Another tight win for the Vikings that shouldn't have been close
Vikings dominated the Panthers but left the door open one too many times. Still, they found a way to get to 3-3 at the bye
By Matthew Coller
What did Yogi Berra say? Deja Vu, all over again?
For the second straight week, the Minnesota Vikings beat down a struggling opponent for nearly an entire game and then allowed them to waltz back into it in the final moments. Only this time, kicker Greg Joseph missed wide right, sending a game that had no business being close into overtime.
The Vikings’ offense came through with an OT touchdown drive, sending them into the bye week at 3-3 but the victory rings hallow after it teased what they can be offensively and showed all of their weaknesses. They can now go into the bye week with their season still alive and put two weeks of effort into figuring out how, exactly, they’re going to compete with the likes of Dallas, Baltimore, Los Angeles in Green Bay in the pivotal portion of the schedule. Certainly not by repeating the effort of the last two weeks.
Carolina quarterback Sam Darnold started the game exactly the way Sam Darnold has played for most of his career: With a baffling interception. On the first play from scrimmage, he roamed around the pocket looking for a receiver and tossed it short of his man and into the hands of corner Bashaud Breeland.
Given an opportunity to put the Panthers down right away, the Vikings played cautiously and elected to kick a 25-yard field goal on fourth-and-4.
On the following offensive possession, Justin Jefferson fumbled on a quick pass, leading to a quick Panthers touchdown.
That was all the Panthers would get offensively for a long time, yet the Vikings found every single way under the sun to keep them in the game during the first half and into the third quarter.
Kirk Cousins overthrew Jefferson on what would have been a walk-in touchdown from about 40 yards out. Then the Vikings kicked another 25-yard field goal, this time on fourth-and-2.
They got things together on the next drive, picking up 85 yards on a nine-play drive that was driven by two 20-plus yard Adam Thielen receptions.
Meanwhile Darnold continued to struggle, at one point reaching a 0.0 quarterback rating. The best drive he put together in the first half went 38 yards. Of course, he got a little help with multiple drops from his receivers and penalties from his offensive line.
The Vikings went three-and-out on the two drives following their touchdown before peaking in terms of bizarre decision making at the end of the half. Last week Mike Zimmer seemed perplexed at why he was questioned about running the clock out on himself at the end of the first half but this time his strategy changed a little with the same amount of time left. The Vikings threw on first down. Then they ran and called a timeout. Then they committed a penalty and decided to call it a day and go into the half up 12-10.
Leading up to the matchup in Carolina, Zimmer talked about scripting the plays coming out of halftime in attempts to jolt the offense back alive after four straight weeks of not scoring touchdowns in the second half. That backfired immediately. Oli Udoh committed a holding penalty and Cousins threw the ball backward out of bounds for a 7-yard loss, forcing the Vikings to put. On the next drive, Cousins looked hesitant and threw back-to-back incompletions before calamity struck.
The Vikings, who played the game with a MACtion flare for the details, allowed a free Panthers rusher to block Jordan Berry’s punt. They recovered and walked into the end zone to put Carolina up 17-12 late in the third quarter.
To recap: Sam Darnold was 6-for-20 passing and his team was winning. Oh and he called back-to-back timeouts, which isn’t allowed and resulted in a delay of game.
The blocked punt seemed to shock the Vikings out of their funk, which had lasted going back to the 14-7 loss to the Browns.
CJ Ham shocked the Panthers with a 30-yard gain, Tyler Conklin was left wide open for 24 yards and Dalvin Cook put an exclamation point on the drive with a 15-yard touchdown run.
On one of Darnold’s best throws of the day, receiver DJ Moore was stripped and immediately gave the Vikings the ball right back. Thus Carolina continued to prove that their first few weeks of success were merely a product of schedule and not a sign they were on the rise.
Cousins took advantage right away, finding Thielen for a 35-yard gain and then Thielen made a fantastic touchdown catch (in the same place he had a no-catch in 2017 that cost the Vikings in Carolina). It could be considered progress that the Vikings worked the ball to Thielen often on Sunday rather than waiting until the final drive, as they did in Detroit.
Of course, there was a good case for the Vikings to go for two points to aim for a 9-point lead but they kicked the extra point instead to keep Carolina within one score. That would come into play later…
It looked like it wouldn’t matter. Carolina dropped another pass and then dialed up a screen pass on third-and-8 for nothing and punted.
The shackles officially came off the Vikings’ offense early in the fourth quarter when Jefferson scampered for a 15-yard gain and then Cousins hit his superstar receiver on a contested ball down the sideline for 26 yards. But the Vikings couldn’t fully put the final nail in the coffin, failing on a deep pass to Jefferson on third down. Greg Joseph knocked down a field goal to make it 28-17.
Still with time left in the fourth quarter for a comeback, Darnold was stripped by Dalvin Tomlinson, giving the Vikings a chance to officially put the game away.
That’s just not who the Vikings have been this year though. They played it safe, running twice with Cook, and then incompleted a pass to set up a Greg Joseph field goal attempt. He missed from 50, opening the door for a mad Panthers dash.
And dash they did. Darnold scrambled for 30 yards and then hit on a 24-yard throw to Moore, setting up first-and-goal. But in extremely Panthers fashion, they attempted an end around and incompleted two passes and kicked a field goal to cut the Vikings’ lead to eight.
Darnold stat update: 12-for-31 with a 37.6 rating.
The Vikings should have closed things out with a 40-yard pass to Tyler Conklin on a Cousins rollout but in a desperate attempt to allow Darnold to lead a comeback, they ran twice and threw a short pass and then punted.
Just when it appeared the Panthers were cooked, Darnold completed his best pass of the day by a country mile. On fourth-and-10, he found tight end Ian Thomas for a 41-yard gain to put Carolina in Vikings territory. Darnold hit on another fourth down, firing a bullet for 25 yards to DJ Moore, who finally caught the ball after several very bad drops, bringing the Panthers to the 7-yard line.
The Vikings completed the meltdown by leaving Robby Anderson wide open for a touchdown to bring the score within two. Carolina then shovel-passed their way to a tie ballgame at 28-28.
Darnold stat update: Even after a miraculous drive, he was still 17-for-41 with 207 yards and a 55.6 QB rating. Yet the game was tied.
In the exact same scenario as last week, Cousins again found a way to get the ball to the other side of the field — this time by scrambling for 16 yards and then hitting KJ Osborn underneath. The Panthers sent an all-out blitz but the Vikings had an answer, getting into Greg Joseph’s range.
He missed.
In overtime, the Vikings won the coin flip. Don’t tell me they haven’t gotten any breaks this year.
On third down, Cousins completed a pass on the run to KJ Osborn to set up the Vikings on the Panthers’ side of the field. Cousins found Osborn deep and he stretched the ball out for a game-winning touchdown.
With the win, the Vikings get to go forward. They can now talk about fighting for playoff position in the second half of their schedule. But they can’t walk away from Carolina thinking that this type of performance is going to win them many games down the stretch or feel like everything is well. They can feel like a team that’s had breaks go both ways and belongs right in the middle with much to improve if they want to play in January.
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Lean into the Kirk. He is vastly outproducing the run game and kicker. Hat tip to the OL today.
To summarize: Kirk is clutch and Zimmer is not. Really not much else to say. Just would love a week without passive aggressive comments directed at Kirk. I think he’s earned it.