Upon Further Review: Vikings enter long offseason after shootout win over Detroit

The Vikings won, woooooo!!!

The Vikings won, noooooo!!! What were they doing!?!

Depending on your priorities for the purple, that was one of your reactions to Minnesota’s 37-35 road win over the Detroit Lions in Week 17.

The Vikings offense was firing on all cylinders, with quarterback Kirk Cousins throwing for 405 yards and three touchdowns, Alexander Mattison rushing for 95 yards and a TD, and Justin Jefferson breaking the NFL rookie single-season receiving yards record by catching nine balls for 133 yards.

And while one of those scores was a direct result of a poorly called personal foul on Detroit safety Tracy Walker, many Vikings fans must have enjoyed the offensive success, even if it came against a bad team in a game with no playoff stakes.

However, if you are a Minnesota fan who went to Tankathon.com after the Vikings’ Week 15 loss to the Chicago Bears, then you may have felt a bit different after this game than a normal Minnesota win.

Look, it is no secret that the Vikings would have gotten a higher draft pick if they had lost. Nobody expects professional teams and players to purposefully lose a game (unless your name is Doug Pederson, apparently) but Minnesota’s defense played poor enough to lose and it wasn’t purposefully tanking.

It was a winnable game as much as it was a lose-able game and since there was nothing on the line besides pride, there had to be some fans across the state of Minnesota perturbed about the result.

The Vikings have the 14th pick in the 2021 NFL draft. If they lost and finished 6-10, then the pick could have been as low as No. 9. It may not seem like much, but for the segment of the fanbase that wants to see a Justin Fields or Zach Wilson in purple and gold next season, that higher pick could have been the way to acquire a potential franchise quarterback.

Regardless, Minnesota’s players were not playing for the next first-round draft selection. After a challenging season dealing with the COVID-19 virus, there is no way they wanted to enter the offseason on a four-game losing streak, even if some Vikings fans wish they did anyway.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

He did not find the end zone today, but Jefferson gets the nod here.

With his 133 receiving yards against Detroit, Jefferson ended his rookie campaign with exactly 1,400 receiving yards, which broke Anquan Boldin’s single-season rookie receiving yards record (in the Super Bowl era).

He was clearly an excellent draft pick by Vikings general manager Rick Spielman and should be a star for years to come. It is baffling four receivers went ahead of him in the 2020 draft.

Most receiving yards by a rookie in the Super Bowl era @JJettas – 1,379

📱: https://t.co/EYGyNNg0Yf pic.twitter.com/rOSeplK2xQ

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) January 3, 2021

DON’T FORGET ABOUT ME

It’s hard to forget about the Vikings starting quarterback, but Cousins played great against the Lions.

On top of his 405 passing yards and three touchdowns, he completed 70% of his throws and found the end zone with his legs. More importantly, Cousins had zero turnovers and led a Vikings offense that scored 21 points in the first half and 16 in the second.

But as nice as all the numbers were, Cousins showed off his sweet dance moves after a touchdown.

Kirk getting looooooose 🤣🤣🤣

Via @thecheckdown pic.twitter.com/nxmCsFuwWS

— FOX Sports North (@fsnorth) January 3, 2021

THAT MOMENT

The personal foul call on Walker was egregious and the Vikings caught a break on that play.

The NFL should be lucky it came in a game with no playoff stakes, too.

Minnesota was down 31-29 and faced a 4th-and-goal with 11:18 remaining in the fourth quarter. It could not find the end zone on its final chance, as Walker zoomed across the line of scrimmage and seemingly sacked Cousins to end the drive.

However, a personal foul penalty was called on Walker because he … well, tackled Cousins?

The Vikings scored two plays later and should not have to apologize for taking advantage of the game situation. NFL teams all get screwed by the officials at points, this was just a very clear and obvious example of a bad call going the Vikings’ way.

This call makes no sense. Arguably the worst roughing call I’ve ever seen. pic.twitter.com/5QjTLy2yJ1

— Isaac (@WorldofIsaac) January 3, 2021

THIS NUMBER  

7 — The Vikings have beaten the Lions seven straight times. They swept Detroit in 2020, 2019 and 2018, and the last time they lost to the Lions was on Oct. 1, 2017. Hey, maybe the next time the Vikings lose to Detroit in a regular-season game they will get back to the NFC Championship game.

THEY SAID IT

“It’s crazy to say I grew up watching players all over the league doing the same stuff that I’m doing now. To actually be in the position that I watched and doing the things I dreamt of doing my whole life, man, it’s really unbelievable. It doesn’t even feel real to me.” – Jefferson on breaking records.

“Justin did another great job today. And in this offense, we’re going to run the football. So it’s going to open up a lot of explosive plays for Justin, but he also has to stay patient, because there’s going to be times where we’re running the ball well and we’re not throwing it to him every play.” – Cousins on Jefferson.

“We’ve got some good players. Irv Smith and Conklin and Adam, and obviously we’re missing Rudy today. Beebe made some good plays. We’ve got some good receivers, and that will continue to be a strength of ours, and we’ll continue to figure out how to fill some of the other holes that we have.” – Vikings coach Mike Zimmer on the offense.

“That was a big play. That play sort of covered over the slow start we had [and] kind of made up for a whole bunch of mistakes that I had made or that we had made early in the game. If you don’t make that play, then you’re feeling those mistakes at halftime.” – Cousins on Chad Beebe’s touchdown reception.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Vikings finished 7-9 and their season is over. Up next is free agency and the 2021 NFL draft.