The Vikings Lose 30-20 to the Lions, I Guess
The Minnesota Vikings played a nominally meaningful game against the Detroit Lions, one dependent on the outcome of other games for either team to see real stakes. It was a mess.
In order for the Vikings to have a win that mattered against the Detroit Lions, they needed one of the NFC South leaders playing at the same time to lose. Both the Buccaneers and Saints secured victories.
In order for the Lions to have a win that mattered against the Vikings, they would need the Philadelphia Eagles to lose to the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys to lose to the Washington Commanders.
And there’s a good shot that they would end up playing the Rams at home in either scenario.
It wasn’t a meaningless game, but it held the shallowest stakes the NFL could legally allow. Both teams nevertheless seemed to commit to winning, starting all of their healthy first-stringers.
That bargain may not have been worth it for the Lions, as they suffered multiple injuries to key players throughout the game, including to rookie tight end Sam LaPorta and star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Neither team was in the wrong for competing in earnest when there was something on the line. It just happens to be deflating when the likely outcome is that it doesn’t matter.
Either way, there was some notable stuff that happened in the game; let’s go over it.
Notable Vikings Happenings In Their Loss
Justin Jefferson eclipsed 1,000 yards after blowing past the necessary 118 yards to gain 192 on a day the Vikings didn’t have T.J. Hockenson to draw coverage away from him.
He was his typical stunning self, though he didn’t reel in the incredible contested catches that have given him his best highlights, with a second-and-long falling to the ground instead of adding to his already unbelievable resume. Nevertheless, he looks like just one of three players this season to finish with more than 100 yards per game.
The only other players who were close were Keenan Allen, A.J. Brown, Puka Nacua and Amon-Ra St. Brown. St. Brown needed 229 yards to hit that mark and fell short with a nevertheless impressive 144-yard game. Brown was injured early for the Eagles and Allen was inactive before this week’s game against the Chiefs. Nacua will need to finish with 255 yards to match Jefferson’s mark.
Should CeeDee Lamb finish with fewer than 49 yards, Jefferson will join Tyreek Hill as the only two receivers with over 100 yards per game this year.
Danielle Hunter earned a sack to finish with 16.5 for the season. He had an excellent all-around game and played a big role in the VIkings’ relative success in stopping the run — holding the Lions to just a 35 percent success rate on the ground.
In the best-case scenario, Hunter would finish the season tied for third in sacks. Among top-five players in sack totals, he leads the group in total tackles and tackles for loss.
Akayleb Evans had genuinely been having a good year before the final three weeks of the NFL season. Those final three weeks, with the stakes higher than in any other point of the year, have defined his season to Vikings fans. After giving up just one reception against the Bengals and making up for that one with a pick, he’s given up over 250 yards in three games, along with two touchdowns.
From Weeks 1-15, Evans gave up just 0.86 yards per coverage snap. That ranks 21st, just in the area of Marcus Peters, Chidobe Awuzie, Martin Emerson, D.J. Reed and Ahkello Witherspoon.
Since then, he’s been a tremendous liability. This has coincided with the collapse of the Vikings defense, which has now given up 27 points or more in each of their last four games.
It’s worth asking if the collapse merely exposed Evans as the weak corner he’s always been or if his decline in play is something external, like injury, that has contributed to the Vikings’ poor play along with injuries to players like Byron Murphy Jr.
The 70-yard touchdown given up to Amon-Ra St. Brown was just one of a number of failures from Evans in this game, a fascinating problem given that he didn’t even see the field for the full game — he was briefly benched for practice squad call-up Joejuan Williams.
Vikings fans seem ready to give up on Evans and maybe they’re right. But don’t be surprised if Minnesota continues giving Evans chances in the offseason.
The Vikings backup offensive linemen played like backup offensive linemen. Blake Brandel is probably a better tackle than guard but he’s not bad at being a backup at guard, either. Unfortunately, it’s clear that being a good backup also means being a bad starter. He was lost out there and only part of the reason that Mullens took on 15 quarterback hits — four of them converting into sacks.
Not that all the pressure was the line’s fault. The playcalling and Mullens himself both put extra stress on the protection unit. They were willing to throw downfield often and even on plays without downfield options, Mullens held on to the ball until pressure arrived.
Ultimately, we got the volatility inherent in Mullens’ play — with 396 yards on 44 attempts, two touchdowns and two interceptions. With 9.0 yards per attempt, Mullens ended up with a slightly above-average mark in expected points added, because of course he did, but had his worst plays at the worst moments.
The Vikings had the second-fewest penalties per game and fewest penalty yards per game entering the month of December. Since the beginning of December, their average penalty count rose to the fifth-highest in the NFL, with the yardage increasing to the eighth-highest.
The eight penalties incurred against the Lions for 77 yards is perfectly representative of this change. The Vikings outgained the Lions 448 yards to 381. They out-generated the Lions in first downs, with a difference of 24-19. On third down, they outproduced the Lions, converting 15 percent tot he Lions’ 11.1 percent.
Subtracting total penalty yardage from both totals equalizes that to a 371-361 difference, allowing the other high-leverage differences — like fourth down production and turnover production — to force this into two-score territory.
It was astoundingly undisciplined football from a squad that had been disciplined in almost every respect all year.
The Vikings may have built their unlikely run around shockingly effective quarterback play, but the real reason behind their success was sound, disciplined, fundamental football. And that was gone in the final four weeks.
But hey, there’s a bright future in Jordan Addison.