Minnesota Vikings vs. Detroit Lions: Historic significance, keys to victory and more
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Vikings (14-2) and Detroit Lions (14-2) battle Sunday night in what will be the 272nd and final NFL game of the regular season.
The winner will claim the NFC's No. 1 playoff seed, home-field advantage and a first-round bye, and the NFC North title. The loser has to go on the road as the fifth seed — without a break. So, the stakes are high.
For an in-depth look at Sunday's game, CBS News Minnesota Streaming Anchor Maria Lisignoli spoke with Sports Anchor Ren Clayton and CBS News Detroit Sports Anchors Rachel Hopmayer and Jeff Lesson.
Where does this game rank in terms of importance to each team's regular season history?
Rachel: I think this game is important for sure, but the Lions have clinched the playoffs. The one seed is absolutely on their list of things to accomplish, but it's not going to deter them anymore from their pursuit of a Super Bowl. So, important? Yes. Life altering? The most dramatic game in the world? I really don't think so.
Jeff: The Lions are the only unbeaten road team in the league. If they lose this game, yeah, they'd have to go on the road for the playoffs. But it doesn't mean that rules them out. It means they have to play an extra game, and they lose that extra week of the bye, which is important to them with all their injuries and defense. So there's both sides of it, but I don't think it's the end of the world if the Lions lose this game.
Ren: The Vikings, I think they really want that home-field advantage. They enjoy playing at U.S. Bank Stadium. They like to rely on the crowd noise. Opposing teams always have to plan for that in practice. The Vikings are haven't been the one seed since 1998 when they went to that NFC Championship game. We all know they lost on that Gary Anderson kick to the Falcons.
How has Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs handled the bigger workload with David Montgomery out with an MCL injury?
Rachel: Statistically speaking, fans of these two teams, it's easy when you look at the [running] back's careers we have going on here. It's easy to say, okay, maybe David Montgomery is the equivalent to Aaron Jones. Two wonderfully kind gentlemen that I've had the pleasure of covering around the NFC North. They're dynamic... But realistically, you can't compare to how they've been utilized and what Jahmyr is picking up in David's absence.
Linebacker Blake Cashman missed the first matchup between the Vikings and Lions due to injury. How much of a difference does it make knowing he'll be on the field this time around?
Ren: He's really an X-factor for the team in general. You mentioned he was out for that Lions game. He was also out for the LA Rams game. Those are the two losses the Vikings have had all season. They've won every other game. He's so key to the Vikings as far as the pass defense over the middle, and we know the Lions love to throw to Amon-Ra St. Brown, those deep routes over the middle. He he's been such a big addition along with a couple other linebackers. Those two outside linebackers that just made the Pro Bowl for the first time, Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel, but Blake Cashman, Minnesota guy, Eden Prairie and University of Minnesota, has been so key for this team, I think he could be one of the big differences defensively, maybe improvements from the first Lions game to this one.
Kerby Joseph leads the league in interceptions, but was not named to this year's initial Pro Bowl roster. What do you make of that and how big of a difference maker will he be on Sunday's game?
Rachel: It's a huge snub. Kerby Joseph leads the league, very clearly, with nine interceptions and a pick-six. The next closest is Xavier McKinney, with seven — let alone the fact that he leads in a million other stats isn't gaining him the notoriety and the recognition that he should is wild to me. But at the end of the day, he's focused on a Super Bowl, not just a Pro Bowl. So maybe this would have triggered a roster bonus or a contract bonus, something like that, but he probably wasn't going to be at the Pro Bowl anyway, if we look at what they're focusing on. Kerby Joseph always has an impact on the game. He's dynamic, he's sneaky. According to Pro Football Reference, he's only allowed a 43.9% completion percentage as the closest defender on targets. Fans know he's the best free safety out there. He won in fan voting, but the secondary is chock full of ball hawks. Brian Branch also put up a very Pro Bowl-worthy season. He had five straight games with at least two passes defended. That ties the longest streak among safeties in the NFL since the league started tracking that in the late 90s. So, he's always has an impact, but there's plenty of guys ready to punch a ball out.
What do you expect the atmosphere to be like this Sunday night at Ford Field?
Jeff: It'll be crazy. Detroit fans were really not used to this until last year. Everyone knows about the legendary historical ineptness of the Lions until last year, and so fans are kind of enjoying this. They talk about the legendary so-called "12th man" in Seattle, the fans there, I think the Ford Field fans are going to put that to a test this week, and it's going to be loud. It's going to be packed. It's going to be crazy. Talk Radio has been abuzz about it like I've never seen before, and I've worked in sports radio for many years here, and it's going to be fun. The atmosphere is going to be something that's never been seen before at Ford Field.
In October, the Lions beat the Vikings by two points. Why have so many Vikings games been close this season?
Ren: It's interesting because a couple years ago, Kevin O'Connell's first year, there was a whole bunch of one-score games that they were winning as well. I will say, this season, it doesn't necessarily feel as fluky as it did last year. We can point out the Buffalo Bills game from two years ago that ended, I mean, it was a lot of luck. We saw the amazing Justin Jefferson catch. But this year, for a couple of reasons, it's a little more probably inspiring if you want to call it that. Sam Darnold has got to be a reason why a lot of these games, these close games, have gone the Vikings' way. He's been really clutch. You can't really put any other way. He's been so poised at delivering game-winning drives when they needed to or go-ahead drives.
What are the keys to victory for the Lions and Vikings?
Ren: Tight ends. TJ Hockenson, the former Detroit Lion, we haven't seen him get a touchdown yet this year. Obviously, he missed a good portion of the beginning of the year with an injury. He's looked good since coming back. There's been some games where he hasn't gotten a whole bunch of targets. We know there's a lot of mouths to feed in the Vikings offense. How about he gets a touchdown against his former team in a huge game? That could be a key to victory when everybody's gonna be focusing on Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson. The other key, I kind of alluded to it earlier is, we saw last game, Jared Goff went 22 of 25 for passing. He's so good when he can sit back and have time to pass. They have to get to the quarterback, the Vikings do. If they don't, they could be in trouble.
Jeff: For the Lions to win, they're going to need turnovers. That's been their elixir, you know, to make up for a secondary that's been quite leaky for much of the season due to injuries and so forth. And so they're going to hope Sam Darnold throws a couple errant throws and and I think they're going to need that. The other thing they're going to need, they're going to need some help from Terrion Arnold, who's proud to be matched up with Jefferson, at least for part of the time. And Aaron Glenn likes to run a lot of man to man, and he needs a lot of help. His Pro Football Focus grade is really, really low in the NFL. Going up against one of the top, maybe the top receiver in all football, might not hurt them to run a little bit more zone.
Rachel: It's going to be really important for the Lions to collapse and Sam Darnold's pocket. Obviously, we've seen the incredible season and growth he's had, but if they want to attack and not give him any room to scramble, it's going to be key to get those pressures in early. I also think Jared Goff needs to keep being Jared golf. Frank Ragnar talked yesterday about how sharp his command and field vision has gotten as of late, on top of the basically MVP-caliber season he's been having, outside of the one Houston game, which basically knocked him out of it all the talking heads conversation for what he's done. So I think it'll be important for Jared Goff to be as accurate as ever. They can't afford to take a step back in terms of talent in the pocket if they want to keep slinging things downfield to Jamo [Jameson Williams], to Amon-Ra to Sam LaPorta to plenty of receivers that are going to be there to haul them in.
Kickoff is Sunday at 8:20 p.m. ET/7:20 p.m. CT. CBS News Minnesota and CBS News Detroit will have live updates throughout the game.
