4 Reasons Why the Vikings Lost to Kansas City
Josh Frey
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The Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings met at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday, with Minnesota having a chance to build on their victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 4.
Instead, Minnesota dug themselves an even deeper hole in the NFC North by losing 27-20 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Kansas City continued their chokehold on the AFC by improving to 4-1.
The Vikings were never expected to win this game, but of course, they made it close enough that it still stung when Kirk Cousins was sacked to end Minnesota’s last-ditch comeback effort. Here are 4 reasons why Minnesota lost this game to Kansas City.
Second Half Time of Possession
Heading into this game, one of the big problems with the Vikings has been the time of possession battle. Minnesota had lost it in three of their first four games of the season, and their defense seemed gassed by the end of each matchup. With all of their games being decided by one possession, this was a trend that needed to change for the Vikings to beat Kansas City.
They did a great job of this in the first half of the game, keeping Patrick Mahomes on the bench for 16 minutes and 16 seconds. As a result, Minnesota entered halftime tied with the Chiefs at 13. They put themselves in excellent position, but the second half time of possession went fully in Kansas City’s favor. The Chiefs held the ball for more than 19 minutes, and two long touchdown drives to begin the half all but sealed Minnesota’s fate.
Turnover Battle
Turnovers, and especially fumbles, have been a very wacky problem for the Vikings all year. Heading into the game, Minnesota led the league both in turnovers and fumbles lost. Unfortunately, the turnover problems struck again for the Vikings early in this one.
On the opening play of the game, Josh Oliver caught a 15-yard pass, but he immediately fumbled away the ball, ending the opening possession within seconds of its start. Kansas City promptly went down the field and scored a touchdown to put Minnesota in another early hole. The Vikings won’t be winning many games for the rest of the year if they continue fumbling away possessions without creating turnovers of their own.
The Running Game
Minnesota’s running game was fine in the first half. They certainly didn’t light the world on fire with their ground game, but 12 carries for 52 yards is a satisfactory commitment to the running game, and it was productive enough to keep the chains moving.
However, the Vikings completely abandoned the running game in the second half, thus contributing to their time of possession loss. They ran the ball just six times over the final 30 minutes of this game, and two of these runs were QB sneaks by Kirk Cousins. Minnesota needs to balance their offense moving forward.
Timeout Management
If the Vikings had a couple timeouts to use during their final drive of the game, it may have been a bit easier for them to move down the field and try and tie this game to force overtime. However, Minnesota burned all three of their timeouts before the 9:00 mark of the fourth quarter.
The first of these timeouts came prior to a 3rd-and-7 on their opening possession of the first half as they tried to draw up a play to convert. However, Cousins would try to find Justin Jefferson in double coverage, and the ball fell incomplete.
Then, the Vikings lost their second timeout because of a lost challenge, and their third timeout came prior to a 4th-and-1 where Kansas City simply took a delay of game and punted the ball. On top of everything else going against the Vikings in that second half, they couldn’t afford to blow all of their timeouts.
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Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.