Vikings At Detroit Today

Slay stepped in front of Minnesota wide receiver Adam Thielen and intercepted a Sam Bradford pass at the Vikings 33-yard-line.

With a 7-4 record, the Lions basically have a two-game lead over the Vikings (6-5) since they have secured the first tie-breaker – head-to-head competition – by sweeping the season series with the Vikings.

It starts with Stafford, who has rallied the team for seven fourth-quarter comeback victories this season, tying an National Football League record shared by the Manning brothers, Peyton (2009) and Eli (2011).

Through it all, leave it to Boone to do what he could to cheer up the locker room and display optimism for the final five games.

“It’s really just incredible the injuries that we’ve sustained from really Day 1″, linebacker Chad Greenway said. “They didn’t want overtime”. Leave it to rookie Willie Beavers, who grew up in suburban Detroit, as the latest offensive lineman to spin through the revolving door. The Lions always seem to believe, no matter the situation and the time remaining, that they are going to come back and win.

The Thanksgiving game with Minnesota began with efficient offense, as both teams scored touchdowns on long opening drives that took up just about all of the first quarter. Dustin Hopkins, the Redskins kicker, missed two field goals which turned out to be decisive in their loss. Even if the players and coaches say over and over that they would prefer to be up big late, that just isn’t what this team is.

“He made a great run”, Bradford said.

The Vikings had their starting left tackle, Matt Kalil, for all of two games.

In the Thanksgiving win, Darius Slay saved the day with his interception off a brilliant read of Sam Bradford.

“Obviously we’re in decent position”, Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. They will face off against the Saints, Bears and Giants in the coming weeks and have a good shot at hitting a six-game winning streak.

The NFC East leaders scored a 31-26 success over the Washington Redskins which increases their chances of receiving a home fixture in the post-season play-offs.

“Basically have the same mindset as an extra point in the first quarter, where I don’t go out and ever expect that I’m not going to make the kick”, Prater said. Roethlisberger and Brown connected for 33-, 25- and 22-yard scores at Indy, who were without concussed quarterback Andrew Luck.

The biggest reason Detroit has roared back to life from a 1-3 start to a surprising 7-4 record and control of the NFC North is the ability to make timely plays. Hell, depending on how far you are willing to dig, they may not even be a good team.

They raised their yards-per-carry average to 2.8 and are trying to avoid being the first team since the 1994 New England Patriots (2.8) to average less than three yards a carry for an entire season. But without Diggs to work his magic in space, and Bradford vulnerable to unreliable protection, there was no threat of going over the top of Detroit’s defense, which boxed them in tight. You know, we’ve got to stick together.