Given chances upon chances, Vikings come up wide right in Arizona
Greg Joseph pushes potential winning field goal wide right to ruin a brilliant comeback drive by Kirk Cousins
By Matthew Coller
Many Minnesota Vikings fans will tell you that their franchise is cursed because no team has more bizarre and unexplainable endings.
Well, there’s no arguing with that today.
Following a brilliant last-minute drive by quarterback Kirk Cousins in which he not only delivered an on-the-money pass to Adam Thielen on third-and-long but also got two more completions to set up a manageable 37-yard game-winning field goal, kicker Greg Joseph pushed the ball wide right and cost the Vikings a win.
And, man, it would have been a big win.
The wacky irony is that Joseph nailed two other field goals in the game — both from more than 50 yards. The easiest kick of the day was the one they needed the most and the that went off line.
As much as the final play cost the Vikings — and it’s really something to think about how close they are to being 2-0 — there were plenty of other moments in the game in which they had a chance to win and didn’t fully take advantage, including having an early 14-point lead.
The Vikings opened Sunday’s wild contest in dream fashion. Cook burst through the Arizona defense for an 11-yard gain on the ground and then the Cardinals’ secondary forgot about KJ Osborn. While it’s fair that an opponent wouldn’t be familiar with Osborn — after all, the Vikings haven’t had an effective WR3 in years — but they completely forgot to cover him. Per NextGen stats, Osborn’s 64-yard touchdown catch had the fifth most separation of any catch since 2017.
On the defensive side, a big third-down stop gave the Vikings the ball right back. After a Vikings punt, things got crazy. Kyler Murray whipped his team down the field going 73 yards in just over four minutes and capped off his second drive of the day by dodging Vikings rushers and throwing off balance to DeAndre Hopkins wide open for a touchdown.
It was clear at that point we were in for a shootout. The Vikings responded with a dominating 75-yard touchdown drive in which Cook had back-to-back runs of 14 and 16 yards and Adam Thielen finished the series doing the Griddy in the end zone with the Cards’ defender laying on the ground.
Up 20-7 and having stopped the Cards on two of three drives, the Vikings had to be feeling like this was the bounce-back tail whopping they dreamed of putting on Arizona. But that’s where a handful of plays and decisions turned things back in the Cardinals’ favor.
Here’s how it went down:
4:32 remaining in the second quarter: Kyler Murray escapes the pocket on third-and-16 to set up first down at the Vikings 13-yard line.
3:15: Nick Vigil recovers a fumble but fails to get both feet in bounds. Murray runs again, this time for a 12-yard touchdown
2:00: Dalvin Cook is stuffed on a third-and-1 rush up the middle in which two blocks appeared to be missed in front of him
1:33: Murray gets away from Stephen Weatherly’s rush, rolls to his left and delivers a pass to wide open Rondale Moore for a 77-yard touchdown.
1:00: The Vikings run on back-to-back plays, winding the clock down to 35 seconds. After two incompletions, they kick a 52-yard field goal.
0:21: Vikings squib kick gives Arizona good field position at the 35-yard line
0:10: Moore doesn’t quit on a short pass and squirts forward for an 18-yard gain.
0:01: Matt Prater kicks a 62-yard field goal
There’s a half dozen what-ifs mixed into that four-plus minute segment of the game. If the Vikings were able to contain Murray on third down or if Vigil was in bounds or if Cook plowed forward for the first down or if Murray hadn’t escaped the rush or if the Vikings hadn’t played for a field goal or if they hadn’t squib kicked or if Matt Prater wasn’t an alien, they Vikings would have gone into halftime steamrolling the Cardinals.
Oh, and there was a missed extra point mixed in. Maybe a prescient one at that.
Instead of digging a hole in the desert for the Vikings, Arizona had some severe mistakes of their own that gave Minnesota a shot at an upset.
Murray opened the half by throwing a pass directly into the hands of Vigil, who ran it back for a touchdown to put the Vikings back ahead 30-24.
He came right back firing though, hitting a 25-yard pass to tight end Maxx Williams that set up a touchdown throw to AJ Green that gave Arizona the lead.
Conservative play calling put the Vikings in jeopardy of letting the game slip away. Down by one, the Vikings ran on second-and-10 and then came a yard short on third down at their own 40.
The numbers made an argument for the Vikings going for it but they punted the ball back to Murray.
But Murray again couldn’t put them away.
Driving into Minnesota territory, the dynamic QB went deep down the middle of the field and had his bomb intercepted by Xavier Woods. Protecting the football would have resulted in at least a field goal and anything more might have put the Vikings out of reach. Instead they were given life. Greg Joseph hit another 50-plus yard field goal to put the Vikings up by two points.
The rollercoaster that was Kyler Murray hit another high point on the following drive. Looking at fourth-and-5, the Vikings sent a double-A gap blitz with Eric Kendricks and Harrison Smith rushing right into the face of the undersized QB. He flung the ball up in the air and it dropped right into the hands of receiver Christian Kirk for a 35-yard gain.
The Vikings’ defense found itself in a game-saving spot and came through. Cam Dantzler, in the game with Bashaud Breeland battling injury, broke up a third-down pass in the end zone to hold the Cards to a field goal.
Down one point, the Vikings committed a holding on first down, moving them back to first-and-20. They again chose to run on second down and set up a third-and-long situation. Cousins threw incomplete underneath and Jordan Berry punted away with under three minutes remaining.
But once again, the Cardinals left the door wide open. Murray ran out of bounds, stopping the clock and then got sacked. Arizona punted away with just over two minutes remaining in the game.
On third-and-10 and just outside field goal position, Adam Thielen broke off a brilliant route to get past the sticks for a first down. Cousins hit Osborn on back-to-back throws to make for a manageable game-winning field goal for Joseph.
The Vikings are forever the Vikings, so Joseph pushed the kick wide right and they fell to 0-2.
There’s a saying in sports that you can win the game on one play but not lose it on one play. Looking back at this game with a microscope, we’ll probably find a lot of truth in that statement. But it sure doesn’t feel like it right now.
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Will I ever be in a situation as a Vikings fan, where I don't think "I bet we miss this game winning kick"?
Great article Mathew 👏 so many thanks to like about this game especially when we heard a minimal of offensive line numbers being called and for the most part Cousins had time to throw all day. Thanks again Mathew.