The Lions enter Week 7 coming off a short and frustrating week after the Week 6 Monday Night Football loss to the Packers. Now 2-2-1, Detroit hosts the division rival Minnesota Vikings. Minnesota is 4-2 and has won its last two games (NYG and PHI) by a combined score of 66-30.
Da’Shawn Hand and Mike Daniels are the only regulars who are inactive for the Lions. The Vikings are not missing any starters due to injury. Bradley Rogers is the referee.
First quarter
Lions get the ball first and it’s nearly a disaster right away. Matthew Stafford’s first pass should have been picked off by Eric Kendricks on a checkdown throw over the middle to Kerryon Johnson. Stafford is not sharp on this drive, missing throws to Marvin Jones and Jesse James. He dodges a bullet with a potential fumble that is overturned and ruled an incomplete pass on a play where the Lions OL fails to pick up blitzing slot CB Mackensie Alexander, who hits Stafford as he’s throwing. Give credit to the defensive scheme here as both LT Taylor Decker and LG Joe Dahl correctly locked up their marks, but nobody else was left available to block Alexander in a 7-man rush. That’s on Stafford.
The drive ends with a punt after a false start penalty on the field goal attempt (on long snapper Don Muhlbach) pushed the ball back farther than coach Patricia was comfortable with for Matt Prater’s attempt. Rather than try a 59-yard attempt, the Lions instead punted.
Detroit’s defense forces a punt on a nice 3rd-down sideline tackle by Tracy Walker, who forces the fumble out of bounds. On that play, the Lions showed eight on the line of scrimmage against a bunch formation but only rushed four. Good coverage on Adam Theilen by Darius Slay on both 2nd and 3rd downs. Jahlani Tavai posted a picture-perfect run fit on Dalvin Cook’s only carry, shedding the FB block and (with Christian Jones) striking and dropping the Vikings RB.
Graham Glasgow executes a fantastic RG pull that stonewalls the LB but K. Johnson cannot make safety Anthony Harris miss in the open field. Perfectly blocked run only gains six. It goes for at least 20 if Johnson can break Harris’ clutching at his calf.
Stafford has quickly identified his mismatch for the day: Marvin Jones vs. Xavier Rhodes on the outside. It’s basically the only viable passing target as neither Kenny Golladay nor Danny Amendola are getting any separation. Amendola cannot shake LB Anthony Barr on a quick slant. Golladay looks very sluggish early on, though he is also being held by Trae Waynes quite a bit.
Nick Bawden whiffs on a block on an edge run on his very first rep. Johnson goes down again on first contact. Stafford goes back to what’s working, finding Jones on the right sideline in the red zone. He puts a wicked spin on Waynes, gets a great seal block from T.J. Hockenson and scampers into the end zone. Prater’s conversion puts the Lions up 7-0.
Walker and A’Shawn Robinson both miss clean tackle-for-loss attempts on Cook’s first run on the next drive. The Vikings eventually score a TD on an absolutely gorgeous play fake by Kirk Cousins rolling into a bootleg to his left. Cousins feathers the ball into a microscopic window just over Quandre Diggs’s leaping and the back of the end zone to Theilen, who had a half-step on Slay but very little room. Legitimately one of the best throws I’ve ever seen.
Mike Ford just misses blocking the extra point, great effort. Tie game at 7-7.
Lions use a 3 TE set to start. Both Logan Thomas and Hockenson quickly lose their blocks and Johnson’s run goes nowhere. I love the quick screen to Jones on 3rd and short but he only gets it because of his own effort. Golladay and James both stood there and watched instead of blocking for him.
Ty Johnson takes over at RB and has some good reps, including a real nice circle route that gets the Lions into the red zone. Stafford bounces a throw to a wide open Hockenson in the back of the end zone on a play that gets negated by defensive holding. Great route, should have been six points.
A very decisive Stafford cashes in with the Jones-on-Rhodes matchup two plays later. Rocket throw, nice catch, a bewildered Rhodes looks for anyone to point a finger at for not helping him. 14-7 Lions.
Great Jarrad Davis blitz forces a scared Cousins to just chuck the ball away on the final play of the quarter. Davis blasted through the line and put two people on the ground on the way to Cousins.
Second quarter
Cousins connects with Diggs on another fantastic throw. Slay is in perfect phase in coverage but is late to recognize the ball. This is a fun matchup. The two respectfully tap one another’s behinds after the play.
