Justin Jefferson cites missed calls but says execution costs Vikings vs. Lions

DETROIT – By the time Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell wrapped up his postgame press conference Sunday at Ford Field, nearly all of his players – except for a handful receiving treatment – had already left the visiting locker room and boarded the team bus.

Except for Justin Jefferson.

The star wide receiver, usually a thorn in Detroit’s defense, was limited to three catches for 54 yards and shockingly held without a touchdown as the Lions cruised to a 31-9 victory to win back-to-back NFC North titles and secure the NFC ‘ers no. 1 seed.

“Just not executed. That’s the moral of the story,” Jefferson told reporters. “There’s not really an excuse for it. There isn’t really anything behind it. We just have to go in and execute and do the things we’ve been doing the rest of the season. So it’s just a learning point. It’s just something we’ll have to look at and find out. We have a big opportunity next week in LA, so I’m not going to get too hung up on this.

“(The Lions) are a great team. They’re definitely a team that we’ll probably see later in the playoffs, so we can’t really beat ourselves up about it. We’ve got to look at it, fix it and come back ready next week.”

For the first time since Dec. 12, 2022, the Lions kept Jefferson out of the end zone. The performance also marked the first time since September 25, 2022 that Detroit held Jefferson to under 81 yards — a number he accomplished during a Week 7 loss to the Lions.

When asked if anything about the Lions’ defensive performance surprised him, Jefferson was emphatic.

“Not at all,” he said. “I mean, we’ve seen different coverages all year. They played a different coverage that we’ve seen before. That’s just what we’ve got to execute. We’ve just got to win better. We’ve got to come out on top at the end of the day. So never excuses, never things to blame. We just have to play, look in the mirror, see what we have to do and come back better next week.”

However, Jefferson expressed frustration with the judge. The Pro Bowl receiver said some calls were missed by game officials, but insisted that wasn’t the reason the Vikings lost.

“They held us back a lot — calls were missed out there — but that’s not something we’re looking to blame. That’s not something we want to put the blame on,” Jefferson said. “We still needed to go out there and execute those plays we had.

“We still had opportunities to score. We were in the red zone four times and didn’t score, so you’re not going to win those kinds of games. And just putting the defense in that type of predicament — getting us those turnovers, getting that short field to go and score – we just didn’t do a good enough job tonight.”

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