The Seattle Seahawks reshuffled the playoff positioning in the NFC by overcoming an unsightly gaffe by Russell Wilson and keeping Kirk Cousins winless on “Monday Night Football.” They took over first place in the NFC West by using a second-half scoring flurry to beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-30, in Seattle.
The Seahawks scored 24 straight second-half points to turn a 17-10 halftime deficit into a 34-17 lead in the fourth quarter and just held on from there. That was enough, though just barely, for them to improve their record to 10-2 and move in front of the San Francisco 49ers in the division race. The Niners also are 10-2 but the Seahawks hold the tie-breaker edge by virtue of a head-to-head overtime triumph. Seattle currently is the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoff chase. The New Orleans Saints moved into the lead for the NFC’s top seed, while the 49ers fell from first to fifth.
The Vikings, whose record dropped to 8-4, are the No. 6 seed at this point. They trail the first-place Green Bay Packers by a game in the NFC North. Cousins fared well in a quarterbacking duel with Wilson, the MVP candidate for the Seahawks. Cousins threw a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes as the Vikings scored 13 straight points. They got the football back with a chance to craft a go-ahead drive. But Cousins threw incomplete on a fourth-and-three try from Minnesota’s own 42-yard line with about 2 ½ minutes remaining, leading to a Seahawks’ field goal that all but sealed the outcome with 21 seconds left.
Seattle also recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Cousins’s career record in Monday night games dropped to 0-8. It was a potentially costly defeat for the Vikings, as tailback Dalvin Cook left the game with a shoulder injury suffered on a second-half play on which he lost a fumble.
Wilson threw a pair of second-half touchdown passes after a first-half blunder in which he inadvertently batted the football, after it was deflected at the line of scrimmage, to Vikings safety Anthony Harris for an interception for a touchdown. Running backs Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny each had a rushing touchdown for Seattle.
Tip drill pick-six!
