Pride of Detroit
After 13 days and an extra hour with daylight savings on Sunday, the Detroit Lions were back in action. Entering the game 5-2 after a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Lions stayed home as they took on NFC North rival, the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings got their starting quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, back from his high ankle sprain as the former Michigan Wolverine returned to the state of Michigan to take on his former teammate, Lions EDGE Aidan Hutchinson.
The Lions and Vikings traded blows to open the game, but once the Vikings took the lead 14-7, it felt like they had control the rest of the time. The Vikings’ defense dominated the Lions’ high-powered offense and gave the Lions defense issues, with McCarthy having a solid performance in his return. Detroit couldn’t overcome the Vikings’ blitz-heavy defense, and they fell apart at home.
Let’s get into my five takeaways from the disappointing loss against the Vikings.
The exception here is punter Jack Fox, as he had a solid game booting the ball to the Vikings, punting five times for 238 yards, two landing inside the 20, and his longest going for 58. Running Back Jacob Saylors struggled to get the ball past 30 for most of the game, as the team should possibly consider someone else to return kicks or maybe let it start going into the end zone for a touchback.
The Lions kicked off to Minnesota five times and allowed 164 yards, averaging 32.8 per return. Minnesota had two big returns, the first was a 99-yard return for a touchdown to end the third quarter, but the Vikings were called for a holding, wiping away the big play. The other good return by Minnesota was for 61 yards on their first return, which set up the offense to easily score to tie the game at seven.
When kicker Jake Bates attempted a kick late in the fourth quarter to make it 24-20, the Vikings blocked it, and cornerback Isaiah Rodgers returned it 41 yards before he was pushed out of bounds. It was a summary of how the game was in just one play.
Despite it being November today, it felt like it was early September. The Lions’ offense struggled to do just about anything outside of the opening drive of the game. The offensive line couldn’t handle the Vikings’ heavy blitzes, sacking quarterback Jared Goff five times. If Goff wasn’t getting sacked, he was rushing throws, having balls getting batted at the line, or quickly getting rid of the ball to avoid another sack.
The offensive line wasn’t only struggling to protect Goff, but they also struggled to help either running back for Detroit to find a hole to burst through. The offense hasn’t played this poorly since the season opener against the Green Bay Packers, so to see this type of performance sneak up on them again wasn’t good to see....
