Lions at Vikings: Matthew Stafford sacked 10 times in loss
After last week’s bitter home loss, the Detroit Lions hit Minneapolis looking to rebound with a key division win against the Vikings.
Last week, prior to the NFL’s trade deadline, the Detroit Lions made an aggressive and sudden trade to obtain Damon “Snacks” Harrison from the New York Giants. This past Tuesday, (the actual deadline day), the Lions followed that move up with another stunner but this time, Detroit flipped wide receiver Golden Tate to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2019 third round pick.
The jolting news sent shockwaves throughout Detroit as fans pondered the positive and negative repercussions of trading such a valued and productive asset in Tate. Matt Patricia spoke of having faith that Detroit’s remaining personnel would step up to the plate to produce despite Golden’s departure.
This game against the Vikings was the first opportunity that we had to observe the performance of Detroit’s new-look offense minus their prolific wideout…
First Quarter
Sam Martin slipped on the turf as he delivered the game’s opening kick and the Minnesota Vikings began this game with favorable field position. Latavius Murray received the game’s opening carry and gained five yards. The Vikings worked the down and distance to 3rd & 4 and on that play,
Darius Slay stopped them short of the first but Minnesota’s head coach Mike Zimmer decided to go for it on 4th & 3. Detroit then gave up the subsequent first down to Chad Beebe. The Lion defense was on its heels during this first possession as Minnesota continued to drive the ball deeper into Detroit’s territory.
On 1st & Goal, Murray broke the plane of the end zone and though he immediately fumbled, the play was ruled as a Vikings touchdown, 7-0 Minnesota.
The Detroit offense took the field for their first offensive series and Kerryon Johnson took his first carry for five yards. A returning Theo Riddick was the recipient of Matthew Stafford‘s first pass attempt and he caught it for a gain of ten yards. On third down with nine yards to go, Detroit had to call their first timeout before the ball was snapped. Upon their return to the field, Stafford misfired on a pass to Michael Roberts.
The Vikings offense came back out looking to continue to move the chains in the first quarter but Detroit’s defense forced a Kirk Cousins misfire to Kyle Rudolph and Minnesota went three-and-out on their second series.
In came Detroit’s Kenny Golladay and he made his first impact on the game with an eight-yard reception. Next, Stafford hit T.J. Jones for five more yards to move the chains on 3rd & 2. Then on a play fake where Stafford was looking to make a play deep, he wound up having to check it down to Kerryon for 11 yards.
Marvin Jones then swiftly found a hole in the defense for a nice 18-yard reception. Stafford continued to work his offense down the field to the Minnesota 9-yard line and eventually drew a Viking penalty which gave Detroit an automatic first down as the first quarter came to an end.