What a Rush: Cowboys smother Vikings sputtering offense, steal a 20-16 win

The Vikings fall back to 3-4 and have some soul-searching to do

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By Sam Ekstrom

MINNEAPOLIS — Disaster.

Cooper Rush and the Dallas Cowboys drove 75 yards in the final three minutes to steal a game from the Vikings. A 20-16 loss firmly puts Minnesota in the Pretenders category until proven otherwise.

The Vikings did everything in their power to gift Dallas the victory. That includes deflecting the ball into Amari Cooper’s hands on the final drive, calling an illegal timeout on third-and-16, and inexcusably whiffing on a tackle that allowed the Cowboys to continue their go-ahead drive. Cooper’s game-winning touchdown grab with 51 seconds left gave the Vikings the result they deserved, and the offense appropriately had no tricks up their sleeve on Halloween night as Cousins’ final throw of the game was a fourth down heave that hurtled out of bounds.

Are jobs in jeopardy? While that seems unlikely, this was a particularly devastating, and embarrassing, loss.

Once again, the Vikings failed to put away a team that had no business being in the game, and that falls on the offense, though the defense deserves criticism for allowing a third straight team to tie or take the lead in the waning seconds.

Without Prescott, the Rush-led Cowboys were a shell of the team that entered with the No. 1 offense in the league. Rush was off balance, off target and immobile, but the Vikings never found the type of separation that likely would’ve buried Dallas’s hopes. Now seven games into the season, the Jekyll and Hyde gene of this Vikings offense might be their most baffling trait.

Following an opening-drive touchdown — Minnesota’s sixth straight game with opening-drive points — the offense went dormant and never awoke.

Similar to the Browns and Lions games, the Vikings played tentative, mistake-averse football and paid for it. Their second, third and fourth drives generated only one first down — until Dallas jumped offside on a punt to extend a Minnesota drive that resulted in a field goal.

That’s all the Vikings aspired for in the final three and a half quarters: field goals.

The Vikings seemingly wasted most of their aggressiveness in the opening frame when Cousins took three deep shots down the sideline and Kubiak ordered an end around pass by Justin Jefferson. After that, Cousins kept most of his throws behind the chains, the Vikings kept punting, and Rush kept getting chances to prove himself. Cousins finished the game with 4.2 intended air yards per throw, the second-lowest total of Week 8.

Oh, and the Vikings messed up their clock management before halftime.

While Cousins, Kubiak and Co. sputtered, it was only a matter of time before Rush hit on a big throw. On the third play of the second half, trailing 10-3, Rush connected with Cedrick Wilson on a post route for a 73-yard touchdown — on third-and-8, no less. Tie game.

Rush was missing receivers all night, but there’s an idiom about blind squirrels and nuts that comes into play sometimes. The strike to Wilson should’ve been all the Vikings needed to see to put the pedal down, but they never got the offense out of neutral. Teams with first-time starting quarterbacks need to be put away early, yet the Vikings refused to oblige, failing to score after two takeaways produced by safety Xavier Woods.

In Week 6 at Carolina, a blocked Jordan Berry punt woke up the Vikings sideline and propelled them to an offensive explosion in the second half. There was no such catalyst Sunday night.

With confidence building for Dallas in the second half, the Cowboys started pulling out all the stops. Kellen Moore dialed up a trick play throw by Wilson for 35 yards to set up a field goal that tied the game at 13.

Every time the Cowboys opened the door for the Vikings to take a stranglehold, Minnesota played hot potato. Four of their first five drives in the second half lasted four plays or fewer. Needless to say, their goals of reducing offensive penalties and three-and-outs went unmet. After a series in the fourth quarter where the Vikings committed multiple penalties and moved backward, their crowd serenaded them with boos following a running play on third-and-23.

So much for the bye week self scout.

The Vikings could’ve challenged the Cowboys more in the final minutes, but they wasted a first-and-goal at the 4-yard line, settling for a field goal after moving backwards on the next two plays.

Down 16-13 with under three minutes left, Rush and the Cowboys would’ve settled for a field goal to send the game to overtime, but his checkdown to Ezekiel Elliott on third-and-11 turned into a first down when Elliott pinballed off Anthony Barr to pick up a first down. That came immediately after Zimmer called a second consecutive timeout, giving Dallas five free yards, which certainly helped Elliott on his catch and run.

The defense and coach should be ridiculed for the finish, but in the grander scheme, the offense put them in that position with 60 hideous minutes of football.

Many questions need to be answered.

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