Kirk Cousins threw a game winning touchdown to Adam Thielen with a little less than 10 minutes left on Thursday night, leading the Minnesota Vikings to a 33-26 win over the New England Patriots at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
In a back and forth first half, Minnesota (9-2) took the opening kickoff and went right down the field in 10 plays as Cousins hit Justin Jefferson for a six yard touchdown. New England immediately responded with a pass from Mac Jones to Jakobi Meyers for 26 yards setting it up. Jones then hit Nelson Agholor for a 34 yard touchdown splitting the Vikings secondary down the middle of the field. The Patriots took their first lead when Jonathan Jones intercepted Cousins, and then returned it 55 yards to the Minnesota 17 yard line. New England settled for three points on a Nick Folk 34 yard field goal. The Vikes then went on a long 16 play drive that extended into the second quarter, but a holding penalty killed the momentum and they settled for a Greg Joseph 30 yard field goal to tie it 10-10. Last weeks hero Marcus Jones would return the ensuing kickoff 46 yards to midfield, and that helped the guests go back on top with a Folk field goal of 46 yards. The hosts went back in front when Cousins hit his tight end T.J. Hockenson for a one yard TD, but Joseph missed the extra point. New England got even at the break 16-16 on the third field goal by Folk of 23 yards in the final seconds of the half.
The second half started with a bang with two touchdowns in the first 4:10 of the third quarter. New England (6-5) took the kickoff and went 75 yards in eight plays capped off by a Jones to Hunter Henry 37 yard touchdown. Kene Nwangwu then received the kickoff after the Henry score for Minnesota and tied it with a 97 yard touchdown return. The Patriots thought they had found the endzone again on the next drive, as Jones connected with Henry on a third down play and Henry caught it at the goal line and stretched it across. The scoring play though was reviewed and the ruling was Henry didn’t complete the catch all the way to the ground and it was called an incomplete pass, so Folk again had to knock a field goal through this time of 25 yards. The Vikings responded aided by two personal foul calls on New England, but a big sack by Josh Uche would result in a 36 yard field goal by Joseph to make it 26-26 on the third play of the fourth quarter. After an empty possession by the Pats, they also made a stand and forced a punt. On the punt though, Pierre Strong, Jr. ran into the kicker giving Minnesota a first down. Cousins then would hit Jefferson for a 36 yard gain that set up the game winning 15 yard touchdown pass to Thielen for a 33-26 lead with 9:40 left to play. New England then went three and out, and the Vikings were also forced to punt with their next possession. Rhamondre Stevenson made a big play on a screen for the Patriots with 3:48 remaining with a 40 yard gain to his opponents 33 yard line. A big sack on Jones though by Dani Hunter for a nine yard loss on third down would force a fourth down and 16, and Jones desperation deep pass fell incomplete intended for Agholor with less than two minutes to go. The guests had one more chance as they used their timeouts and stopped the Vikes three and out, getting the ball from their own 11 yard line with 53 seconds showing on the clock with no timeouts left. Jones took another nine yard sack on first down, and then hit Kendrick Bourne and Meyers for passes of 17 and 23 yards but in the middle of the field and the clock expired ending the game.
Jones would finish 28-39 passing for 382 yards and two touchdowns in the loss. The run game was almost non-existent only rushing for 45 yards, and Damien Harris left the game with a thigh injury in the second half and didn’t return. Stevenson had a total of 112 all-purpose yards on the night (seven rushes, 36 yards and nine receptions for 76 yards). Devante Parker had four catches for 80 yards, while Agholar had six for 65 yards, and Henry and Meyes both caught three for 63 and 62 yards respectively. Henry and Agholor both had a touchdown each. Kyle Dugger led the defense with eight total tackles. Cousins was 30-37 for 299 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in the win for Minnesota. Jefferson and Thielen combined for 18 receptions for 200 yards and each had a touchdown (Jefferson nine receptions for 139 yards, Thielen nine receptions for 61 yards). Some telling stats in the loss was the Patriots went 3-10 on third down, while the Vikes went 8-15 and New England was also 0-3 in the redzone and Minnesota was 3-5. New England returns to action next Thursday night when they host their AFC East rival the Buffalo Bills at 8:15 p.m.