The Vikings OTs, Riley Reiff on the left and Brian O’Neill on the right, are winning against the EDGEs, primarily Devon Kennard and Romeo Okwara, on just about every run attempt. It’s very noticeable on this drive. Tavai and Will Harris are missing their run fits and that’s not helping.
Legit defensive penalties on Slay and Coleman (negating a Tracy Walker end zone INT; Patricia challenged the call and lost) set the Vikings up for a too-easy Cousins TD pass to Olabisi Johnson. Nice play scheme by the Vikings sets up some natural picks, something the Lions simply do not utilize in the red zone. We’re tied at 14.
The Vikings learned from the Packers game in Week 6 that the Lions do not throw the ball out of 2TE sets well. Their safety is almost at the line of scrimmage waiting for the run plays every time the Lions have a dual TE on one side of the line. A great Sam Martin punt is the only saving grace of the Lions next possession.
I make the point about the safety usage for MIN because the Vikings are frequently deploying 2TE sets, but the Lions safety (Diggs on this drive but also Harris) don’t even take one step forward from their normal spot to counter the formation. Diggs is actually starting deeper than normal on some of these runs.
Coleman strips Stefon Diggs on a crossing route but the Vikings get lucky and recover the fumble. The next play, Damon Harrison goes down with an injury. He’d been nicely occupying the middle of the field against the run. The next run comes right at the gap and John Atkins is blown aside too easily. Another missed run fit for Tavai, who can’t get off the block. Cook runs almost at will and scores to put the Vikings up 21-14. The right side of the Lions defense (Okwara, Davis, Coleman, Diggs) offers zero resistance on the runs late in the drive.
Golladay finally gets a sniff off play-action down the field. Great blitz pickup by Ty Johnson. In the red zone, Frank Ragnow gets called for a hold on a play where Vikings NT Shamar Stephen is guilty of prolonged hands to the face. The officials give the Lions a terrible make-up call with a mythical roughing the passer against Everson Griffen on the next play. Two plays after that, Anthony Barr–playing a spy role on Stafford with a 3-man rush–gets called for roughing the passer after crashing into the QB when Stafford throws it away because neither Golladay nor Amendola can get an inch of separation.
Stafford correctly finds the best matchup with Jones isolated on backup CB Mike Hughes and the quick-strike TD ties the game at 21 on the last play of the quarter. Great catch by Jones, who has been the best player on the field so far for either team. Fun first half of offensive football for both teams.
Third quarter
The Lions come out stacking the line with four DL and playing some zone coverage behind it. After Trey Flowers blows up two runs, Cousins takes to the air and finds Diggs easily running away from Coleman on a crossing route.
Cousins and the play-action are continually flummoxing the Lions LBs. It’s keeping open the middle of the field where they would normally drop and Cousins is in great rhythm against no pressure from the 4-man rush at all. Quandre Diggs continues to stay too deep in the high safety spot, even in the red zone. He’s visibly mad after several of the snaps on the Vikings’ too-easy, well-balanced TD drive to open the half. Vikings go up 28-21 when Cousins finds the fullback Ham beating Walker in coverage on a play with four crossing routes befuddling the Lions off-man coverage.
The big difference in defensive coaching philosophy is on display on the LIons ensuing drive. When Detroit goes empty backfield, the Vikings still bring five against the 5-man line. Stafford has to quickly dump to Jones instead of getting time to take a shot because both Taylor Decker and Graham Glasgow get badly beaten in 1-on-1 blocks.
On that note: the Vikings defensive line does a great job of always attacking at a good angle. Very little bull-rushing, very active hand usage, lots of coordinated movement between the linemen. It’s starkly different from the Lions typical methods.
Detroit does try out an exotic look on a 3rd-and-10 later in the quarter. Devon Kennard and Davis line up on the line inside of Okwara and Flowers, who both deploy in a Wide-9 alignment. Tracy Walker is close enough to the line he can touch Okwara pre-snap. It works. Cousins rushes a throw that sails high over Johnson, who was well-covered by Mike Ford in trail technique. Miles Killebrew nearly blocks the punt, too.
The first play of the next drive is infuriating. A handoff with a 2-way go designed for Ty Johnson gets blown up completely when Glasgow flat-out whiffs on his block. Johnson has time and space to do something but instead runs straight into LB Kendricks and flops backward for a loss. This looks like bad middle school football from Detroit.
Stafford finally gets it rolling with a dime to Marvin Hall, a “turkey hole” shot some 45 yards downfield off his best play-action fake of the game. It’s the first time Harris bit on the play-fake all game and it gives Hall time to get space on the corner route. Perfect throw, nice bucket catch in traffic by Hall too.
