MINNEAPOLIS -- There were 15 seconds on the clock Sunday when the Minnesota Vikings, trailing by two points, took over for their final possession. They had the ball at their 30, and the way coach Kevin O'Connell figured it, they needed roughly two dozen yards and a stopped clock to give rookie kicker Will Reichard a chance to beat the Detroit Lions with a game-winning field goal.
Incredibly, the Vikings pulled off both on the ensuing play. Quarterback Sam Darnold found receiver Jalen Nailor for a 20-yard gain over the middle, and the rest of the offense got downfield quickly enough to spike the ball with one second remaining. But before O'Connell could summon Reichard, referee Clay Martin's crew flagged the Vikings for illegal formation. In their haste to preserve time, the Vikings did not get enough players set on the line of scrimmage.
The 5-yard penalty was the difference between a 68-yard field goal attempt (an NFL record that is genuinely within Reichard's range) and the desperate Hail Mary they ended up trying, which ended with a sack.
It was among a handful of plays that proved the difference between two NFL heavyweights in a spectacular mid-October game, a 31-29 Lions victory at U.S. Bank Stadium that dropped the Vikings to 5-1. If the game was confirmation that the Vikings are in fact one of the NFL's best teams, it was also a reminder of the tiny margin of error in such matchups.
"[Against] really good teams," O'Connell said, "you're not just going to steamroll through the game and have perfect plays on every play. But you better make sure it's [the opponents] that are causing, truly, some of those things that happen instead of some self-inflicted things."
The Vikings were flagged twice for illegal formation, once for a false start and once for a rare offensive offsides when receiver Jordan Addison lined up with his foot past the line of scrimmage. It was one of only four such penalties around the NFL all season and, while it didn't lose the game, it did cost the Vikings a net of 12 yards during a failed two-minute drill at the end of the first half.
There were other such instances. Linebacker Jonathan Greenard, for one, took responsibility for failing to cover Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs on a wheel route with 1:25 remaining. Gibbs gained 16 yards on the play to put the Lions in position for their winning kick.
"I've got to make my reads and make my assignment," Greenard said. "[If I] take that back to the flat, they don't get that wheel route to Jahmyr and get in field goal range. Simple as that."
This was hardly a collapse. The Vikings' defense did give up four consecutive touchdowns drives in the second and third quarters, but it tightened up to limit the Lions to one field goal over their final four possessions. In between, the defense forced two punts and forced a fumble that linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. returned 36 yards for a touchdown to give them a brief lead.
It had been a long time since the Vikings had lost a game of any kind, after a 3-0 preseason and a 5-0 start to the regular season, and perspective was important.
"Our standard is very high in this locker room," said safety Josh Metellus. "We've been able to put that standard on tape in these first six weeks. We had it at moments today. We know what we're all about. We know what kind of ball we should be playing. ... That lets us know what kind of spot we're in. We just have to look in the mirror and attack instead of trying to wallow in our sorrows for something that just happened."
Indeed, O'Connell had something much bigger in mind when he spoke about the handful of plays that spelled the difference between a win and a loss. At 5-1, the Vikings are tied for the best record in the NFC. They traded blows with the Lions, now the conference's other 5-1 team, for three hours and eight minutes Sunday and lost by two points. There are a number of reasons to think they're well-positioned for a playoff run -- when those handful of plays may ultimately determine a Super Bowl champion.
"It might not seem like a big deal at the time or when it is in the game," O'Connell said, "but that's what kind of football games I believe are out in front of this team -- when you're playing teams that are very, very good teams and it's going to be competitive. Not just the ones we've got left [in the regular season], but hopefully more.
"In a game like this, our players and coaches have to understand that we cannot just treat the end of game as, 'This is how we're going to go win it.' Your one impact might be a second-and-8 in the middle of the second quarter. It might be the first play of the game. ... Can we do a little more? Can we be a little bit cleaner across the board? Because I have a ton of confidence in our team and our players."