Bradford’s short passes not enough for Vikings against Lions

On Nov. 6 at Minnesota, Stafford led the Lions into range for Prater’s 58-yard field at the end of regulation, and Detroit went on to win 22-16 in overtime. But they didn’t make enough plays to ever make the offense a threat to score in this game.

Seven wins, seven fourth-quarter comebacks for the Detroit Lions.

“It’s obviously frustrating on all accords”, linebacker Chad Greenway said. Safety Glover Quin said some of the players looked at the schedule when it was released, saw few national television opportunities and simply said, “good”. Three weeks in a row, the Lions defense has come up with big plays, big stops and key moments to help push them.

“They don’t get tight even at the end of ballgames, in tough situations that can be a little bit uncomfortable”, Caldwell said. The Lions had a record of 1-7 at the time and there was plenty of room to wonder whether Coach Jim Caldwell, quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Calvin Johnson could become part of the overhaul. “There’s things that we can do to try to figure out how we can create some more explosive plays”. Detroit has been the flawless representation of that.

The Lions (7-4) have trailed in the fourth quarter of all 11 games they’ve played this year, and Stafford, who drove the Lions from inside their own 2-yard line for the game-tying field goal one possession early, was credited with his 27th come-from-behind victory. And so it’s no surprising that the two afternoon games saw their ratings increase from last Thanksgiving (when the two afternoon games were blowouts), while the prime time game saw its ratings decrease from last Thanksgiving (when the prime time game was a good one).

“I don’t give a (bleep) how it happens as long as I get in the playoffs, ” Boone said.

Now, anybody that’s read this site for any length of time knows that I do, in fact, love me some Teddy Bridgewater. His team needed those skills to be maximized by some never-tell-me-the-odds moxy. You lost a heartbreaker like that and it hurts. Believe me, I’m frustrated by it, too.

This off-season, the talk was about how the Vikings were bringing in a big group of offensive linemen and how this was going to build competition and greater depth along the line and how things were going to be an improvement over what we saw from the offensive line in 2015. “We feel like we’re working our tails off to get wins”.

The Vikings said they have to get Cordarrelle Patterson more involved in the game plan-and the appear to be doing it more and more each week. Reserve safety Rafael Bush also picked off a pass, replicating his late-game heroics in the win over the Rams. His 48-yard field goal with 1:45 to play tied the game at 13.

“I actually prefer getting iced because it gives me more time, especially in an outdoor game where you can pick your spot out and visualize, pick out a target where you’re not rushing, so I don’t mind if I’m iced or not and try to do the same thing if you weren’t iced”, said Prater, who hit that field goal, and the game victor a short time later. It’s a matter of wins and losses. It’s on each and every one of us. “You can’t play a ballgame uptight”. The Lions have only two division games left, against Chicago on December 11 and the Packers on January 1, both games at home. That’s not their style and Zimmer won’t tolerate a team that quits. But Dallas answered with touchdowns each time the Redskins got within a score.