A coverage sack–Stafford had over 4 seconds to find someone but both Golladay and Jones were smothered and double-covered on a 2-man route–stalls the drive and the Lions settle for a 47-yard Prater field goal attempt. It just sneaks inside the right upright but would have been good from 67, and the ball was snapped just after the play clock had expired too. Vikings up 28-24.
The quarter ends with Tavai missing a tackle on 3rd-and-1 two yards past the conversion line. A’Shawn Robinson continues to be complete feast/famine in run defense. Earlier in the drive he split a double-team and dropped Mattison for a loss. On this play, he popped straight up and allowed the hole way too easily.
Fourth quarter
The Lions dodge a bullet when Cousins can’t connect with Diggs in the end zone. He had a step on Coleman in man coverage and the throw was catchable, poor effort from the Vikings wideout. One play earlier Quandre Diggs had TE Kyle Rudolph completely locked down in man coverage and forced an incompletion. Vikings kicker Dan Bailey yaks the field goal attempt wide left, another one nearly blocked by Ford. Still 28-24.
Random note: for the second time in the game, the FOX broadcast crew mistakenly identifies Danny Amendola as T.J. Hockenson. It comes on a 3rd-and-18 where Amendola catches the ball a yard shy of the conversion.
The 4th down attempt from the Vikings 41 is a mess from the get-go. Vikings LB Eric Wilson sniffs out the quick pass to Ty Johnson pre-snap and directly darts into the RB. Stafford sidearms a rushed throw under pressure that Kendricks easily bats away. There are four Vikings within a yard of Johnson at the time of the pass, but it was the only option for Stafford on the play. Good defensive anticipation, bad lack of a Plan B by the Lions.
The Vikings quickly push the lead to 11 on a great run-oriented drive. Missed tackles by Tavai, Walker and Davis contribute to the drive, which is capped on a simple pitch-and-catch between Cousins and Rudolph, who snuck out from inline late and the Lions D never saw him. Davis gets lost in coverage, Walker and Diggs can’t react fast enough to cover him.
Stafford quickly gets into a groove in the Lions up-temp offense. Crisp, quick passes to Amendola, Hockenson and Jones all set up another Jones TD. It’s a great design to isolate Jones on Rhodes from inside the 10 once again. The quick throw is money and the Lions close the gap to 35-30.
Golladay cannot make the contested catch on the 2-pt. conversion, a route which he didn’t run deep enough in the first place. With just over 3:00 to go, Patricia elects to kick it deep and trust his defense instead of trying an onside or squib kick.
The gamble fails miserably. Cousins pulls off another brilliant play-action fake against a stacked Lions line. Stefon Diggs runs free behind the defense and takes the catch all way inside the Lions 5-yard line. Every single Lions defender bites on the fake on 2nd-and-5. It’s a 1-man route but the Lions can’t cover it and Cousins faced no pressure on the slow-developing throw.
Cook sashays into the end zone on the first play inside the 2-minute warning. Harris badly whiffs on a tackle attempt at the line of scrimmage, Tavai was in the wrong gap and Davis was very late to react. Vikings go up 42-30 on the conversion. Ford Field empties out quickly.
The game effectively ends when Stafford and Jones have a miscommunication on a deep route. Waynes picks off Stafford’s misfire along the deep sideline. Ballgame.
Good games: Marvin Jones, Kerryon Johnson, Darius Slay, Mike Ford, Kevin Strong, Quandre Diggs (mostly)
Bad games: Kenny Golladay, Jahlani Tavai, Tracy Walker (mostly), Jarrad Davis, Will Harris, Graham Glasgow, Don Muhlbach, Justin Coleman, the entire pass rush not named Strong
This was not a great game from Matthew Stafford, not as good as his final numbers indicate. Other than Marvin Jones (a career day with 4 TDs) and one play from Marvin Hall, his receivers did little to help him. This was the worst game of Kenny Golladay’s career, a lethargic effort. The OL was actually pretty good in pass protection, notably Kenny Wiggins and Frank Ragnow when they were together. The run blocking, notably Graham Glasgow and Taylor Decker, was not good.
But the utter failure of the Lions defense to generate any sort of pass rush threat or read play-action was the biggest issue in this game. I give Minnesota’s coaching staff a lot of credit for this one, too. Mike Zimmer, Kevin Stefanski & Co. scored a clear victory over Matt Patricia, Darrell Bevell and their Lions counterparts.
