Vikings lose grip on NFC North title and No. 1 seed with 31-9 loss to the Lions

DETROIT – Up 22 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday night, the Lions handed off to the running backs who spelled Jahmyr Gibbs, the second-year back who’d caught the Vikings’ eye before Detroit took him 12th in the 2023 draft.

The Vikings fans who’d bought seats the team had helped them purchase for the battle for the NFC’s No. 1 seed had left the building, and the raucous Ford Field contingent was free to entertain itself between plays. The Lions fans began with their familiar “Ja-red Goff” chant, then mocked the Vikings’ “Skol” chant.

What was anyone to say about it? The Lions were about to clinch the NFC North title against the Vikings for the second year in a row, beat them for the fourth consecutive time at Ford Field and ensure the path to Super Bowl LIX would come through Detroit. The Vikings’ 31-9 defeat was thorough, decisive and withering.

No phase of the Vikings’ operation was spared from critique. Sam Darnold looked jittery as he missed throws. Justin Jefferson and T.J. Hockenson mishandled balls they’ve often caught. Will Reichard missed a field goal, as coach Kevin O’Connell stewed over fourth-down decisions, and also shanked a kickoff that spotted the Lions three points before halftime. And Gibbs scored four touchdowns against a Vikings defense that contained him as long as it could.

“We didn’t do a lot of the things that we’ve consistently done all season long,” O’Connell said. “This game came down to finishing in the red zone, weighty downs, third downs, pitching and catching. I thought our defense battled; just asked a little bit too much of them and that’s going to happen against a good team.”

The Vikings will be a 14-win wild card team, the first in NFL history, and be faced with the same chilling scenario that knocked them from the NFC’s top spot in October: After ending a win streak with a loss to the Lions, they will have to travel west and face O’Connell’s old team.

The last time, on Oct. 24, they saw the Los Angeles Rams 99 hours after walking off the U.S. Bank Stadium field against the Lions. This time, they will have a week and a day to recover before a Monday night playoff game at SoFi Stadium. But this game will determine whether the Vikings’ improbable 2024 season will end without a playoff win, the fate they faced two years ago.

Darnold completed 18 of 41 passes for 166 yards, and the Vikings went 0-for-4 in the red zone. Though Goff threw two interceptions, he missed on only four of his other 33 passes, while Gibbs posted 139 yards on the ground and caught five passes for 31 yards and a touchdown.

Ford Field crackled with electricity almost from the moment the gates opened up on Sunday night, with Lions luminaries such as Calvin Johnson and Barry Sanders in the crowd as well as former Pistons and Timberwolves guard Chauncey Billups. The Vikings won the coin toss, deferred and forced a Lions punt to start the game, momentarily dulling the building’s energy, but a Blake Brandel false start threw the Vikings’ first drive off course.

After a Vikings punt, the Lions scored the game’s first points on a touchdown drive kept alive by Goff’s fourth-down completion to Jameson Williams. The Vikings brought Josh Metellus unblocked off the right side of the Detroit line on a blitz, and Metellus flattened Goff with a violent hit. But Goff hit Williams on a crossing route while absorbing the hit; a play after the 14-yard gain, Gibbs burst through a hole in the middle of the line on a counter play, slipping a Camryn Bynum ankle tackle attempt and racing 25 yards for a score.

Two possessions later, the Vikings made their first of four consecutive trips to the red zone that would finish without a touchdown.

Darnold, who completed only nine of his 20 passes in the first half, threw incomplete three times on the drive, bailing from pressure for a second-down throwaway before overshooting T.J. Hockenson on third down. On fourth-and-goal from the Lions 3, Darnold declined to try Jordan Addison on an out route before working back to Justin Jefferson, missing the receiver as Jefferson petitioned referee Brad Rogers’ crew to flag the Lions for holding.

“We felt like some of the calls that should have been called out there, didn’t get called,” Jefferson said. “They held us a lot. A lot of calls were left out there. But that’s not something we’re going to put the blame on. We still needed to go out there and execute the plays we had.

“We were in the red zone four times and we didn’t score [a touchdown]. You’re not going to win games like that, putting the defense in that type of predicament. They got us those turnovers, they got us that short field to go and score. We just didn’t do a good enough job tonight.”

Metellus tipped a Goff screen pass that Ivan Pace Jr. intercepted on the next Detroit drive, and the Vikings got another chance, starting at the Lions 7. Darnold hitched before throwing behind Jefferson on first down, threw too high for an open Jefferson on second down and overshot the receiver on third down as he adjusted his throwing angle to account for a leaping Brian Branch. This time, the Vikings would take the points on a Reichard field goal to trail 7-3.

“My feet and my eyes, I felt like I was good from that standpoint,” Darnold said. “I felt like I made some of the right reads. I missed a couple, but for the most part, especially early on, I felt like I went to the right place with the ball. I’ve just got to hit the throw.”

After the Vikings settled for a second field goal before halftime, Reichard’s kickoff went out of bounds, giving the Lions the ball at their own 40 with one timeout. Detroit turned the favor into a field goal and took a 10-6 lead at halftime.

The first Vikings drive of the third quarter again made it deep into Detroit territory, thanks to a 58-yard run from Cam Akers, before ending with another failed fourth down; O’Connell kept his offense on the field from the Lions 2, and Darnold bailed right with his receivers covered. His throw for Addison was too low.

The Minnesota defense bought the Vikings another chance; Harrison Smith picked off an overthrown Goff pass on the next play. Once again, though, the Vikings settled for three points. The drive was short-circuited when Darnold was called for intentional grounding — earlier, Rogers’ crew had decided not to call it on Goff when he spiked the ball at Gibbs’ feet in the end zone — and Reichard hit from 51 to make it 10-9.

Try as they might, though, the Vikings couldn’t restrain the NFL’s highest-scoring offense all night.

Detroit picked its way down to the Vikings 10 in 12 plays, facing a fourth-and-2 when Dan Campbell kept his offense on the field.

The Vikings sent seven defenders after Goff, but he hit Gibbs in the midfield space Pace had vacated on a blitz, and Gibbs’ second TD of the game put the Lions up 17-9 late in the third quarter.

“He’s as explosive as anybody in the National Football League,” O’Connell said of Gibbs. “I thought we did a pretty good job on him for the most part, but against a player like that, all it takes is a little bit of space.”

On the Vikings’ ensuing drive, Darnold threw incomplete for Hockenson on a third down where the tight end wanted a flag for Alex Anzalone grabbing his arm, and Reichard’s fourth field-goal attempt of the night, again from 51 yards, sliced away from the right upright. For all intents and purposes, it was the Vikings’ last swing.

The Lions scored touchdowns on their next two possessions, finishing both of them with Gibbs runs, to make it 31-9. The Vikings pulled some of their defensive starters, extinguished any thought of home-field advantage for the first time since 1998 and set their sights on the Rams.

“That locker room is already ready to go,” O’Connell said afterward. “Guys are ready to respond, and we’ll get ready to go for a huge opportunity coming up on Monday night, going on the road.”

At the end of the game, Lions coach Dan Campbell said to O’Connell, “See you in two weeks.” If the Vikings win next Monday in Los Angeles, the Lions could indeed be their divisional-round opponent.

It’s a peculiar path for the first 14-win team not to hang a division championship banner. After a humbling night in Detroit, it’s the only path the Vikings have.

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