4 Vikings to blame for handing No. 1 seed to Lions with dud finale

The Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions faced off in one of the most consequential Week 18 matchups in quite some time. The winner of this game would clinch the NFC North and earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC. With the top seed, the winning team would receive a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

The loser of this Sunday Night Football game would fall all the way down to the No. 5 seed in the NFC. That team would not only have to play in the Wild Card Round, but would do so on the road. This game could not be more important than it was for either team.

The Vikings hoped to finally prove to their doubters that they should be seen as legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and wound up doing their jobs somewhat. They intercepted Jared Goff twice, and got to the red zone several times. Unfortunately, they failed to score a single touchdown, and could not contain the dynamic Lions offense in the second half. The final score was an ugly one for Minnesota fans to deal with.

The entire team deserves blame for losing this game that they had to have, but these four individuals in particular deserve larger shares of it.

4) Jordan Addison no-showed at the worst possible time

The Vikings are fortunate to have arguably the best receiver in football, Justin Jefferson, on their team. What's abundantly clear, though, is that the Vikings need their non-Jefferson receivers to step up if they want to succeed in the playoffs. That did not happen on Sunday.

Jefferson, to be fair, did not have a great showing on Sunday at all, as he had just three receptions for 54 yards. With that being said, nobody else did much of anything to take the pressure off, and Jordan Addison is a prime example of that.

Addison is Minnesota's No. 2 receiver, and he had averaged over 103 yards per game over the Vikings' last five contests ahead of Sunday's game. He was targeted six times in this game, and the one catch he had was for no gain.

It goes without saying that it's going to be really hard for the Vikings to score enough if Addison fails to record a single receiving yard. Hopefully, he can find a way to flip the script once the playoffs roll around.

3) Kevin O'Connell failed to push the right buttons in the game's biggest moments

Kevin O'Connell has received nothing but praise this season, and deservingly so. This Vikings team had fairly low expectations after losing Kirk Cousins in free agency, and he led them to a 14-3 record. Sam Darnold suddenly emerged as an elite quarterback under O'Connell's tutelage, and the Vikings were good enough to win just about any division other than the one they are in.

Unfortunately, O'Connell's wizardry was not on display on Sunday whatsoever in a crucial game. The Vikings were in the red zone four times, yet managed to score just nine points. They failed to get the football into the end zone a single time. Obviously, the players need to do a better job executing, but the Vikings came up short in just about every crucial moment.

Not only were the Vikings 0-for-4 in the red zone, but they were 3-for-13 on third down and 0-for-3 on fourth down. Again, the players had to execute better, but O'Connell also did not push the right button with some of his play calls. He might be the Coach of the Year, but he came up short in the biggest game of his team's season.

2) T.J. Hockenson came up short against his former team

Many NFL fans wondered why the Lions were willing to trade T.J. Hockenson, one of the most talented tight ends in the NFL, within their own division. A game like this justified that trade for Detroit. Hockenson looked like anything but one of the game's best tight ends.

Darnold threw the ball Hockenson's way at will, as his eight targets were just one shy of tying his season-high. Unfortunately, Hockenson reeled in just two of those targets for eight total yards. One yard per target is as inefficient as it gets, and his rough night absolutely played a role in the team's struggles.

Hockenson was targeted four times on third down and once on third and goal. All of those passes were incomplete. Had a couple of those gone Minnesota's way, perhaps this would've been a different ballgame. Instead, despite all of the targets, Hockenson ended the day with his lowest yard output of the season.

1) Sam Darnold turned into a pumpkin when the Vikings needed him most

Sam Darnold's season could not have gone much better. He went from having to earn the starting job to playing his way into a monster contract this offseason. Unfortunately, a performance like this would give the Vikings a reason to just let him walk. Darnold was not good from the moment that the coin was tossed.

The 27-year-old entered the night having completed 68.1 percent of his throws and in the top five of the league in touchdown passes. On Sunday, he completed just 18 of his 41 attempts (43.9 percent) for 166 yards and failed to get into the end zone a single time.

What's really jarring about his performance is that Darnold threw more passes in this game than in any other this season. Despite that, he not only failed to throw a passing touchdown in a game for just the third time in 2024, but he had a season-low in passing yards. He set a season-high in attempts yet threw for a season-low in yards. That's how inefficient he was.

The Lions deserve credit for how they defended, but Darnold had several key misses in big moments. The Vikings deserved to lose, but the final score would've been closer had Darnold found a way to convert in the red zone.