4 mistakes the Vikings made against the Lions that cost them the No. 1 seed

With both the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the conference on the line on Sunday night in a winner-take-all battle against the rival Detroit Lions, the Minnesota Vikings chose the worst possible time to play one of their worst overall games of the season and ultimately took an embarrassing 31-9 defeat.

As such, the Vikings are now the first 14-win wild-card team in NFL history and enter the postseason as the No. 5 seed in the NFC. And that makes their first-round matchup all the more interesting, as they're set for a showdown on Monday night on the road at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams, who were the only team not named the Lions to hand them a loss this season.

Oddly enough, the Vikes lost to the Lions and Rams in back-to-back weeks in October, so they're obviously hoping to avoid the same fate here in January.

But let's look ahead to Super Wild Card Weekend just yet. For now, let's take a look at a few of the mistakes Minnesota made in its Week 18 loss to Detroit.

Sam Darnold made far too many poor throws against the Lions

Like the Vikings as a whole, Sam Darnold picked the worst possible night to put on one of his worst performances of the season.

And make no mistake about it; that's exactly what it was, as the soon-to-be free agent completed a season-low 43.9% of his passes, connecting on just 18 of 41 attempts for a season-worst 166 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Occam's razor suggests that the simplest explanation is often the best one, and the simplest way to explain Darnold's dreadful outing is that he made far too many poor throws in this game, most of them on the high side. In fact, he had eight overthrows in the first half alone, which would have been good for the second-most of any entire game of his career.

A couple of these poor throws, of course, were made in the red zone following the Ivan Pace Jr. interception that gave the Vikings excellent field position at the Lions' 7-yard line midway through the second quarter. On three straight passes, Darnold failed to connect with Justin Jefferson in the end zone, forcing the Vikings to settle for a field goal.

If Minnesota wants to get past Los Angeles in the Wild Card Round, Darnold simply has to be better than he was against Detroit.

Justin Jefferson and the entire Vikings receiving corps failed to create any separation against the Detroit secondary

To be fair, one of the main reasons why it looked as if Jefferson and every other Vikings receiver were having trouble creating any separation against the Lions' secondary was the fact that Darnold, in addition to his many overthrows, also threw plenty of balls behind his pass-catchers, giving the Detroit defensive backs more time to close gaps.

But not all of this can be put on Darnold.

Jefferson flat-out lost his one-on-one battle with longtime rival Amik Robertson, who blanketed the now-four-time Pro Bowler all night long, holding him to just three receptions. Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson offered little assistance, combining for three catches for nine yards.

Jalen Nailor had a solid outing for the second straight week with three catches for 53 yards, but Addison and Hockenson will undoubtedly have to be better against the Rams, especially if Jefferson is having an off night or is facing double-teams.

Kevin O'Connell opting for a long Will Reichard field goal instead of going for it on fourth down

Kevin O'Connell certainly made his fair share of mistakes on Sunday night, one of which was his fourth-down decision late in the third quarter.

With the Vikings only trailing 17-9 at this time and facing 4th & 4 at the Lions' 34-yard line, O'Connell chose not to get aggressive and instead opted to send Will Reichard in for a 51-yard field goal, which he promptly missed by a mile to the right.

The thought process is somewhat understandable, as the Minnesota offense wasn't even close to firing on all cylinders. And Reichard had made a 51-yarder earlier in the quarter.

In this situation, though, Darnold and the entire Vikings offensive unit needed a confidence booster, and O'Connell didn't even give them a chance. This possession and the one that followed it completely changed the entire landscape of this game and allowed the Lions to pull away.

Andrew Van Ginkel had a pick-6 in his hands and dropped it

After taking possession following Reichard's missed field goal, the Lions quickly moved the ball down the field. Jahmyr Gibbs took a short pass from Jared Goff 14 yards to close out the third quarter, and Goff then connected with Sam LaPorta for an 11-yard gain to open the fourth.

On the third play of the drive, Goff was looking for another short pass, this time in the direction of Amon-Ra St. Brown, but Vikings Pro Bowl linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel jumped right in front of it and had a clear path for what should have been his third pick-six of the season. But as hanging onto the football is an essential piece of that puzzle, it didn't come to pass.

Gibbs scored his third touchdown of the night just three plays later to give the Lions a 24-9 lead. Van Ginkel made some solid plays in this contest, but that costly mistake was a game-changer.