At least the Minnesota Vikings will make some history next week. They’ll be the first 14-win wild-card playoff team in NFL history.
There can be complaints about the NFL overemphasizing its divisions, which leads to oddities like the home team having four fewer wins than its road opponent in the wild-card round. But the Vikings knew the stakes for Sunday night’s historic game against the Detroit Lions. The winner is 15-2 and gets the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The other breaks the 1999 Tennessee Titans’ record of 13 wins for a wild-card team, and falls to the fifth seed.
And knowing the stakes, the Vikings came up small. Sam Darnold had a bad game, perhaps his worst of the season. There were questionable coaching decisions and some big special teams errors. Ultimately, the Lions pulled away while not even playing their best, winning the NFC North with a 31-9 win. Jahmyr Gibbs had four touchdowns and the Lions became the ninth team in NFL history to win 15 games in a regular season.
The Lions get to rest. They have wild-card weekend off and they won’t need to go on the road for the NFC playoffs. They need the week off given all their injuries, including cornerback Terrion Arnold, who left Sunday night’s game with a foot injury. The Vikings fall all the way to the No. 5 seed. They’ll play at the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night of wild-card weekend.
The Vikings’ season isn’t over. Those 1999 Titans made a Super Bowl as an overqualified wild-card team. But the path got a lot tougher for the Vikings on Sunday night, and a lot easier for the Lions.
Vikings and Lions have error-filled 1st half
Both teams looked tight to start Sunday night’s game, which was understandable. The stakes were massive.
Mistakes were the story of the first half. Darnold has been excellent all season but missed many passes, most of them high. In one sequence, after a Vikings interception that set them up inside the Lions’ 10-yard line, Darnold missed a wide open Justin Jefferson twice and the Vikings had to settle for a field goal. According to ESPN, Darnold had eight overthrows in the first half, which was the second-most for an entire game in his career.
The Lions seemed to be pressing a bit, too. On fourth-and-inches, Detroit decided to pass it instead of running behind the NFL’s best offensive line, and it was incomplete. The Vikings turned that good field position into a field goal, but then had another error. With 20 seconds left they kicked it out of bounds, giving the Lions the ball at the 20-yard line. Jared Goff hit passes of 19 and 11 yards, one of the rare times the offense showed much explosion in the first half, and that set up a gift field goal as the first half expired.
The Lions led the Vikings 10-6 but neither team played like it had 14 wins entering the day. For such a great matchup, the results weren’t pretty in the first half. At least the Lions snapped out of it in the second half. The Vikings didn’t.
Lions open up their lead
Minnesota’s mistakes didn’t stop when the second half got underway.
The Vikings went for it on a fourth-and-goal in the first half, passing on an easy field goal, and did so again on their first possession of the second half. Both times, Darnold threw incomplete. That was six easy points the Vikings passed on in a close game. But on the next play, Goff threw wildly downfield and Harrison Smith had an easy interception.
The Lions’ offense finally got going on a 13-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a touchdown. Unsurprisingly the Lions went for it on fourth-and-2 and had a nice play call that got Gibbs wide open in the middle for a 10-yard touchdown. The Vikings weren’t out of the game by any means, trailing 17-9 at that point, but they weren’t done tripping all over themselves.
The Vikings missed a field goal late in the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, Vikings defensive end Andrew Van Ginkel had a pick-6 in his hands and he dropped it. A few plays later, Gibbs scored his third touchdown of the game and Detroit led 24-9.
The Vikings could go on to win a Super Bowl from a wild-card spot. But if they don’t, they might look back on the huge swing of Van Ginkel dropping an interception that could have tied the game, while instead falling behind by 15 points after Gibbs’ 13-yard touchdown run.
The Lions just had to lean on the Vikings after that. There was one more big mistake. With a little less than six minutes left, the Lions lined up like they would go for it on fourth-and-2. The Vikings jumped offside and the Lions didn’t even have to snap the ball for a first down. Gibbs scored his fourth touchdown shortly after that.
The Vikings had an incredible regular season. They weren’t expected to be in the playoffs, and won 14 games. Darnold established himself as a legitimate starting quarterback. The defense was fantastic. The coaching staff got its due as one of the NFL’s best. And for all of the good things Minnesota did, the reward is a road trip to Los Angeles for a tough road playoff opener.
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Jahmyr Gibbs picks up 14 on a first down pass play to end the 3rd quarter
Jahmyr Gibbs has 22 touches for 88 yards and two touchdowns on an already big night, and he’s picking up steam as the Lions look to close the deal on the Vikings for the NFC North title and the No. 1 seed.
Jahmyr Gibbs and the Lions are looking to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC. (AP/Rey Del Rio) -
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