Film review: How the fateful final drive and a bad first half cost the Vikings
The Vikings staked the Lions to a 20-6 lead at halftime

By Sam Ekstrom
EAGAN/ZOOM — In search of a fast start against the league’s worst team, the Minnesota Vikings failed to score a touchdown in the first half.
In need of a game-ending stop against the league’s worst team, the Vikings allowed a walkoff touchdown.
The lesson: When you fail to show up for one half against a bad team, you leave yourself susceptible to the randomness of a last-second drive that can just as easily go the wrong way whether you’re facing Cooper Rush, Sam Darnold or Jared Goff.
Today’s film looks into how the Vikings managed to give Detroit a season-high 14-point lead and how they wobbled on the game-ending drive to lose a 29-27 heartbreaker.
Skittish Cousins
It’s pretty incriminating that five of Minnesota’s first six drives wound up in Detroit territory yet resulted in six total points.
The Vikings only converted one of six third downs in the first half, and that was on a third-and-1 Alexander Mattison run up the middle.
It’s a little tough to say, though, that Klint Kubiak wasn’t aggressive enough with the play-calling early on. The Vikings tried a deep shot down the left sideline to Adam Thielen, but Cousins overthrew it amidst pressure. Justin Jefferson tried his fourth pass attempt of the season on a trick play, but Detroit blew it up to force an incompletion. Speedy Kene Nwangwu attempted an end-around, but the Lions blew that up too.
One of the play-calling head-scratchers was the third-and-9 bubble screen to Adam Thielen on the game’s first drive that left Thielen with a sprained ankle after Mattison missed a block. Kirk Cousins, however, seemed to be a primary culprit that caused the Vikings to settle for field goals.
On the Vikings’ first field goal drive, Cousins has five wide receivers out on third-and-8. His blockers hold up nicely, yet Cousins pulls the trigger before his downfield routes are fully developed, hitting Dede Westbrook for a two-yard loss. On the film below, look to Westbrook’s inside, where you see K.J. Osborn just finishing a curl that probably would’ve been open at the first-down marker.
It’s that lack of situational awareness with Cousins that has occasionally bothered Vikings fans.
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