10-11-2021, 12:56 PM
A Viking kicker smiling as time ran out at the end of the game. I thought it was pretty funny the way the team carried him off the field. =)
![[Image: 101121.S.STP.VIKINGS01.jpg]](https://www.fccnn.com/incoming/7232550-rdauxf-101121.S.STP.VIKINGS01.jpg/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/101121.S.STP.VIKINGS01.jpg)
https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/football/7232534-Greg-Joseph%E2%80%99s-final-play-54-yard-field-goal-rescues-Vikings-in-19-17-win-over-Lions
https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/football/7232534-Greg-Joseph%E2%80%99s-final-play-54-yard-field-goal-rescues-Vikings-in-19-17-win-over-Lions
This time, Greg Joseph was the hero.
The Vikings kicker drilled a 54-yard field
goal on the final play to give them a 19-17 victory over Detroit on
Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. And several teammates responded by carrying
him off the field on their shoulders.
It
was a far cry from Sept. 19, when Joseph missed a 37-yard field goal on
the final play of the Vikings’ 34-33 loss at Arizona. After that game,
teammates consoled Joseph in the locker room, and wide receiver Adam
Thielen told Joseph he was confident he would get another chance to kick
a big field goal.
That chance came three weeks later.
“I’m
so happy for all the guys in the locker room,” Joseph said. “The team
deserved that win, and happy I was able to deliver. … Personally, I
don’t need to be carried off because they deserve as much credit as I
do. … But it’s an awesome feeling. To hear that stadium erupt was pretty
amazing.”
Joseph rescued the Vikings from what
could have been a devastating defeat after they blew a 16-6 lead in the
final three minutes. Instead, they raised their record to 2-3 and the
Lions remained winless at 0-5.
“That was tough,” said Detroit coach Dan Campbell, in tears after the game. “That was a heartbreaker.”
It
looked as if the Vikings were about to add another heartbreaking defeat
to their list this season, on top of losing the opener 27-24 at
Cincinnati when Dalvin Cook lost a fumble late in overtime and the
Bengals kicked a field goal, and then losing by one point at Arizona the
following week.
With 1:56 left,
Alexander Mattison, who rushed for a career-high 113 yards in relief of
the injured Cook, lost a fumble at the Vikings 20.
The
Lions, who cut the deficit to 16-9 with 2:30 remaining on Austin
Siebert’s 40-yard field goal, wasted no time in taking the lead. D’Andre
Swift scored on a 1-yard run with 37 seconds left, then Jared Goff
threw a two-point conversion pass to KhaDarel Hodge to put them up
17-16.
Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks didn’t deny
he was thinking of some of the earlier losses this season when the
Lions took the lead.
“Yeah, honestly,
we’ve got to do better, obviously,” he said. “But we don’t want to be
in that situation ever, especially when we’ve been playing well the
whole game.”
The Vikings were able to
salvage the win when Kirk Cousins threw completions of 21 yards to
Thielen, six yards to Dede Westbrook and 19 yards to Thielen to get the
ball to the Detroit 36. Cousins then spiked the ball, setting up
Joseph’s field goal.
“It wasn’t the
prettiest of wins, but it was a win, and we’ll take it,” Vikings coach
Mike Zimmer said. “Sometimes when you win games like that, it’s a good
thing because it evens out at some point if you can keep plugging along.
… (Joseph) did a nice job, made a nice kick.”
Mattison
was relieved when Joseph’s kick went through the uprights. He learned
Sunday morning that once again he would start in place of Cook, who
suffered a sprained right ankle against the Cardinals and missed his
second game out of the past three.
Mattison also caught seven passes for 40
yards, and scored Minnesota’s only touchdown on a 15-yard reception in
the second quarter when he bowled over several defenders inside the
5-yard line to put the Vikings up 13-3. But with the Vikings trying to
run the clock down, Mattison was fighting for extra yards when he was
stacked up on third-and-7 and had the bar jarred loose and recovered by
Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
“It’s a play
where you’ve got to know when the fight is over and forward momentum
probably was stopped,” Mattison said. “But they didn’t blow the whistle.
… It was a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster toward the end
there but it’s football, and it happens to the best of us.”
After the fumble, Mattison said Cook told him, “I got your back.”
Minnesota
also got a big game out of wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who caught
seven passes for 124 yards. But there were periods during the game when
the Vikings didn’t look much for Jefferson, and Thielen didn’t catch a
single pass until the last drive.
The
Vikings, a 10-point favorite, were content at times to be conservative
on offense. The fans let them know their displeasure about that often
during the game, including booing when the Vikings ran out the clock at
the end of the first half when they started at their 19 with 41 seconds
left and had two timeouts left.
Boos
rained down after the Vikings blew the 10-point lead late in the game
before they turned to cheers after Joseph’s winning kick. But there was
still concern after the game about the Vikings barely defeating one of
the NFL’s worst teams and scoring just one touchdown in each of the past
two games.
“Always good to get a
win,” said Cousins, who completed 25 of 34 passes for 275 yards but
threw an interception for the second straight game after none in the
first three games. “There’s certainly a lot that we can improve upon as a
team.”
