Let’s hand out some grades for the Detroit Lions’ gritty 19-15 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Quarterback: B
Jared Goff’s final statline isn’t all that impressive, but he commanded the offense to a relatively successful day. After shaking off a first half of four sacks, Goff successfully avoided negative plays against this harrowing defense. Obviously, the interception wasn’t on him. You could argue he held onto the ball a little too long in the first half, but the Vikings’ coverage was often very good on those
plays.
Ultimately, I was impressed by Goff’s ability to stay calm and disciplined despite the tough start. We’ve seen him—and just about every NFL quarterback—get rattled by this defense before, but Goff kept his head, found the open receivers in the second half (7-of-9 for 66 yards, 1 TD) and even threw his body around a little in the run game.
Running backs: A+
Per NextGenStats, Jahmyr Gibbs forced 12 missed tackles on his 25 touches on his way to a 153-yard rushing day. But it was Sione Vaki who got a ton of attention for his breakout performance. His 11 carries for 65 yards may not seem like much, but it felt like he was the key to opening up the run game against the Vikings. His downhill running style led to an impressive 45% success rate on runs (Gibbs was 42%).
As a team, Detroit produced 10 rushes of 10+ yards against the Vikings—who had given up just 14 for the entire season prior to this game. And a lot of that had to do with the backs’ performances:
Tight ends: B
Early in the game, it felt like the Lions’ tight ends were largely responsible for some protection busts. Sam LaPorta and Tyler Conklin looked directly responsible for one sack each in the first half.
However, this unit rebounded in a huge way in the second half. Having one or two tight ends in the backfield really seemed to neutralize the Vikings pass rush, and it opened up some massive rushing lanes, as well. Just look how impactful it was to have some sort of skill position player in the backfield (most often a tight end):
Wide receivers: C+
Jameson Williams now has five touchdowns in his last three games, as he continues to be a weapon at every point on the field. Amon-Ra St. Brown’s statline is modest (seven catches, 46 yards), but that was on eight targets. His impact was still felt in key moments.
Both players were tagged with taunting penalties, and there were times it didn’t feel like they were getting open quick enough. And Williams’ untimely slip on his route not only cost Detroit an opportunity to convert a third down but led to Goff’s only interception on the year.
It was far from a bad day from the receivers, but we know they can play better than this.
Offensive line: A-
It felt like some of the early pressures weren’t on the Lions offensive line, although there were certainly some missed assignments and lost one-on-ones in the run game early.
However, everything cleared up in the second half. Despite facing a blitz on 26-of-29 dropbacks (89.7%), the Lions offense allowed a pressure rate of just 24.1%—the third-lowest of any team in Week 8 and Minnesota’s lowest pressure rate of the season. The Vikings’ previous low was 41.3%.
I’ve already gone through a lot of the impressive rushing stats, but here’s a few more. The Lions had the sixth best rushing success rate (47.4%) of the week, which was also the highest mark the Vikings have allowed all season.
Detroit’s rushing game has been decent all year, but this was the first time it looked like where it was at during its peak days under Ben Johnson.
Defensive line: C+
According to PFF, the Lions produced just 12 pressures and NFL Pro had them at a 33.3% pressure rate (14th of the week) with an average time of 3.26 to pressure (third slowest of Week 8). They were fine against the run, but Detroit’s pass rush has slowly been fading a bit over recent weeks. Thankfully, the Lions dialed up a few successful blitzes in this game, and in the rare occasions Kyler Murray was able to escape the pocket, he didn’t do much damage.
The interior of the defensive line continues to carry the load. Alim McNeill and Skyler Gill-Howard both had a sack, while Tyleik Williams is a force in the run game and drew a holding penalty.
Linebackers: B+
The Lions found a little spark with Jimmy Rolder, who had a sack and a tackle for loss on the game. And coverage didn’t seem to be as big of an issue this week as in previous weeks. While T.J. Hockenson was a bit of a problem, the Lions mostly used defensive backs on him.
Secondary: C+
We need to talk about the rebound D.J. Reed is currently going through. He had three pass breakups in this game, and PFF credited him with just a single catch allowed on five targets for 11 yards and an interception. Since Week 5, Reed is the No. 1 graded cornerback by PFF (90.7) with the best coverage grade (91.0).
Unfortunately, the rest of the secondary was very up and down. Granted, they often forced Murray to hold the ball long, they still gave up too many big plays and there are still too many coverage busts.
Roger McCreary missed a key tackle on Aaron Jones that immediately led to a touchdown. Brian Branch, Chuck Clark, and Christian Izien all had issues on the back end.
Obviously, the mistakes didn’t hurt them too much against a Vikings pass attack that just can’t find its identity, but against a better team, Detroit will need to be much cleaner on the back end.
Special teams: B
Detroit’s coverage units were fantastic against one of the biggest return threats in the NFL. Myles Price managed just 24.0 yards per kick return, well below his 29.7 average. He also didn’t gain a single yard on his one punt return.
Jake Bates was okay. He had two touchbacks on kickoffs, although I’m certain the last one was intentional, and his missed his first field goal of the year. But Jack Fox picked up the mantle, putting three of his four punts inside the 20-yard line.
Coaching: B+
There were some in-game decisions I didn’t approve of much. At the end of the first half, I think the Lions bled too much clock. Dan Campbell likes to make sure they have the final possession in each half, but when you’re going up against a bad Vikings offense, I think the priority needs to be maximizing your own points rather than being fearful of giving Kyler Murray too much time.
I also believe Campbell was wrong to go for a two-point conversion with five minutes still left in the third quarter. Considering the Vikings notoriously score field goals and not touchdowns, being up six rather than five is a pretty significant difference. I don’t think there was enough motivation to try to be up by seven with that much time left.
But, a ton of credit goes to offensive coordinator Drew Petzing for a game plan that found actual, real solutions to Brian Flores’ defense. The tight ends in the backfield gave Detroit a numbers advantage in both the run and pass game. Some of the toss action caught the Vikings off kilter, like on Detroit’s 30-yard rushing touchdown.
Plus, Petzing went into his bag with that crazy St. Brown catch/lateral that converted a key third-and-8.
And on the other side, Kelvin Sheppard’s unit has now produced three strong gameplans in a row, and against the Vikings, he had to deal with several key starters leaving the game. It should also not be lost on how the Lions kept their composure despite the Jack Campbell situation unfolding in the fourth quarter. That both a testament to the players and coaches on that sideline.
