Justin Jefferson sprinted 20 yards in three seconds on Sunday, rushing after a Nick Mullens fumble that otherwise would have sealed a Vikings loss to the Lions with 1:48 left. In the huddle before the next play, Jefferson told Mullens, “No matter what it is, just throw it away.” Mullens did what Kirk Cousins had done a year ago in Buffalo, and Jefferson stole the ball from two Lions- defenders for a 28-yard gain on third-and-27 as effortlessly as a fifth-grader would knock a playground ball off a kindergartener.
He handed the ball to an official and Mullens hit Brandon Powell on the next play to make it 26. With the Vikings down by six points and the ball 30 yards from the end zone, Jefferson double-moved Lions safety Ifeatu Melifonwu and came up opening where it looked like he might catch the pass to make Mullens the fourth different QB to start the Vikings' win this season.
In the 56 days since Cousins tore his right Achilles tendon, it had sometimes seemed as if the Vikings had put so much strain on the steering wheel of a car with misaligned tires that it would stay straight enough to avoid going into a ditch slide. Coach Kevin O'Connell told Joshua Dobbs about his first snaps in a Vikings jersey. Assistant QB coach Grant Udinski stayed on the field after practice on Fridays to meet with new starters for hours. The day the Vikings traded Dobbs for Mullens, defensive coordinator Brian Flores oversaw a shutout against a Raiders team that scored 63 points four days later.
The Vikings' 30-24 loss to the Lions on Sunday ended with Mullens' pass flapping behind Jefferson, who tried in vain to defuse it as Melifonwu made the Lions' fourth interception of the day. The game secured the Lions' first division title since winning the old NFC Central in 1993, ended the Vikings' six-game winning streak over Detroit at US Bank Stadium and ensured that their New Year's Eve game against the Packers would be their final home game would this season. It also set them on a path they had somehow avoided for weeks.
To make the playoffs, they need to gain a game in the NFC standings against the Rams or Seahawks, probably by winning two games against Green Bay and Detroit while Los Angeles or Seattle lose once. Since Cousins' injury, they are 3-4 with backup quarterbacks; Now no longer wearing walking boots, Cousins returned to the sideline with his teammates for the first time since his surgery on Sunday.
He saw Mullens become only the second quarterback in Vikings history to throw for 400 yards and four interceptions in the same game, reminding him how fleeting QB stability can be.
“I really think it will show the rest of the world what type of player Kirk is,” Jefferson said. “At the end of the day, this is a tough league. You know, not everyone is cut out for this job. So it’s hard not having him.” [No.] 8 out there, the captain that he is, the leader that he is. He is a great player. Nothing was taken away from Nick. Nick is also an outstanding player. We just have to build on the trust we have. We just have to go out on the practice field and make sure we get the timing right and make sure the ball is where it needs to be.”
The Vikings allowed the Lions to hold the ball 38-22, running for 143 yards and supporting quarterback Jared Goff, who completed 30 of his 40 passes for 257 yards and a touchdown, against a Flores-coached defense for the first time in its history to beat career. The Vikings lost pass rusher DJ Wonnum, who was carted off the field with a quadriceps injury, and rookie cornerback Mekhi Blackmon, who unsuccessfully tried to return from a shoulder injury. The Vikings finished the game with Andrew Booth Jr. and Jaylin Williams at cornerback after Blackmon left and cornerback Akayleb Evans was removed from the game.
They survived two calls in the second quarter – a roughing penalty on Patrick Jones on a second-and-21 and a Goff fumble that was ruled an incomplete pass upon review after Camryn Bynum returned it for an 82-yard touchdown – that led to a 10-point swing.
“I would have liked to have just heard that it was an official's decision and maybe I could have raised the flag and taken it with me to the challenge,” O'Connell said. “Based on my views, I didn’t necessarily see it that way. I mean, that's momentum in its purest form when the defense can force a turnover and get seven points from it. There’s a huge momentum going on.”
The Vikings' turnovers were a central theme in their eighth loss, as they were in many of their first seven.
On offense, Mullens became just the 16th quarterback in NFL history and the first since Jameis Winston in 2019 to throw for 400 yards and four interceptions in the same game. He became only the second Vikings quarterback with the dubious double, after Warren Moon did it in a 31-21 loss to the Jets in November 1994.
“A lot of ball placement [issues]. I think I'm a very accurate quarterback. “I made a lot of good throws today,” Mullens said. “Decisions, accuracy, you have to be elite at all times. “I made good plays and moved the offense, and we worked really hard together to move the offense. But you have to avoid these mistakes.”
Rookie Brian Branch intercepted Jordan Addison on the Lions' 20 for the first interception of the day, and safety Kerby Joseph intercepted a pass that Mullens threw too close to the middle of the field while targeting Addison late in the second quarter.
The Vikings used the same three-step route concept on the play where Mullens hit Jefferson on the final drive, O'Connell said. However, at the end of the second quarter, Mullens missed the spot for a big finish when he failed to get the ball closer to the Vikings sideline. Addison injured his ankle when he collided with a teammate on Joseph's interception return.
“We're just trying to take advantage of the deep defender and use the grass that we have available to potentially push him away from the defender,” O'Connell said. “[Joseph] was able to come back and undercut Jordan when he returned to football. When it comes to safety, that usually means we probably could have hit the ball flat and away from the defender.”
The turnover led to a Lions touchdown that put Detroit up 17-7 with less than two minutes left before halftime. The Vikings scored before halftime after Jefferson threw a 20-yard pass that Mullens threw after going into the pocket, and took the lead on a cleverly designed play that had Mullens' KJ Osborn in the found the back corner of the end zone for a six-yard score after halftime.
Then, after the Lions built a nine-point lead after two fierce drives that totaled 14-12 after the second half, the Vikings pulled within six points with a 75-yard drive that resulted in a Greg field goal Joseph. They survived a defensive foul on Williams that his teammates believed should not have been called and coaxed a stop from a fatigued defense that had lost Wonnum and Blackmon.
It set them up for the victory they needed to answer the Seahawks and take back control of their own future.
Instead, Jefferson knelt on the US Bank Stadium turf and held his breath in defeat after the final pass officially put the Vikings on a detour.
“We knew it would be a difficult route. We knew it wouldn’t be easy,” he said. “This team is a great team. They are not a relaxed team. And they hold the division crown for a reason. We just have to push through this and be clear about what we need to fix.”