:37 left to 92% when the flag was picked up.
When the Vikings got the ball back with 1:06 remaining still down seven they had zero timeouts because O’Connell used two of them on substitution issues and another on a failed challenge.
“I absolutely would challenge that again, given the circumstances and kind of what it was in that moment,” O’Connell said. “At the very least, if it is ruled even an incompletion, we get the ball back. And then we had a little bit of a personnel kind of late sub there defensively where we used a timeout to get the right personnel grouping on to try to get that short yardage stop. They ended up kind of going no brainer, no snap, no play, and we got the ball back. You would love to keep all your timeouts, you absolutely would.”
It would have also been beneficial not to use 20 seconds on a 9-yard pass and 15 more on a 3-yard pass, giving the Vikings six seconds to look for a Hail Mary from the 38-yard line. Instead, a sack ended the game.
If you thought the climb from 1-4 to the playoffs was tough right after the loss, the result of the 49ers-Cowboys game couldn’t have added confidence considering the Vikings face San Francisco in two weeks. But they go to Chicago with a chance to win and keep the season on life support.
“My job is to go attack this thing from this very moment forward,” O’Connell said. “I'm going to remain positive through and through because I believe in this group. I believe in our coaches. I believe in this organization. Results just have not gone our way, and I believe my job is to figure out, look very closely at all of these results and continue find ways to coach this team better.”
Certainly there are ways for the team to be better but it has also been their identity this season for games to be decided by things like fumbles, red zone performances, referees and passes that barely bounce of fingertips. That’s the game they have been playing for a very long time now. In fact, they have played one-score games 32 times in their last 40 contests. That doesn’t seem likely to change. They need the little things to go right and the one-score roller coaster to hit a high mark soon or the hole will be too big to climb out of.
