MINNEAPOLIS – The Detroit Lions locked up the NFC North Division title and a home playoff game with a thrilling victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
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The Lions offense was relentless Sunday, putting together four scoring drives of 13+ plays. Amon-Ra St. Brown led the way with 12 catches for 106 yards and a touchdown, and Jahmyr Gibbs added a pair of his own scores.
On defense, the Lions played well for most of the afternoon, except for a sequence right before and after halftime when they allowed a pair of quick touchdowns. They picked off Nick Mullens four times, knocked down eight passes, and added four sacks.
Mistakes keep Vikings alive
The Lions looked like the better team early in the game, but a series of costly mistakes kept the Vikings alive.
After driving 75 yards on 14 plays and eating up nearly eight minutes of clock to take a 7-0 lead, the Lions gave up gains of 33 and 14 yards on their first two defensive plays.
When the Vikings drove down to the 6-yard line, the defense appeared to force a field goal attempt. But a defensive holding penalty on Brian Branch extended the drive.
On the very next play, Branch dropped an interception that Mullens threw right between his numbers. Minnesota scored a touchdown on the ensuing snap.
Detroit was well on its way to answering when Jahmyr Gibbs took a short pass in space and turned upfield. He crossed the 50-yard line, but was hit and fumbled the ball back to the Vikings.
Defense steps up
It looked like the tide was turning in Minnesota’s favor, but the defense came up three straight stops to help the Lions build a lead.
The first stop came around midfield. Ifeatu Melifonwu dropped Mullens for a 12-yard loss to set up a 3rd and 15, and then Branch picked off a pass on 4th and 2 to give the ball back to Jared Goff and the offense.
The Lions punted, but the defense forced yet another three-and-out, this time thanks to a Branch sack.
Thirteen plays later, with the help of a questionable roughing the passer penalty, Michael Badgley hit a 37-yard field goal to put the Lions back in front.
A penalty on the kick return pinned the Vikings back on their own 10-yard line, and the Lions’ second interception of the game -- this time by Kerby Joseph -- set up a Gibbs touchdown run that gave Detroit a 17-7 lead.
Campbell’s costly timeout
With 49 seconds to play in the first half, Melifonwu sacked Mullens again, this time at the 45-yard line to set up a 3rd and 19. It appeared the Vikings were going to let the clock run down to near halftime.
But Dan Campbell decided to risk taking a timeout, even though the ball was near midfield and the Vikings have a guy named Justin Jefferson.
It immediately backfired.
Mullens hit a wide-open Jefferson for a first down, and then threw for him in the end zone on the next play. Luckily for the Lions, a holding penalty offset a pass interference that would have put the ball at the 1-yard line.
It didn’t ultimately matter, though, as Jefferson caught the next pass for a 27-yard touchdown that brought the Vikings within three points.
The best-case scenario for the Lions when Campbell called that timeout was that the Vikings didn’t convert the third down, and then a poor punt could have given them the ball around their own 20 with 30-35 seconds remaining.
That reward was not worth the massive risk. Detroit didn’t just allow a touchdown, it also put Mullens and a struggling Vikings offense back on rhythm coming out of the break.
Vikings take lead
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to take the lead after the break. Mullens hit T.J. Hockenson for a gain of 24 yards and then K.J. Osborn for a gain of 47 yards to get into the red zone. Mullens then hit Osborn for a 6-yard score just 3 minutes and 4 seconds into the second half.
Before Campbell’s timeout, Mullens had completed nine of 14 passes for 127 yards and two interceptions. After the timeout, he connected on each of his next five attempts for 132 yards and two scores.
Lions offense responds, defense bounces back
Trailing for the first time, the Lions faced a critical drive starting from their own 25.
Goff hit Kalif Raymond on the very first play for 18 yards to the 43, and then Amon-Ra St. Brown got the Lions across midfield.
But on a 3rd and 3 from Minnesota’s 36, Goff took a delay of game penalty that put the Lions in a third-and-long situation. His pass to Sam LaPorta set up one of the biggest plays of the game: a 4th and 1 from just outside of field goal range.
Gibbs was up to the task, though, making an excellent cut about a yard downfield and turning a short-yardage play into an 18-yard gain.
Four plays later, Goff kept the ball on a 4th and 1 to convert inside the 5-yard line. He hit St. Brown in the back of the end zone to re-take the lead, 23-21 (the extra point attempt was blocked).
This time, Aaron Glenn’s defense stepped up, forcing a three-and-out thanks to a nice third-down tackle by Malcolm Rodriguez, who was playing more linebacker due to Derrick Barnes’ injury.
Goff and Gibbs took over on the next drive. Goff completed 8 of 10 pass attempts to get inside the 5-yard line, and Gibbs scampered untouched into the end zone from three yards out.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty put the Vikings way behind the chains on the next drive, and Joseph picked off Mullens for the second time.
Lions finally close
Detroit took over with a nine-point lead at the 35-yard line, but they couldn’t move the chains and punted the ball right back to Minnesota.
The Vikings went 76 yards in eight plays but stalled in the red zone and settled for a field goal that brought them within six points.
The Lions got some help on the next drive from a defensive penalty on a third down incompletion that would have set up a punt, but back-to-back penalties -- a false state and Goff’s third delay of game -- doomed them near midfield.
Jack Fox pinned the Vikings at their own 12-yard line with 2:23 remaining, but it still felt like too much time. There was an especially heart-stopping moment when John Cominsky failed to recover a fumble and the Vikings converted a 3rd and 27 on the very next play.
But when the Vikings got down to the 30-yard line, it was Melifonwu coming up big once again, picking off a deep pass to seal the division title.
