Seattle Seahawks 27, Minnesota Vikings 26: Russell Wilson takes down the Vikings

The one thing that the Minnesota Vikings had to do in order to win on Sunday Night Football in Week 5 was stop Seattle Seahawks’ star quarterback Russell Wilson. For the first half of the game, they did just that.

When it mattered the most, they did not.

Wilson led the Seahawks on a 94-yard drive, culminating with a 6-yard pass to D.K. Metcalf with 15 seconds remaining to give the Seahawks a 27-26 victory over the Vikings in prime time.

The Vikings were dominant in the first half, as they opened the scoring on their first possession on a nice touchdown run by Dalvin Cook.

The 8-yard run by Cook was his seventh touchdown of this young season, and Dan Bailey’s extra point staked the Vikings to an early 7-0 lead.

The Vikings got two field goals from Bailey in the second quarter, one from 52 yards out and one from 46, to give them a 13-0 lead going into the locker room at halftime. The defense sacked Russell Wilson four times in the first half and looked completely different from the defense we’ve seen from this team for most of the season.

Then, on the first play of the third quarter for the Minnesota offense, Cook came up lame after a short reception and limped to the sideline. The injury seemed to breathe new life into the Seahawks, as they ran off 21 unanswered points. The first came on a 19-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Will Dissly to cut the Minnesota lead to 13-7. On Minnesota’s next possession, a play that had originally been ruled an incomplete throw by Kirk Cousins was later reversed and called a fumble as Cousins’ hand was empty going forward. The Seahawks turned that into a 13-yard pass from Wilson to D.K. Metcalf and took a 14-13 lead.

The Seahawks then got an interception of Cousins courtesy of K.J. Wright, and quickly turned that into a 29-yard run from Chris Carson to make the lead eight points at 21-13. It certainly looked like the Vikings were reeling at that point in the game.

Cousins collected himself, however, and led the Cook-less Vikings down the field and connected with Adam Thielen on a 3-yard score. Minnesota was unsuccessful on their two-point conversion attempt, and so the lead for the home team was 21-19 going into the final quarter of play.

The Vikings then put together an incredibly impressive drive that started at their own 3-yard line. With an outstanding combination of runs and passes, the Vikings marched 97 yards in 15 plays, capping the drive with the second Cousins-to-Thielen touchdown strike of the evening.

The 6-yard pass put the Vikings back on top by a score of 26-21 with just over seven minutes remaining in the contest. The Seahawks took possession again, but Russell Wilson made a pretty awful throw and Eric Wilson took advantage of it.

The interception put the Vikings in Seattle territory with a chance to take a two-score lead. Minnesota moved themselves down to the Seattle 6-yard line where they faced a 4th-and-1 at the two-minute warning. The Seahawks’ defense stopped Alexander Mattison on fourth down and took over deep in their own territory with 1:57 left on the clock.

After a long scramble by Wilson, the Vikings forced a 4th-and-10, but Wilson found D.K. Metcalf for a huge 39-yard gain into Minnesota territory at the 38. A few plays later, the Seahawks were looking at a first-and-goal from the Minnesota 6-yard line. The Vikings’ defense forced yet another fourth down with just twenty seconds remaining. Wilson dropped back to pass and fired a bullet to Metcalf for a score. The Seahawks failed to get the two-point conversion, but they still had the lead at 27-26.

The Vikings had one last possession, but Cousins was hit on a dropback and what appeared to be an incomplete pass was declared to be another fumble (after review), ending the game. The Vikings had one of the best teams in the NFL on the ropes for much of the evening, but wound up falling just short.

Minnesota falls to 1-4 with the loss and will return home to U.S. Bank Stadium to host the Atlanta Falcons in Week 6. The Seahawks remain undefeated at 5-0 and will have their bye in Week 6.

The Vikings lose a close one to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football by a final score of 27-26. Thanks to everyone that got their coverage of this week’s game right here at The Daily Norseman!