Minneapolis – The Vikings moved the ball offensively, but two touchdowns wasn’t enough against the defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs.

Minnesota fell 27-20 to Kansas City Sunday. And though the Vikings only punted once, two could-be touchdown drives ended in field goals, and a handful of missed opportunities peppered the afternoon.

“We need to score more points. We need to finish more drives in the end zone. I feel like we had some really good drives, and when you finish with two field goals in the first half, you really need those to be touchdowns. Touchdowns win in this league; field goals don’t,” said center Garrett Bradbury, who started the game after missing the past three. “We had a lot of success moving the football, but at the end of the day, we have to score touchdowns and we can’t turn the ball over. It’s those two things.”

The Vikings first play of the game went from effective to disastrous in a split-second, and it felt like Minnesota fought an uphill battle the rest of the day.

Kirk Cousins connected with tight end Josh Oliver, who shook off a defender and got into space, gaining 15 yards. But Kansas City safety Justin Reid got his helmet on the ball and knocked it loose from Oliver’s grasp. Bryan Cook recovered the fumble for the Chiefs, who drove down the field and capitalized with a 1-yard touchdown.

“I was trying to make a play, and I was doing too much,” Oliver said. “Anytime you have the ball in your hands, you have the whole organization in your hands, and I let the Vikings down today.

“You’ve got to tuck it when you’re in traffic, and I didn’t do that today,” he added. “It’s on me”

“He’s a great player,” Hockenson said. “Stuff like that happens. It’s happened too much on this team, obviously, but you can’t let your confidence get hurt from that. The move that he made to make a guy miss, and then to be able to create an explosive play and then it just comes out. I mean, he knows. He knows what happened. It was just a tough one.”

Hockenson expressed frustration with himself, as well, having his fingertips on a few balls throughout the day he just was unable to secure.

“The first one, that branch route, I think Kirk is just getting a little bit of pressure in the backfield and has to get it out, and I didn’t quite have my eyes around yet and I see it late, and I get one hand on it,” he noted. “Then later, I think we were just on different pages. I thought he was gonna kind of put it high and back, because I thought the [linebacker was] inside, and then he put it out in front and it was kind of like, ‘Oh, [shoot].’

“Those things are always tough,” Hockenson added. “The deeper we get into the season, the more we’ll connect on all those and just be on the same page with all those.”

Cousins took onus for the incompletions to Hockenson.

“I think he’s a great player and I think he did a great job tonight. I think my ball location tonight was too high. I felt like it was consistently high, and I don’t have a great answer for that,” Cousins said. “But I felt that it was showing up and yeah, maybe catchable, but it shouldn’t be that hard on him. The ball needs to be right in their chest.”

K.J. Osborn also had a couple of missed chances, and Alexander Mattison dropped a screen pass on second down late in the game.

“Just gotta catch the ball. One of those things, you see it last second, couldn’t see Kirk, and it touched my hands, so I’ve gotta catch it,” a frustrated Mattison said postgame.

Next up is the team’s first NFC North matchup, as the Vikings prepare to travel to Chicago next weekend.

“Our attitude is that we’ve gotta keep working,” Osborn said. “We don’t have any other choice but to continue working.”