After a bit of extended rest following the Thanksgiving loss to the Chicago Bears, the Lions packed up their game and headed out west to Minnesota. The 3-8-1 Lions limp into the beautiful new home of the Vikings in a rematch of Detroit’s most lopsided loss of the season.
The 8-4 Vikings enter the game coming off a tough loss to Seattle. They’re chasing the 9-3 Packers in the NFC North while also trying to stay above the 7-5 Rams in the race for the final NFC Wild Card spot. Detroit was officially eliminated in Week 13.
Pregame notes
The Lions still have Matthew Stafford on the active roster but placed Jeff Driskel on IR. He’s replaced as David Blough’s backup by Kelly Sloter. CB/RS Jamal Agnew and DE Da’Shawn Hand are the only regulars who are inactive, though CB Rashaan Melvin is sitting out despite being active.
Minnesota is still without WR Adam Thielen, who injured himself catching a TD in the Week 7 matchup in Detroit.
Walt Anderson is the referee for the indoor game. The Lions are clad in their road white jerseys with blue pants, while the Vikings are in the purple tops and white pants.
Because this game was (spoiler alert!) never really competitive, I’m cutting back more on the play-to-play analysis and offering a more general vibe of who is playing well and what is/not working for Detroit.
First quarter
David Blough’s first two passes are batted down at the line of scrimmage. He’s sacked quickly on 3rd-and-10 when Jesse James flat-out fails in trying to block Danielle Hunter. Sam Martin’s booming punt is poorly covered, allowing a 17-yard return by Mike Hughes as both Tavon Wilson and Steve Longa got caught out of their lanes. The “uh-oh” feeling is already creeping up.
At least the Lions defense comes out sharp. Christian Jones nicely blows up a screen pass. A’Shawn Robinson smothers a stretch run where Jarrad Davis nicely sealed off the cutback lane. Darius Slay breaks up the final pass, a back-foot heave by Kirk Cousins who was under heavy pressure from a sweet A-gap blitz by Davis.
We see a bit of creativity on 2nd-and-10 during this drive. The Lions have all three DTs in the game–Damon Harrison, A’Shawn Robinson, John Atkins–all aligned right of the center and inside the tackle box. Devon Kennard is the lone EDGE on the left. Cousins simply rolls gently to his left and easily completes a short pass to TE Kyle Rudolph.
Another poor 3-and-out from the Lions offense. James again loses badly on a block, Blough misfires behind Marvin Jones.
The next Vikings drive is aided by Lions penalties. Slay gets flagged for holding (valid call) and later Tavai gets called for lowering the head to initiate contact as he ran into a scrum late. It’s a letter-of-the-law penalty and it sets up the Vikings TD.
The touchdown is a pass from Cousins to Bisi Johnson, who beat Amani Oruwariye in man coverage on a crosser in the back of the end zone. It’s not a great throw and the rookie CB gets a contest on it but Johnson hangs on and scores. Cousins had enough time to order a tea set in the pocket. The conversion makes it 7-0 Vikings.
The Lions finally get a first down on offense! A nice catch by Marvin Jones on a contested throw gains 18. Minnesota follows that up with a penalty to keep the chains moving but the Lions cannot capitalize. Receivers are not open and Blough has no time to throw, and it’s that way every snap.
Second quarter
I will not question effort, but I’ll just say this: the Vikings offensive line is not nearly as dominant as what the Lions defensive line is making them out to be. Watching Harrison, Mike Daniels and Robinson get pushed around and staying blocked in the run game is very frustrating. It’s especially notable on the first Vikings drive of the second quarter.
Robinson does make a nice TFL but it’s almost entirely RB Dalvin Cook’s own fault for ignoring the hole and bouncing the cut directly into big No. 91, with Wilson there to finish him. A similar thing happens on his next run; Cook tries to cut back inside and that gives a lining Harrison enough time to catch up and drop him at the line. If Cook keeps his line outside and follows his blocking he’s got a first down. That is where this game is at already–the only real Lions positives are when Vikings players screw up.
Scarbrough continues to be a bright spot. He gets nine yards on three carries on the Lions’ next 3-and-out. While that doesn’t seem successful, he’s maximizing yards. Isaac Nauta is in at fullback and on second down he throws a very nice cut block. The 3rd-and-1 is an uncreative nightmare. With 10 (10!) Vikings in the box and the Lions in a 3TE set, Scarbrough plows headlong into a scrum of bodies. Ragnow and Decker get push but the other OL-men are knocked backward. Easy stop on a bad offensive call.
Spotlight play on Jahlani Tavai: 2nd-and-8, 8:19 on the clock. Tavai is lined up as a JACK over left tackle but feigns (poorly I might add) a rush. He drops 3-4 yards deep and his assignment on the play is the RB Mattison, who holds in initially as a potential pass blocker and then released when Tavai doesn’t rush. Tavai is on top of it, flows well as Mattison starts to circle out to the left. But the rookie LB can’t take his eye off Cousins, who would have a wide open lane to run through between C and LG as the DL has been pushed aside. Tavai takes a full step inside to quell that notion, but it gives Mattison enough room to get free for the outlet pass. A diving Tavai cannot reach him to make the tackle, and Mattison rumbles for a first down, leaping over a terrible Wilson tackle attempt in the process. To make matters worse, Robinson gets injured while showing great hustle to chase the play down.
