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On a day when the Minnesota Vikings got an outstanding performance from their defense, the game came down to one play, and the Buffalo Bills made it.
Kyle Orton found Sammy Watkins from one yard out with no time left on the clock to give the Bills a 17-16 victory over the Vikings at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Minnesota got on the board first with a 40-yard Blair Walsh field goal near the end of the first quarter to make the score 3-0. Following Teddy Bridgewater's second interception of the afternoon (on consecutive pass attempts), the Bills took a 7-3 lead on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Orton to Sammy Watkins early in the second.
Unfazed, Bridgewater led the Vikings back down the field, and finally got his first NFL touchdown pass, as Cordarrelle Patterson took a swing pass to the end zone from four yards out. The big play on that drive was a 37-yard pitch-and-catch from Bridgewater to Greg Jennings that got the Vikings into the Buffalo red zone.
The Bills picked up another field goal from Dan Carpenter to tie the game at 10, and with Buffalo driving before halftime, Orton threw a pass that was intercepted by Robert Blanton, the first of his career. The Vikings didn't move it that far, but they got it close enough for Blair Walsh to connect from 55 yards out to give Minnesota a 13-10 lead going into the locker room.
After a scoreless third quarter, the Vikings got another field goal from Walsh, a 33-yarder, in the fourth to make the score 16-10. The Bills got to midfield on their final drive, but sacks by Linval Joseph before the two-minute warning and by Tom Johnson on third down after it pushed the Bills into a 4th-and-20 situation, but the Bills converted with a 24-yard pass from Orton to Scott Chandler to keep the drive alive. The Bills got a big pass from Orton to Chris Hogan to put the ball on the 1-yard line with five seconds left, and Orton found Watkins on the Bills' final offensive play to give the home team the victory.
We'll have more on this game over the next couple of days. Meanwhile, the Vikings fall to 2-5 and have a trip to Tampa Bay on the schedule for Week 8.