Crowd noise is generally a problem for offenses when teams are playing on the road, but that wasn’t the case for the Vikings on Sunday.
After a pass to tight end T.J. Hockenson for a first down with 35 seconds left to play, the Vikings took 23 seconds before running their next play from the Chargers’ 6-yard-line. Kirk Cousins looked for Hockenson in the end zone, but the ball was tipped and intercepted to seal a 28-24 Los Angeles win.
Cousins said after the game that the delay was because he could not get the play call from head coach Kevin O’Connell due to the crowd noise at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“Just couldn’t hear him with the noise,” Cousins said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. “Just ended up calling a play, and the play I called was the same play he was trying to get to.”
O’Connell said he didn’t “ultimately think time was the issue with the game ending the way it did” but, in hindsight, “just wish I would have clocked it” so that the team could gather itself before trying for a touchdown that would have avoided an 0-3 start to the season.