The Vikings have blamed their own home supporters in their heartbreaking 28-24 loss to the Chargers in a tense game, with the Minnesota team claiming the crowd noise interfered with their final play.
The Vikings were set to complete a famous come-from-behind win, for what would have been there opening victory from three matches, but the deafening crowd noise led to just one play from the final 35 seconds, camping on the Chargers 6-yard line.
A lengthy pre-snap delay counted against the home team as they picked up a third successive loss.
The respective quarterbacks Kirk Cousins for the Vikings and Juston Herbert for the Chargers had decent showings, while the offenses ran in exactly 475 yards complete in the match-up.
Herbert outplayed Cousins though, with the QB throwing 40-47 completions, and 405 yards, to go with three touchdowns, while Cousins threw 32-50, for 367 yards, three TD’s and one interception.
Cousins said after the game he, “just couldn’t hear”, coach Kevin O’Connell’s play call, with no timeouts.
The eventual ‘run-a-first’ call would have been the head coach’s call, but 23 seconds elapsed, and time had simply run out for the Minnesota side.
The Vikings next take on the struggling Panthers away in a must-win game. Both franchises are winless and in desperate need of some luck.
