Vikings Rewind: Reviewing the final drive vs. Lions

The situation: Down 16-14 with 45 seconds left, the Vikings had the ball at their own 30 needing just a field goal to win.

The context: The Vikings were held scoreless the entire second half and missed an opportunity to score with 2:01 left in the game. The defense got the ball back after a three-and-out to set up one last chance to win.

The result: Kicker Blair Walsh missed a 68-yard field goal as time expired and seal the Lions win.

How it happened:

Instead of reviewing just one play, we'll look at multiple plays and how the Vikings could've handled the situation better.

We'll start with the first play of the drive where the Vikings were lined up in trips left and wide receiver Jarius Wright was wide open on a nice route. Rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater sailed a ball over Wright's hands. If completed, it would've been a gain of over 20 yards and placed the Vikings in Lions territory. Instead, it's a wasted down and a wasted five seconds.

On the next play, Bridgewater was pressed and forced to dump it off to running back Matt Asiata, who cut inside to gain nine yards. The Vikings were out of timeouts and Asiata gave himself up a yard short of the first down.

"We talked to the guys about, if you don't think you can get out of bounds, get as much as you can and get down," Zimmer said. "Matt, he got down, but he should have got the first down before he did."

Asiata had an opportunity to get out of bounds and gain maybe two yards but chose to do the opposite. The Vikings burned 14 seconds off the clock until Bridgewater spiked the ball on 3rd and 1 at their own 39.

Asiata's decision put the Vikings in a 4th and 1 situation where they needed to gain the first down but also gain a good chunk of yardage or get out of bounds. They got the first down when Bridgewater dumped it off to tight end Kyle Rudolph (circled in yellow), but he only gained five yards and didn't get out of bounds.

Another 10 seconds went off the clock before Bridgewater spiked the ball on first down with five seconds left in the game at their own 44.

"The 4^th and 1, we don't need the first down; I mean, we need the first down, but we need yards at that point and time," Zimmer said. "We had a guy open down the field that we should've tried to get the ball down in there."

Zimmer was referring to Wright (circled in red) who was around the Lions' 44 when Bridgewater hit Rudolph. Wright beat his defender and had an opportunity to race out of bounds before the safety chased him down or the clock expired. If Wright got the Vikings to the 40, it would've set up a 57-yard field goal. That's still a difficult kick to make, especially after Walsh pulled a 53-yarder to the right on the Vikings' first drive, but nobody has ever made a 68-yard field goal before.

We're already at three glaring mistakes and haven't even factored in the delay of game penalty yet after the Vikings converted on fourth down that pushed the Vikings back to their own 39.

Bridgewater connected with Rudolph for 11 yards after the delay of game. Rudolph ran out of bounds at midfield with one second left. Take away the delay of game penalty and Walsh would've attempted a 63-yard field goal, a yard shy of NFL record for longest field goal made.

"We didn't handle the fourth quarter well and as I'm trying to teach this team that when you play good, you still have to win the fourth quarter and the critical parts," Zimmer said. "…There's so many games in the NFL that come down to this kind of crunch time, and we didn't do enough to win. We're going to keep going forward, we're going to keep pounding the message. My mentality has not changed, my mindset has not changed. As I told the team, we're going to stick with it, keep working on getting better because we've got something to build for the future."
Zimmer listed some of the late game situations the Vikings have faced where they've won (the Jets and Bucs in overtime) and lost (the Packers, Bills, Lions and Bears). We touched on those situations last week in Vikings Rewind and how this young roster, particularly Bridgewater, is gaining experience with how to handle these close games. Their last four losses against the Bills, Packers, Bears and Lions were by a combined 14 points.

The Vikings had another opportunity to put it all together against a good Lions team and fell short late, just like they have in their three previous losses.