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The Minnesota Vikings fell flat on their faces during their biggest game of the season on Sunday night in Detroit. Kevin O'Connell's squad fell 31-9 to the Detroit Lions, surrendering the NFC's No. 1 seed and setting up a Wild Card Weekend matchup with the Los Angeles Rams at Sofi Stadium. The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Vikings.
“It doesn’t change anything about what this team is made up of,” O’Connell said of the loss. “You can’t win nine in a row and then we lose one and allow that to change how we operate. But that also doesn’t mean you can’t improve and late-season improvement when you have been playing really good football in the month of December — sometimes you get hit in the mouth a little bit and you’ve got to respond. I know we’ve built this thing in a way that we’re going to do that.”
While the Vikings managed to move the ball during the loss, their offense came up short when it mattered most.
Vikings offense comes up short in battle for No. 1 seed
Minnesota failed to score a touchdown despite four trips to the red zone that included 11 snaps inside the 10-yard line. Darnold tallied a season-low 166 yards while completing 43.9 percent of his passes and throwing for zero touchdowns for the first time since Week 10. The Vikings quarterback notably did not throw the ball to a wide-open Jordan Addison on a pivotal fourth and goal in the third quarter.
Sam Darnold doesn’t throw to a wide open Jordan Addison
This was designed for Addison all the way. Nailor took his defender out the play… Darnold just didn’t throw it
This is very very bad pic.twitter.com/SfYMDo4ffT
— Joel Moran (@joelvmoran) January 6, 2025
Detroit would outscore Minnesota 21-3 to close the game following the turnover on downs.
“You can't go out there and kick field goals in the red zone against a team like (the Lions),” Darnold told the Associated Press. “Our defense played great and kept us in the game, but we didn't finish when we had the chance… I’ve got to watch the tape and see what I was doing wrong,” Darnold said. “I think maybe I could have been a little more settled on some of those throws. I might have been backpedaling or moving laterally when I needed to plant.”
O'Connell admitted his quarterback had some uncharacteristic misses but voiced confidence in his ability to bounce back.
“It looked like Sam missed some throws high, and we’ll look at it this week,” the coach said. “Sam has made those throws all season and I’m always going to expect him to make the next one.”
The Vikings will have a week to regroup before traveling to Los Angeles to face Matthew Stafford and the Rams in the Wild Card round. A win could set up a rematch with the Lions, barring an upset in the Tampa Bay Buccanneers (3)-Washington Commanders (6) or Philadelphia Eagles (2)-Green Bay Packers (7) matchups.
