The Vikings’ playoff hopes, after a late afternoon high-wire act against the Cowboys on Sunday, are on life support. The reasons they are 4-6, and not 5-5, were too many for Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson to overcome.
They fell 31-28 to the Cowboys in a game filled with lead changes, magnificent catches from Vikings and Cowboys receivers and hard-to-explain penalties that keep the game close ended with the Vikings’ inability to get a defensive stop.
“I don’t think we played well enough to win today,” coach Mike Zimmer said, noting penalties, red-zone defense and a slow start on offense as particular problems.
The Vikings will play their next two at home against the four-win Panthers and one-win Jaguars before heading on the road to face Tampa Bay.
They missed a chance to get within a game of the Cardinals for the NFC’s final wild-card spot, and will need to win against the Panthers and Jaguars to keep any chance of a postseason berth feasible.
“We came ready to play. We didn’t play good enough,” said linebacker Eric Kendricks. “We know what’s up. We definitely know what’s up. We’ve got to win the game at hand, focus on that game, make plays at crunch time, have energy on the sidelines, we’ve got to keep it up. We can’t make little mistakes that wind up costing us the game.
“We didn’t over look them or anything like that. It’s the NFL. You got to come to play every week.”
BOXSCORE: Dallas 31, Vikings 28
Cook, Thielen and Jefferson combined to touch the ball on 42 of their 57 offensive plays in the game’s first 57 minutes.
The Vikings’ final chance to tie the game ended with a 4-yard run from Cook, a crushing second-down drop from Jefferson and two incomplete passes to Thielen, who lost a yellow cleat on the final play that officials initially mistook for a flag.
The Vikings’ list of penalties also included a chop block, a face mask call on wide receiver Bisi Johnson, and Harrison Smith was flagged for another 15-yard personal foul for a hit that had the Vikings again wondering what else the safety could have done.
The Vikings missed a chance for a big play on a fake punt pass from Britton Colquitt to Kris Boyd after referees flagged Boyd for an illegal shift, and Boyd was called for a block in the back on the ensuing punt.
Thielen finished with eight catches for 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a one-handed grab with a toe stand in the back corner of the end zone that invoked Hall of Famer Cris Carter — whom Thielen grew up watching — and pulled the Vikings within two in the third quarter. Dallas led 16-7 at halftime, having scored 10 points off fumbles from Cousins and Cook.
Thielen’s second TD gave the Vikings the lead for the first time since the first quarter, and after the Cowboys pulled ahead on the longest run any team has posted against the Vikings this season (a 42-yard score from Tony Pollard off the right side of the Dallas line), Cousins hit Jefferson for a 39-yard score as the rookie fought through a grab from cornerback Anthony Brown.
After forcing a Vikings punt, the Cowboys drove 59 yards to the Vikings’ 2 with less than two minutes left, where Andy Dalton hit a two-yard scoring pass to Dalton Schultz off crossing routes designed to sow confusion in the Vikings’ secondary.
The lead change was the last of a fourth quarter that saw 29 total points.
“When you don’t win, you just leave the stadium sick to your stomach,” Cousins said. “It’s just heartbreaking right now.”
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Cowboys rally for 31-28 victory and stop Vikings' winning streak - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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