Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a game winning, 27-yard touchdown pass to K.J. Osborn, to edge out the Carolina Panthers 34-28 in overtime.
Cousins passed for 373 yards and three touchdowns against the NFL’s top-ranked pass defense. Running back Dalvin Cook ran for 140 yards and a touchdown, and the Vikings finally put a halt to their second-half scoring difficulties. Wide receiver Adam Thielen had a number of big catches, finishing with 11 receptions for 126 yards and a score in Sundays’ game.
The Vikings, who are 3-3 on the season, had not scored a second-half touchdown in the previous four weeks. Cook was able to break that streak with a 16-yard touchdown run to give Minnesota the lead. Cousins contributed with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Thielen.
But two missed field goal attempts by placekicker Greg Joseph kept the Panthers (3-3) alive.
Panthers signal caller Sam Darnold finished the game completing 17 of 41 passes for 207 yards with one touchdown, a fumble and an interception. He almost pulled off an unlikely comeback. They trailed by 11 points with just over 5 minutes to go in the ballgame.
After Joseph missed a 50-yard field goal, the Panthers place kicker Zane Gonzalez made it a one possession game by connecting on a short field goal to trim the lead to 8.
Darnold hit Ian Thomas down the boundary for a 41-yard gain on a fourth-and-10 play from the Carolina four. Darnold then connected with pass catcher D.J. Moore, who had dropped a pass on the previous play, for a 25-yard completion down the left side to keep the drive intact. Darnold finished off the drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Robby Anderson. He then threw a shovel pass to first year player Tommy Tremble for the 2-point conversion to square the game at 28 with 42 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Vikings won the coin flip to begin the overtime period. Cousins feverishly moved his team into scoring range, finding Osborn, who beat safety Sean Chandler and reached the ball across the goal line to score the game winning touchdown.
It might have been a sign of things to come for the Panthers when Darnold threw downfield to Anderson on a comeback route on the first play of the game and was intercepted by Bashaud Breeland. It was the first of numerous Panthers mistakes.
Carolina’s first half was plagued by dropped passes, mental mistakes and poor clock management. On the final possession of the second quarter, the Panthers were called for a delay of game penalty, just after taking a timeout to diagram a play. Darnold attempted to call a second timeout, but NFL rules state that you cannot call back-to-back time outs. The errors kept coming and on the next play, the Panthers were flagged for a holding penalty, taking them out of field goal range.
There were a number of injuries that took place in the game.
Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson left the game with a lower body injury with 2:03 left in the fourth quarter and did not return.
Panther’s wide receiver Terrace Marshall exited the game in the first half after absorbing a violent hit from Vikings safety Xavier Woods, who was flagged for an illegal hit. Wide receiver Alex Erickson left the game in the second half with a concussion.
The Vikings have a bye next weekend, then host the Dallas Cowboys on October 31.
The Panthers go on the road to play the New York Giants (1-5) on Sunday.
