On Sunday the Lions led the Vikings 30-24 with less than two minutes left and the Vikings out of timeouts. The Vikings had the ball, and if the Lions could force a turnover, they’d just have to kneel down to clinch the win, and their division. And that’s when Lions defensive lineman John Cominsky made a major mistake.
Vikings quarterback Nick Mullens fumbled the ball right in front of Cominsky, and all Cominsky had to do was fall on it. But instead Cominsky tried to pick the ball up, ended up kicking it, and the Vikings recovered. On the next play Mullens completed a 28-yard pass and then he completed a 26-yard pass, and it looked like the Vikings were going to drive down the field and score the game-winning touchdown. Fortunately for Cominsky, Mullens threw an interception and the Lions held on in a game that Cominsky knows he could have clinched if he had kept his head.
“You see the football on the ground and kind of get caught up in the moment, forget the situation you’re in and make mistakes,” Cominsky said, via Justin Rogers of the Detroit News.
Cominsky said the Lions’ defensive players discuss the game situation and know when they just need to force a turnover to win, but he failed to remember it at the critical time.
“Yeah, it’s something you have to do pre-snap,” Cominsky said. “A lot of guys, you go through a little checklist, just a reminder of what to do. We call it ‘Miller Time.’ That’s one of those situations, where there’s a ball on the ground, you just jump on it. Miller Time is a conservative mindset, like if you get an interception, you go down to the ground right away. You’ve got to kind of tell yourself, ‘It’s Miller Time, it’s Miller Time,’ before the snap. I didn’t do that, obviously.”
It worked out for the Lions this time. And they’ll hope that all their players remember the game situation next time.