A 39-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson inside the final four minutes lifted the Vikings, as did Philadelphia’s earlier loss that reshaped the NFC playoff race.
Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) hauls in a 14-yard TD reception as Seahawks cornerback Tre Brown (22) tries to defend in the second quarter Sunday. (Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
SEATTLE — A contingent of Vikings fans yelled and clapped the Skol chant through raincoats and ponchos as Vikings and Seattle Seahawks players congregated at Lumen Field’s 50-yard line to exchange hugs and handshakes after the Vikings’ 27-24 win late Sunday afternoon. Fullback C.J. Ham quickly shuffled through nine years of memories and said to himself, “I don’t think I’ve ever won here.”
“The first handful of years, it was preseason or regular season,” he said. “We came here a lot. It’s always a close game here. It’s a tough place to play.”
He had carried eight times for 25 yards in his second game in a Vikings uniform, an 18-11 preseason victory in 2016. But Ham’s recollection of games that mattered was correct and probably formed through painful memories: Five times since 2006, the Vikings had made the long flight home from the Pacific Northwest after a defeat.
Ham was there for the last three, all at night, all at the hands of Russell Wilson. The last time the Vikings were in Seattle in 2020, Ham blocked for Alexander Mattison as the Vikings tried to convert a fourth-and-1 that would have sealed a win. Mattison was stopped, and Wilson drove the Seahawks 94 yards in the final two minutes for the game-winning touchdown in a 27-26 triumph for Seattle.
“It’s known for having great fans and being loud, and making it hard on opposing teams,” Ham said. “It’s just hard to win on the road in general. You add those elements to it, it makes it tough. So to be able to come out here and win is huge.”
There was a certain catharsis for longtime Vikings like Ham at the end of a game that seemed as if it might end the same way so many of the team’s previous trips to Seattle had. The Seahawks had rallied to tie the score twice, including after the Vikings took a 17-7 lead in the second quarter. Seattle went ahead for the first time after Geno Smith hit tight end A.J. Barner for a 4-yard touchdown with 4:21 to go.
The Vikings’ next drive began with a false start by Brian O’Neill. Coach Kevin O’Connell’s headset cut out two plays later, after he had delivered the formation but not the rest of the play-call to quarterback Sam Darnold on a second-and-3.
Darnold directed the Vikings to a familiar play out of the formation, sprinted left and ran out of bounds with a 9-yard gain on the Vikings’ sideline. He trotted straight to O’Connell to get the call for the next play. Team staffers turned in what O’Connell called an “MVP performance” to get him a new battery pack in a hurry.
“I’ve got to be honest: I don’t know what he particularly called,” O’Connell said. “I just know that once I saw him have space and go run like he did, I was relieved. I know what that play-call is: ‘QB Run Left.’ ”
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Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson, left, completes a touchdown pass as Seahawks cornerback Tre Brown (22) tries to defend Sunday in Seattle. (Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
After all these years, didn’t it seem fitting? The malfunctioning headset. The 15-yard taunting penalty assessed to Justin Jefferson when he did his usual Griddy after the first of his two touchdowns. The three drives in the middle of the game that short-circuited in Seahawks territory because of sacks or drops while Seattle made its comeback.
Wilson was playing on the opposite coast, longtime Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was retired, and yet so much of the torment they had visited upon Leslie Frazier and Mike Zimmer seemed ready to return for O’Connell, after Smith conjured some of the quarterbacking sorcery his Seahawks predecessor had made famous.
It was never likely to be easy for the Vikings to win here, but in producing the kind of rally they did for their eighth victory in a row, they left the Pacific Northwest with prizes both quantifiable and intangible.
Now 13-2, the Vikings remained tied for the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed with the Detroit Lions and simplified their playoff picture after the Washington Commanders came back to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the final seconds Sunday. The Vikings, who are now a game ahead of Philadelphia, would capture home-field advantage and a first-round bye by beating the Green Bay Packers and Detroit in their final two games.
The task is as difficult as it is simple, given the stature of the two NFC North opponents they will face. But in beating the Seahawks the way they did Sunday, the Vikings also scored the kind of confidence boost that had Jefferson thinking back to his 2019 NCAA championship season at LSU.
“Not just what we’re doing out there on the field, but just the way we carry ourselves, just the way we treat each other,” said Jefferson, who had 10 catches for a season-high 144 yards. “It’s definitely something that’s different in this locker room than any other locker room. And just like I said earlier this week, when I won a championship at LSU, it’s the same type of vibe: just the team together, fighting for one another every single game. It definitely feels the same here.”
The Vikings took the lead for good three plays after O’Connell’s headset went out, and one play after Seahawks defensive tackle Byron Murphy II pulled Darnold down by the face mask on a sack that had the quarterback limping as he rose. Darnold shook off the hit and threw downfield for Jefferson without setting his feet as he moved up in the pocket.
The Vikings had called the play, O’Connell said, expecting the ball might go to tight end T.J. Hockenson or wide receiver Jordan Addison on the front side, if the Seahawks had floated a safety in Jefferson’s direction on the back side of the play.
But Jefferson beat cornerback Riq Woolen with an inside step and Darnold threw one 39 yards downfield as linebacker Dre’Mont Jones drilled him. Jefferson turned in midair to catch the pass beyond Woolen and safety Julian Love, scoring with 3:51 left. He switched his celebration from the Griddy that had earned him a taunting flag when he had danced in the direction of Tre Brown and Devon Witherspoon in the first half.
“I want those guys to have some freedom in those moments especially,” O’Connell said. “We do a lot of things with Justin and Sam seeing the coverage, and then with some route opportunities at the line of scrimmage. And I think those guys just got so comfortable with that stuff that they’re able to execute it like they did, which was absolutely the play of the game, considering the moment and the circumstances of the season.”
The Seahawks had two more drives to try to tie the score, but Jason Myers’ 60-yard field-goal attempt fell short. On Seattle’s last drive, Vikings linebacker Jihad Ward pressured Smith with 54 seconds left and Theo Jackson — playing in place of injured safety Harrison Smith, who had been on the field for all five of the defeats to the Seahawks since 2006 — picked off the throw to exorcise the Lumen Field ghosts.
“Just knowing it’s not easy to win here, it really says a lot about the resilience this team and coaches have shown all year,” Ham said.
The Vikings needed all of it Sunday. And for the first time in 18 years, they flew home from the Pacific Northwest with a boost of energy.