Cousins was never going to run. He wasn’t even thinking about it. When Tavai hedged inside, Cousins was looking for his TE down the middle (good bracket coverage by Jones and Will Harris here). If Tavai just stays on task with Mattison, this play almost certainly goes nowhere. Based on Cousins’ inside throw, Tavai might have even had a shot at an INT. Alas, none of that happened.
A nice red zone stand, aided by a Vikings penalty, keeps the damage to a field goal and it’s 10-0.
Detroit’s next drive is Minnesota’s chance to prove they can screw things up. Three separate defensive penalties, a great contested catch by Kenny Golladay and two nice Scarbrough runs behind Ragnow and Glasgow set the Lions up nicely in the red zone.
That’s where Blough shows his inexperience. On 3rd-and-2 from the MIN 15, Blough looks around from the shotgun. And looks. And looks. Nobody is even close to being open. After 4.4 seconds (I timed it twice) he gets sacked back at the 27. He has to throw the ball away. The lost yards prove critical when Prater slices the kick wide right. It would have been good from 33 yards but wasn’t at 45.
The Vikings pounce. Cousins finds Stefon Diggs deep against Slay. It’s been a pretty even battle on the day between these two but Diggs wins this one. It appears Slay played inside technique instead of outside, which nullified Harris’ over-the-top coverage help. The outside shoulder throw is where Slay should have been based on the help.
The 44-yard gain sets up a too-easy Cook TD off right tackle and it’s 17-0 hitting the half.
Third quarter
Both teams come out in the second half with the energy of a game that is already decided. The Vikings harmlessly and unaggressively run 3-and-out, and the Lions follow suit with a Jones drop on a low throw on third down. Then another 3-and-out for both teams, the Lions losing a conversion due to a (legit) Golladay illegal block penalty. The gnawing feeling that I should be doing something more constructive than watching these two teams go through the motions creeps in heavily.
We get some real action with a Blough interception. The rookie QB rolls to his left despite being under no real pressure and throws an off-balance wobbler over Golladay’s head. Easy pickings for Harrison Smith, who somehow injured CB Xavier Rhodes with a ninja kick while making the catch.
The Lions A-gap run defense continues to be a problem. The RB is getting to the second level too cleanly. Walker and Wilson are making first contact well past the line of scrimmage. The defense eventually holds when Harrison blows up a draw, forcing a 50-yard FG attempt. It’s good and it’s 20-0 at the end of the third, technically on the first play of the fourth quarter. This was Tavai’s best drive in weeks, including a devastating TFL where he perfectly shot the gap at the snap.
Fourth quarter
Blough and the Lions continue to try the quick-hit pass plays. He’s very accurate with his feet set on the short throws to the outside. THe drive stalls when Everson Griffen screams around Decker from a Wide-9 stance and sacks Blough untouched. Tyrell Crosby, in at right tackle, also got beaten badly on the play. After the play Decker and Ragnow discuss the protection like there was a miscommunication. At least Sam Martin’s punt is fantastic and pins the Vikings at their own 5.
Will Harris has generally had a strong game to this point, but he’s on the wrong end of the highlight reel on the ensuing drive. In Cover-3 zone, Harris closes too late on Laquon Treadwell, who makes the catch. Harris’ tackle attempt winds up with him being thrown to the ground after clinging to the big WR for 3-4 yards. Slay was within reach to help but just watched it happen.
Trey Flowers bags the Lions’ first sack by bulling right through ex-Lion Riley Reiff, now the Vikings’ LT. Really nice tight press coverage by Oruwariye forced Cousins to eat the sack instead of trying a throw.
It’s now the peak of garbage time and the Vikings defensive effort reflects that. With about five minutes to go, it’s clear the Lions want to avoid being shutout more than the Vikings care about shutting them out. Blough to Amendola on 1-2 read throws continues to move the chains. Decker and Joe Dahl at LT/LG make a couple of nice switch adjustments on rushes.
The Lions find the end zone when Blough zips a pass to a well-covered Golladay in the back of the end zone. CB Trae Waynes stumbled (Golladay got away with some pushing here) and it allowed Golladay to reach around him and catch it. Prater banks the extra point in off the left upright and it’s 20-7.
The onside kick–a good try by Prater–fails. So does the Vikings offense, inexplicably going for it on 4th-and-2 from near midfield. Robinson absolutely devours 4th-string RB Mike Boone in the backfield. The Lions get another shot.
Once again the first-read throws by Blough are very effective. The up-tempo offense finds first downs with completions to Golladay, Logan Thomas and Jones. Decker’s pass protection in obvious passing situations here deserves respect, he’s great on Griffen this entire drive. Blough gets greedy looking for Thomas up the seam and safety Andrew Sendejo picks it off in the end zone. Game over, thank goodness.
Good games
Tracy Walker, Bo Scarbrough, Danny Amendola (except for one drop), Taylor Decker (outside the miscue sack), Ty Johnson, Frank Ragnow, John Atkins, Amani Oruwariye in coverage, Jahlani Tavai vs. the run, Sam Martin
Bad games
David Blough, Marvin Jones, Matt Prater, Rick Wagner, Jesse James, Jahlani Tavai in coverage, Damon Harrison (mostly), Romeo Okwara, A’Shawn Robinson outside of two great plays, Kenny Golladay aside from his TD catch
If you’re down on Blough as the potential Lions backup QB, this is probably the game that you point to in validation. The rookie was very rough in his second start, taking coverage sacks instead of throwing the ball away and leaving some opportunities on the field. The line was a lot better than Blough made it appear in this one, too.