Game overview:
Such a massive, telling win for the Lions. This ‘no doubt about it’ win settles many things in football debate land...or it should. It should be settled that...
The Lions are the best team in the NFL. Not Minnesota.
Dan Campbell is the NFL Coach of the Year. Not Kevin O’Connell.
Jared Goff is the NFL MVP. Not Sam Darnold.
With all the chips on the line...the Lions manhandled the Vikings.
Aaron Glenn, not Brian Flores should be the D-C getting a head coaching job.
That was as gritty a performance as you will see...from the Lions, especially their completely wounded/injured/patchwork defense. All those red zone and goal-to-go stops by Detroit early in the game...considering how wounded their defense is right now...remarkable.
Credit to the Vikings for pushing the Lions early and keeping it a ‘game anyone could win’, but more credit to the Lions for seizing the game and squeezing the life out of the Vikings down the stretch.
Detroit (15-2) will now enjoy a much-deserved BYE, and home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
Minnesota (14-3) falls to the #1 wild card and goes to L.A. to play one of the hottest teams in the NFL at their place, a team that already beat them in L.A. this season. They play on Monday Night Football this week.
Player Scouting Notes from the game:
*Note any fractional numbers in parentheses (4/2) or (2/3), etc., are a 'split' stat on our definition of a 'quality start' (or not) marker on a player -- using 14 PPR points in a game for RB-WR-TE and 21 (6pts TD pass) for a QB ...point levels that are good/productive/well above average starts for a Fantasy week. Trying to identify trends, consistency (or not) in players we might not normally realize.
A (3/2), for example, means: 3 times the player hit at/above the QUALITY mark, and 2 times they did not (this current season).
-- Sam Darnold (18-41 for 166 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 3-10-0) has been excellent all season, and even better the last month+...and then the Lions went to battle with a half-out-injured defense, one that has been struggling for weeks against the pass, and just whooped Darnold’s ass. They probably cost Darnold millions and millions of dollars here.
Detroit may have set the template for Darnold, which is so simple -- attack him, and don’t worry if you give up a big play here and there. Most NFL teams play scared and just sit back and watch QBs pick them apart...so, who knows if any team, but Detroit, has the guts to play this style. The Lions, instead, attacked...confident that if they got down, they could come back. More Dan Campbell simple brilliance.
If the Rams don’t switch their defense up a bit and totally duplicate what Detroit did here...then shame on them.
And if the Rams do squash Darnold, and boot Minnesota out in the 1st-round...Darnold will lose more millions, and J.J. McCarthy becomes ‘the winner’.
-- Maybe Amik Robertson (5 tackles, 1 PD) should be the Defensive Player of the Year? The part time player most of the season, a CB forced into full play timing due to injuries...he went out and did something I can’t recall ever seeing before...he fairly well shutdown Justin Jefferson (3-54-0/9) one-on-one. Three catches on 9 targets...a HUGE game and Jefferson was halted.
I wonder if the Rams copy this plan and throw their top CB Darious Williams on JJ one-on-one? Williams was struggling early in the season, coming off injury...but is starting to get back to normal the past 3-5 games. Maybe they’ll put hot & cold, but getting hot down the stretch Ahkello Witherspoon on him?
-- We all thought this game was gonna be a shootout. Two broken pass defenses facing each other with MVP-level QBs. And I thought that with so much attention on each team’s #1 WRs...then the #2 WRs, who have been hot, would run wild for output. They did not.
You can’t get me to fully buy into Jordan Addison (1-0-0/6) as a real difference-making WR...when in the biggest game he’s ever played in, against a broken pass defense, he catches 1 pass for 0 yards on 6 targets. This had to be a game where Addison stepped up, but he disappeared. Jalen Nailor (3-53-0/4) was more impressive.
Addison had a big Week 14 game against ATL (8-133-2/12). Outside of that, with Darnold playing MVP ball and Justin Jefferson taking all the heat -- Addison was a WR 2/3 with most all his games with 3-5 catches for 35-70 yards per game and a decent TD rate. Good...not great. And he will probably be suspended for 1-2 games to start the 2025 season, I suspect...and then hold your breath for what trouble he might get into this offseason.
I would not be surprised if the Vikings traded him this offseason...not surprised at all. If they do, then you know...’they know’.
Jameson Williams (6-34-0/8) was an absolute nonfactor as well. He should be a #3 WR for Detroit...not a #2. If Detroit had gotten any better of a #2 WR this offseason, imagine how much better this already great offense could’ve been.
-- Cam Akers (6-65-0, 2-4-0/2) continues to enter games, for the Vikings, in relief of Aaron Jones (10-45-0) or Jones is nicked up in-game (which is happening more and more frequently)...and when Akers comes in, he looks good...more explosive than Jones, I’d say.
Akers is averaging 4.6 yards per carry with Minnesota. Jones is once again banged up going into their Rams playoff game this week. Akers was the former lead back of the future for the Rams, then embroiled in controversy and subsequently dumped by LAR. Now, Akers faces the Rams on MNF playoffs edition. I’m just saying...
Snap Counts of Interest:
40 = A Jones
20 = Akers
45 = Gibbs
23 = Reynolds
