Los Angeles Rams 30, Minnesota Vikings 20: No Answers on Thursday Night Football

It’s a two-game losing streak for the Vikings

On Thursday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings had a chance to get back on the right track against a Los Angeles Rams team that had been bad on both sides of the ball for much of this season.

They didn’t.

Matthew Stafford, who had three touchdown passes in his first six games coming into the Thursday Night matchup, had four against the Vikings as he led the Rams to a 28-20 victory at SoFi Stadium.

Minnesota got on the board first in this one, as they took the opening drive and marched straight down the field. The drive ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to Josh Oliver to make it 7-0 less than five minutes into the contest.

The Rams responded immediately on their first possession, as Matt Stafford found Kyren Williams for a 5-yard score to tie things up at 7-7 with just under seven minutes left in the quarter.

The Vikings took the lead back on their second possession, moving the ball down the field with no issues and ending with another touchdown pass for Darnold, as he found Trent Sherfield for a 10-yard score to make it 14-7 with under a minute left in the first quarter.

Los Angeles kept the track meet going on their next possession, thanks in part to a couple of third down penalties on the Vikings that would have ended drives. Matthew Stafford took advantage and found the returning Cooper Kupp for a 7-yard score to tie things at 14-14 with ten minutes left in the first half.

There was no more scoring the rest of the first half, and the Vikings’ defense started the second half with a big play, with Byron Murphy intercepting Stafford to stop a potential Rams scoring drive.

On the next drive, Justin Jefferson made an absolutely ridiculous catch to put the Vikings in scoring range. You have to see it to believe it, so here it is.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, the points were from a 23-yard field goal by Will Reichard, though it did give Minnesota the lead back at 17-14.

And more unfortunately for the Vikings, the next drive saw the Rams take the lead as Stafford got his third touchdown pass of the night, a 25-yarder to DeMarcus Robinson to make it 21-17 in favor of the home team with two and a half minutes left in the third quarter.

The Vikings cut more into the lead early in the fourth quarter, as Reichard connected on a 35-yard field goal to make it 21-20 with just under thirteen minutes left in regulation. The Rams then pushed it back to a touchdown lead as Stafford found Robinson again, this time from 10 yards out to make it 28-20 with six minutes remaining.

The Vikings made a complete mess out of their ensuing offensive possession, and while they eventually forced a Rams punt, they only had a little over a minute to make something happen and they couldn’t. In fact, they wound up giving the Rams more points, as Darnold got dragged down in the end zone by his face mask for a safety to make it 30-20.

After winning their first five games of the season, the Vikings are on a two-game losing streak and now have a bit of a mini-bye before facing the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football a week from Sunday.

The Minnesota Vikings drop their second game in five days, falling to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football by a score of 28-20. Thank you to everyone who got their coverage of this week’s game right here at The Daily Norseman!