Not a great game by Minnesota yesterday, but fortunately for them they were playing against Detroit, so the penalties didn’t sink them (13 penalties for 91 yards, a season-worst). Coming out of their bye week, the Vikings looked anything but dominant in the first half, giving up far too much ground for a team with hopes of going deep into the playoffs. Of course, a lot of that was due to penalties. Kevin Seifert runs down the good and bad of the game:
Indeed, the Vikings overmatched the Lions in every way Sunday and ultimately overwhelmed them. They are 8-1 and have a three-game lead in the NFC North. This season is rapidly shaping up as a once-in-a-generation combination of opportunity and chance, putting the Vikings on a pretty short list of candidates to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
But lest anyone get too convinced of that destiny, remember this: If Adrian Peterson can get caught from behind, anything can happen.
“He just made a great play,” Peterson said. “Those guys on the other side of the ball, sometimes those guys are fast, too.”
But the second lesson/reminder of Sunday was that Minnesota has the offensive firepower to overcome even a series of similar occurrences. (It helped to be matched against the Lions’ horrid pass defense, which has allowed quarterbacks to complete 71 percent of their passes on the way to a 107.8 rating.)
Minnesota gashed the Lions for 492 total yards, an average of 7.8 yards per play. Five of them went for 40 or more yards. Quarterback Brett Favre passed for 344 yards, receiver Sidney Rice totaled 201 receiving yards and Peterson finished with 133 rushing yards.
I understand the Vikings won’t be playing the Lions’ defense every week, and certainly not in any postseason game. But as they continue to compile elite offensive numbers, the confidence of the players surrounding Favre will only improve.
One of the good things coming out of this game was that the Vikings didn’t suffer any serious injuries, unlike Detroit — it looked like the head coach was going to have to suit up to play in the defensive secondary by the middle of the third quarter. Lions players were dropping all over the field.
Favre continued to spread the ball around, making it much tougher for the defenders to key in on the most likely receiver. Peterson had a good outing, although the highlight reel footage you’ll likely see is him being caught from behind on what would have been a great touchdown run (Detroit’s Phillip Buchanon punched the ball out, which rolled into the endzone for a touchback).
