Lions On A Roll

The red-hot Lions beat the Vikings today, jumping out to an early lead and never looking back, winning 34-23.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff was excellent, throwing touchdown passes to Jameson Williams, D.J. Chark and Josh Reynolds. Goff is playing the best football of his career right now.

The Vikings got a spectacular game from wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who had a career-high 223 receiving yards, but the running game was a major letdown for Minnesota. Dalvin Cook was bottled up all game and lost a key fumble late in the first half.

The Lions, who started the season 1-6, have now won five of their last six games and are still alive in the wild card race at 6-7. And they’re doing it with style, including a couple of spectacular plays that tricked the Vikings, one a long run on a fake punt and another a pass to offensive tackle Penei Sewell (who lined up as an eligible receiver in the backfield and went in motion) that picked up a crucial first down in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings fall to 10-3 on the season, and they missed a chance to clinch the NFC North. They’re almost certainly still going to win their division, but today’s performance raises questions about whether they’re really Super Bowl contenders. They sure didn’t look like it today in Detroit.

The real X-factor was the defensive performances. Whereas Detroit won with its front four, keeping Cousins on his toes and all but rendering Dalvin Cook (15 carries, 23 yards) a nonfactor, the Vikings were an absolute sieve on the back end. The Lions didn’t establish much of a ground game on Sunday, but they never needed to, moving the chains and reaching the end zone with great efficiency. D.J. Chark and Jameson Williams both hauled in deep scores, while Amon-Ra St. Brown and Josh Reynolds also stayed busy on key downs as reliable targets for Goff, allowing Detroit to pile up 464 total yards.

Dan Campbell’s Lions, who went 7 of 15 on third downs, also got key special teams plays to seal the win, including a 41-yard run on a fake punt and a last-minute field goal from Michael Badgley. Now 6-7, Detroit prevented the Vikings from clinching the NFC North with the win, while keeping itself in the wild card race behind teams like the Commanders, Giants and Seahawks.