Vikings

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― By the end, the Minnesota Vikings had accumulated 392 yards of offense. It might take nearly double that next time to placate their increasingly frustrated fans.

With a well-coordinated chant, "Fire Childress!," by the Metrodome crowd serving as the soundtrack, the Vikings sputtered their way through another afternoon of fallible offense featuring ill-timed penalties, poor pass protection and costly fumbles. The play calling, in many instances, seemed out of sync with the down and distance.

But somehow, they survived with a 12-10 victory on Sunday over the winless Detroit Lions.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's a great win," said coach Brad Childress, who claimed he didn't hear the customers' calls for his dismissal. "There is no such thing as a bad one in the NFL. I told you guys last week that this would be far tougher than I think anybody wanted to make it. Human nature is you want it to be easy, but you know what? It doesn't happen that way in this league."

Adrian Peterson rushed for 111 yards on 25 attempts, but he coughed up the ball twice in Detroit territory -- at the 7-yard line in the first quarter and at the 39-yard line in the fourth quarter. Had those uncharacteristic mistakes by the star running back not occurred, the outcome might not have been so close.

But the Vikings were also unable to mask their turnovers with a cohesive, consistent attack, and Chris Kluwe was sent in to punt eight times. Ryan Longwell's winning field goal was set up by a questionable 42-yard pass interference call against Lions cornerback Leigh Bodden.

"In football you need all 11 men doing their job. Some plays it's not working. Some plays it is," said Bernard Berrian, whose 86-yard catch and run for a third-quarter touchdown was one example of what worked.

The Vikings also got a 46-yard reception from a wide-open Bobby Wade, who fumbled out of bounds at the end of his run. The possession ended with Longwell's 38-yard field goal attempt that was blocked by Detroit's Jared DeVries early in the fourth quarter.

They also had a clutch catch by tight end Jim Kleinsasser on third-and-8 from their own 20 on the preceding series, a play that went for 34 yards to the Lions' 46. But Peterson lost his second fumble two plays later.

"We keep stepping on our own feet," Peterson said, defending Childress with many of his teammates and dismissing the chants as "crazy."

Peterson added: "He's got a system out there. We just can execute and do better as an offense."

The Vikings had six punts and a fumble on seven first-half possessions.

"That's horrible. We should be embarrassed by that. We should definitely not be in those situations ... especially at home," Berrian said. "When we've got homefield advantage, there's no way anything like that should happen."

Berrian and Wade got open more than they did in any of the first five games, enough to give Gus Frerotte -- who went 18-for-33 with one interception -- 296 yards passing. That's the highest total by a quarterback in 38 games since Childress took over.

But far too many times, the Vikings put themselves in third-and-long situations. The Lions blitzed and rushed around the end with remarkable effectiveness for a team that totaled only four sacks in four previous games. They took down Frerotte behind the line of scrimmage five times for a loss of 39 yards.

"They brought a lot of stuff. They did a great job of executing. What are you going to do?" center Matt Birk said. "That's what we're going to see. That's how teams are going to defend us. We've just got to do a better job. It's got to be a little cleaner, covering guys up in the running game and the passing game. We've got to give our playmakers a chance to make plays. Our guys are making plays. We've just got to give 'em a chance to keep doing that."

Minnesota moved the chains only three times on 15 third downs. But, as at the end of Monday's eke-it-out victory at New Orleans, the scoreboard showed the Vikings the victors yet another week. And the Vikings, after moving into a tie for first place in the NFC North, weren't worried about style points.

"A win's a win's a win's a win in this deal," Childress said.

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