At least the kicker wasn’t an
issue this time. Joseph made two 38-yard field goals in the first half,
when the Vikings took a 13-6 lead, and he hit a career-long 55-yarder
with 4:28 left in the game for a 16-9 lead. Joseph missed a 49-yarder
short with 3:17 left but then made the one at the end that really
counted.
“We knew that he was going to get another opportunity, and we’re thankful he’s on our team,” Thielen said.
The Vikings kicker drilled a 54-yard field
goal on the final play to give them a 19-17 victory over Detroit on
Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. And several teammates responded by carrying
him off the field on their shoulders.
It
was a far cry from Sept. 19, when Joseph missed a 37-yard field goal on
the final play of the Vikings’ 34-33 loss at Arizona. After that game,
teammates consoled Joseph in the locker room, and wide receiver Adam
Thielen told Joseph he was confident he would get another chance to kick
a big field goal.
That chance came three weeks later.
“I’m
so happy for all the guys in the locker room,” Joseph said. “The team
deserved that win, and happy I was able to deliver. … Personally, I
don’t need to be carried off because they deserve as much credit as I
do. … But it’s an awesome feeling. To hear that stadium erupt was pretty
amazing.”
Joseph rescued the Vikings from what
could have been a devastating defeat after they blew a 16-6 lead in the
final three minutes. Instead, they raised their record to 2-3 and the
Lions remained winless at 0-5.
“That was tough,” said Detroit coach Dan Campbell, in tears after the game. “That was a heartbreaker.”
It
looked as if the Vikings were about to add another heartbreaking defeat
to their list this season, on top of losing the opener 27-24 at
Cincinnati when Dalvin Cook lost a fumble late in overtime and the
Bengals kicked a field goal, and then losing by one point at Arizona the
following week.
With 1:56 left,
Alexander Mattison, who rushed for a career-high 113 yards in relief of
the injured Cook, lost a fumble at the Vikings 20.
The
Lions, who cut the deficit to 16-9 with 2:30 remaining on Austin
Siebert’s 40-yard field goal, wasted no time in taking the lead. D’Andre
Swift scored on a 1-yard run with 37 seconds left, then Jared Goff
threw a two-point conversion pass to KhaDarel Hodge to put them up
17-16.
Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks didn’t deny
he was thinking of some of the earlier losses this season when the
Lions took the lead.
“Yeah, honestly,
we’ve got to do better, obviously,” he said. “But we don’t want to be
in that situation ever, especially when we’ve been playing well the
whole game.”
The Vikings were able to
salvage the win when Kirk Cousins threw completions of 21 yards to
Thielen, six yards to Dede Westbrook and 19 yards to Thielen to get the
ball to the Detroit 36. Cousins then spiked the ball, setting up
Joseph’s field goal.
“It wasn’t the
prettiest of wins, but it was a win, and we’ll take it,” Vikings coach
Mike Zimmer said. “Sometimes when you win games like that, it’s a good
thing because it evens out at some point if you can keep plugging along.
… (Joseph) did a nice job, made a nice kick.”
Mattison
was relieved when Joseph’s kick went through the uprights. He learned
Sunday morning that once again he would start in place of Cook, who
suffered a sprained right ankle against the Cardinals and missed his
second game out of the past three.
Mattison also caught seven passes for 40
yards, and scored Minnesota’s only touchdown on a 15-yard reception in
the second quarter when he bowled over several defenders inside the
5-yard line to put the Vikings up 13-3. But with the Vikings trying to
run the clock down, Mattison was fighting for extra yards when he was
stacked up on third-and-7 and had the bar jarred loose and recovered by
Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
“It’s a play
where you’ve got to know when the fight is over and forward momentum
probably was stopped,” Mattison said. “But they didn’t blow the whistle.
… It was a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster toward the end
there but it’s football, and it happens to the best of us.”
After the fumble, Mattison said Cook told him, “I got your back.”
Minnesota
also got a big game out of wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who caught
seven passes for 124 yards. But there were periods during the game when
the Vikings didn’t look much for Jefferson, and Thielen didn’t catch a
single pass until the last drive.
The
Vikings, a 10-point favorite, were content at times to be conservative
on offense. The fans let them know their displeasure about that often
during the game, including booing when the Vikings ran out the clock at
the end of the first half when they started at their 19 with 41 seconds
left and had two timeouts left.
Boos
rained down after the Vikings blew the 10-point lead late in the game
before they turned to cheers after Joseph’s winning kick. But there was
still concern after the game about the Vikings barely defeating one of
the NFL’s worst teams and scoring just one touchdown in each of the past
two games.
“Always good to get a
win,” said Cousins, who completed 25 of 34 passes for 275 yards but
threw an interception for the second straight game after none in the
first three games. “There’s certainly a lot that we can improve upon as a
team.”
At least the kicker wasn’t an
issue this time. Joseph made two 38-yard field goals in the first half,
when the Vikings took a 13-6 lead, and he hit a career-long 55-yarder
with 4:28 left in the game for a 16-9 lead. Joseph missed a 49-yarder
short with 3:17 left but then made the one at the end that really
counted.
“We knew that he was going to get another opportunity, and we’re thankful he’s on our team,” Thielen said.
