Justin Jefferson wanted more calls against Lions: 'They held us a lot'

Detroit's physicality in man coverage was a factor in the Vikings' rough game.

Jan 5, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Lions cornerback Amik Robertson (21) breaks up a pass in the end zone intended for Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) in the second quarter at Ford Field. / Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

He doesn't think it's the reason why the Vikings lost on Sunday night, but Justin Jefferson believes the Lions' defensive backs should've been called for more penalties in the game.

Detroit played very physically in man coverage all night, which was expected to be the case. They were flagged four times for defensive holding and twice for illegal contact, with four of those six fouls committed by defensive backs. Jefferson thought there should've been more.

"We felt like some of the calls that should've been called out there didn't get called," he said. "They held us a lot. A lot of calls that were left out there. But that's not something that we're looking to, that we're gonna put the blame on. We still needed to go out there and execute the plays that we had. We still had opportunities to go out there and score. We was in the red zone four times and didn't score. You're not gonna win games like that. We just didn't do a good enough job tonight."

Coming into this game, the Lions had been called for defensive pass interference and defensive holding more than any other team in the league. The Vikings had also drawn more DPI flags on opponents than any other team, while Brad Rogers' officiating crew had thrown more of them than any other crew. The Lions were dinged a handful of times for defensive holding and illegal contact, but not once for pass interference.

One would have to really study the all-22 tape to get a better sense of the situation, but at least in real time, it did feel a bit like the Lions' plan was to be very physical and dare the refs to throw their flags. Give credit to Detroit cornerbacks Amik Robertson (who spent much of the night against Jefferson), Terrion Arnold, and Kindle Vildor, because the plan worked.

"Clearly they had a — it was a physical game on the outside, there was a lot of challenging, guys coming up and playing man-to-man," Kevin O'Connell said. "It was a physical game and required some pretty detailed pitching and catching and also execution of our offense against certain looks, and we just seemed to be a play away for much of the day."

The refs appeared to miss a facemask grab and a pass interference on the Lions in the game. There may have been other borderline moments between Detroit defensive backs and Vikings receivers. But there were undoubtedly borderline calls or no-calls that went the other way, too. Like Jefferson said, the refs weren't why Minnesota lost this game. They lost because they had four consecutive trips to the red zone and came away with six total points on a brutal night for Sam Darnold.

“I thought we had some opportunities and then some other times they did some good things in man coverage and got us off our first or second reads," O'Connell said. "Just didn’t put the ball in the end zone at a level that we’ve been doing. We’ve been at a pretty strong clip down there finishing with touchdowns over the last six, seven weeks or so and that did not happen tonight. We have to take a look at it and be ready to try to improve immediately."

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