'Self-inflicted things' cost Vikings their first loss of 2024
There were 15 seconds on the clock Sunday when the Minnesota Vikings, trailing by two points, took over for their final possession. They had the ball at their 30, and the way coach Kevin O'Connell figured it, they needed roughly two dozen yards and a stopped clock to give rookie kicker Will Reichard a chance to beat the Detroit Lions with a game-winning field goal.
Incredibly, the Vikings pulled off both on the ensuing play. Quarterback Sam Darnold found receiver Jalen Nailor for a 20-yard gain over the middle, and the rest of the offense got downfield quickly enough to spike the ball with one second remaining. But before O'Connell could summon Reichard, referee Clay Martin's crew flagged the Vikings for illegal formation. In their haste to preserve time, the Vikings did not get enough players set on the line of scrimmage.
The 5-yard penalty was the difference between a 68-yard field goal attempt (an NFL record that is genuinely within Reichard's range) and the desperate Hail Mary they ended up trying, which ended with a sack.
It was among a handful of plays that proved the difference between two NFL heavyweights in a spectacular mid-October game, a 31-29 Lions victory at U.S. Bank Stadium that dropped the Vikings to 5-1. If the game was confirmation that the Vikings are in fact one of the NFL's best teams, it was also a reminder of the tiny margin of error in such matchups.
"[Against] really good teams," O'Connell said, "you're not just going to steamroll through the game and have perfect plays on every play. But you better make sure it's [the opponents] that are causing, truly, some of those things that happen instead of some self-inflicted things."