Seattle Seahawks 10
Minnesota Vikings 9
The Seattle Seahawks scored 10 fourth quarter points, and with a late missed field goal from Blair Walsh came back from a 9-point deficit to beat the Minnesota Vikings 10-9 Sunday.
1) Seahawks heat up in 4th quarter with Vikings blunders
Seattle was able to capitalize on two fourth quarter mistakes by the Vikings.
The first: With just under 12 minutes left and the Vikings up 9-0, a shotgun snap went over Russell WIlson’s shoulder and bounced back toward midfield. Wilson picked it up and with numerous Vikings bearing down, lobbed it to a wide open Tyler Lockett. The rookie turned up field and got pushed out inside the 10 yard line.
Two plays later, Wilson threw a touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin – their first score of the game – to get within 9-7, 11:35 to go.
On the Vikings’ next drive, Adrian Peterson caught two straight passes from Teddy Bridgewater – but was stripped by safety Kam Chancellor on the second, and the fumble was recovered by the Seahawks. That led to a field goal making it 10-9. And that would be it for scoring.
2) The Vikings offense
The Vikings offense didn’t get into the end zone.
Bridgewater was 17-for-24 with 146 yards, and was harassed by Seahawks lineman Michael Bennett all day. Adrian Peterson meanwhile picked up 45 yards on 23 carries – and had that fumble with 10:48 to go, the Vikings’ only turnover in the contest.
3) And Blair Walsh
Blair Walsh supplied Minnesota’s entire offense, hitting from 22, 43 and 47 yards in the first three quarters.
With less than 2 minutes left, the Vikings got the ball back. A pass interference on Chancellor (up against Kyle Rudolph), followed by a 24-yard connection from Bridgewater to the big tight end, got the team within chip shot range.
And with 26 seconds left, Walsh had a chance to put the Vikings ahead 12-10 with a 27-yard field goal … and pushed it wide left.
Game over, season over.
Tweet of the game
During the game, a lot was made about the direction of the laces on Walsh’s kicks – on two of them, the laces were facing Walsh, which generally makes it a harder kick.
Laces out.#SEAvsMIN pic.twitter.com/2LQH971nAH
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) January 10, 2016
The laces were also facing that way on the final miss – and former Viking Chris Kluwe weighed in.
https://twitter.com/ChrisWarcraft/status/686292418035986432
Up next
Well, the offseason. Free agency begins March 15 at 3 p.m. CST. The NFL Draft is April 28-30.
