Amid a disappointing start to the NFL regular season, the Minnesota Vikings showed some serious offensive firepower during their 34-28 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football.
Among the top performers was quarterback Kirk Cousins, who fueled the Vikings offense completing 31 of his 44 passing attempts on the night for a total of 364 yards and four touchdown passes to bring his league-leading season total to six.
Impressively, Cousins did not throw an interception throughout the game that had the eyes of all NFL journalists as it was the only game on the schedule for Thursday night.
Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson hauled in two of those touchdowns while Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson hauled in 11 receptions for 159 yards.
“Very deflating,” Jefferson said (h/t ESPN).
Despite the solid offensive performance the Vikings were hindered by four fumbles.
“A tough, tough loss. Solid opponent, shot ourselves in the foot with the turnovers,” Cousins said of the loss, according to NFL.com’s Kevin Patra. “Similar story now the first two weeks in that case…Just difficult to win in this league when you lose the turnover battle by one, let alone by the margin we have lost it by, so we have to fix those mistakes and not let it continue.”
“I’m putting it a lot on myself,” Jefferson said of his critical turnover. “Fumbling in the end zone like that when we need points and we’re driving and having that momentum. I was telling my teammates that’s on me, and it won’t happen again.”
“You lose the turnover battle four-to-one with three of them being fumbles, or all four of them being fumbles,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “Seven-to-one in turnovers lost in two games and we have lost by a combined nine points verse two playoff teams from a year ago. Clearly, I have to coach it better from a standpoint of something that we talk about every single day. Ball security is a major, major focus in our football philosophy, but clearly, I need to do a better job and our staff. We have to go back and continue to find ways to re-emphasize how important it is when you have the football in your hands playing for the Minnesota Vikings.”
“Almost having your scoring differential be the same as your turnover margin is not something that you ever want to preach as a positive, but I do know that locker room is confident,” O’Connell said. “I do know that you get what you emphasize with them. So my anticipation is if we make ball security the living, breathing way that we talk and walk about everything in our building, it will improve. And that’s what my hope is and that’s on me and our coaching staff to emphasize it, minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, how we practice and ultimately start seeing it show up on Sundays.”
