Prater’s big kick helps Lions stun Vikings, 22-16 in OT

Then in the extra frame, Matthew Stafford found Golden Tate for the game winning touchdown.

“On offense, we could have started faster”, Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen said.

– I’m not one to criticize officials, but it’s hard to understand why a flag wasn’t thrown for pass interference on a fourth-quarter bomb to Golden Tate.

“He said one of the best speeches he’s heard, when it came to playing at a high level was a guy that the only thing he said was ‘watch me.’ At the beginning of the game he said, ‘who’s gonna say ‘watch me?’ Tate said”.

“We’re not devastated. We’re not panicking”. However, if the Packers’ lackluster offense continues its inconsistent play, this team could end up finishing around.500 and would be out of the picture – which could well lead to a shakeup of the leadership at 1265 Lombardi Avenue. It’s not like we didn’t fight.

Favoring the screens, curls and other assortments of short low-risk passes from the West Coast scheme that Shurmur has run before, with a little bit of Chip Kelly’s fast-paced, no-huddle attack from the Eagles the past two years mixed in, the Vikings crossed the Detroit 30-yard line on six of nine possessions.

The veteran split the uprights to take the buzz out of the U.S. Bank Stadium crowd.

Greg Olsen caught a touchdown pass in the first half and Graham Gano added two fourth-quarter field goals for the Panthers (3-5), who won their second straight after a four-game skid.

Stafford’s 27-yard touchdown pass to Andre Roberts set up Prater’s 58-yard field goal for the tie in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. Matthew Stafford has truly embraced the philosophy of spreading the ball around and it’s done wonders for the Lions’ offense so far this season.

The Lions ran it back to the Minnesota 42, setting up a Prater 52-yard field goal to make it 13-9 Lions.

On his fifth game-winning drive of the season: “We’d like to score earlier in the game and have the lead, but it didn’t work out that way”.

When pressed about his continued issues in the kicking game, Walsh said he wasn’t annoyed, despite his fourth missed field-goal attempt and third missed extra point of the season.

Another thing: Teams were 29-for-129 on field goals attempted from beyond 58 yards since 1994 according to PFR’s game finder.

On the Vikings’ next drive, Walsh had a 46-yard field-goal attempt blocked by Detroit lineman Tyrunn Walker. Somewhere former offensive coordinator Norv Turner is sighing (I will leave up to you if that is a sigh of relief or disgust). Why did it not go in? Why didn’t it go in?’ If I had the answer right away, I’d tell you. “I am confident in what I am doing and I know I am going to be fine, but it is tough right now”.

Clearly the Vikings’ plan behind either Bridgewater or Bradford was for the offense to spin around future Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson, but even after Peterson went down in Week Two the Vikings appeared to be getting better with dominant wins over Carolina, the N.Y. Giants and Houston to get to 5-0.

Minnesota (5-3) entered the game with the league’s second-ranked defense but lost its third straight after beginning the season as the NFL’s last unbeaten team. He was sacked twice and did not turn the ball over.

Stafford finished the day 23-of-36 for 219 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. “Anytime you lose a game, it’s not easy”. Had Theilen not extended for that throw, it might have been a game-sealing interception for the Lions.

PANTHERS 13, RAMS 10: Cam Newton persevered despite five sacks to pass for 225 yards and a touchdown, and Carolina’s defence shut down Los Angeles. We’re not the only team to have ups and downs. Everybody will hop off the bandwagon after games like that. As we discussed above with Stafford, a quarterback can cover a lot of flaws in a team. “I thought that was something we can build on going forward”.