Daily Norseman
It’s that time of the week where we take some time and talk to this week’s opponent about what Minnesota Vikings fans can expect when their team takes the field this Sunday.
This week, it’s time for our second NFC North divisional matchup of the year as the Vikings travel to Ford Field to face the Detroit Lions. That means talking with the folks from Pride of Detroit, SB Nation’s home for everything relating to Lions football. I exchanged questions this week with Ryan Mathews from PoD, and you can see my answers to his questions right here. Here are the questions I sent Ryan’s way, along with his answers.
1) The Lions’ season got off to a bit of a rough start with their loss in Week 1, but since then they appear to have righted the ship, winning five of their last six. Why did Detroit have such a clunker in that one and how did they get things turned around?
In that Week 1 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, miscommunication and missed assignments along the offensive line prevented Detroit from getting to their bread and butter: establishing the run game and working the middle of the field in the pass game–both hallmarks of Dan Campbell’s teams since arriving in Detroit. The Packers’ Cover 2 and Cover 3 Buzz looks gave the Lions fits and really muddied up the middle of the field, a place where Jared Goff and the offense routinely do their damage when things are going well for the offense.
Things got turned around through leadership, coaching, and accountability. Detroit’s young guards had two starts of NFL experience between Christian Mahogany and rookie Tate Ratledge as they entered Week 1, and that lack of experience showed. It wasn’t solely on those two players, even veteran Taylor Decker had some missed assignments due to calls at the line of scrimmage, so it was really a group effort from coaching to Goff to the offensive line having a tough day. After rushing for just 46 yards on 22 carries against the Packers, the Lions offensive line helped clear the way to piling up 177 rushing yards on 30 carries. Communication and execution did the trick, and since that Week 1 disasterclass versus Green Bay, things have been much better up front. It hasn’t been perfect, by any means, and there’s still plenty of room for the offensive line to improve as a unit on a down-to-down basis, but things haven’t looked anything like that rough outing nearly two months ago.
2) Detroit has, once again, dealt with a significant number of injuries this season, yet the roll continues. What is the biggest reason that the Lions can just keep on winning with a minimal number of hiccups?
The coaching staff in Detroit remains one of the best in the NFL, and their commitment to developing players is a big reason why Detroit can navigate these injuries so well. A great example of...
