Sunday night's game between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings was, as a practical matter, a playoff game. The Lions clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with a 31-9 win, while the Vikings are the No. 5 seed and they'll go on the road to take on the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round next Monday night (Jan. 13).
In the Divisional Round, the Lions will host whoever the lowest remaining seed is after the NFC wild card games. That only rules out the No. 2 seed Philadelphia Eagles and the No. 3 seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a possible Divisional Round opponent right now.
On Sunday night, the Vikings did not look like a team that will be anything other than "one and done" in the playoffs. Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn put fully on tape how you can turn Sam Darnold into the old version of himself, and it will surely be copied as best as possible by Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula next week.
Dan Campbell gives Kevin O'Connell a hopeful, foreshadowing message
Postgame handshakes between head coaches usually feature typical cliche' pleasantries ("good luck", etc.), and there's nothing wrong with that. Rarely do they divert from that general template, though occasionally we see more adversarial postgame handshakes with few or no words exchanged between the coaches.
During their postgame handshake on Sunday night, Lions head coach Dan Campbell had something different in his encouraging words for Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell.
Dan Campbell to Kevin O'Connell: "I'll see you in two weeks." 👀 pic.twitter.com/WVnFoNsIx5
— NFL (@NFL) January 6, 2025
"Great job, I'll see you in two weeks", Campbell said, as he shook O'Connell's hand.
O'Connell didn't seem to be taken too aback by Campbell's words, and he did seem to find the humor in the bold assertion.
Campbell conveyed confidence the Vikings will go to Los Angeles and beat the Rams, despite what he witnessed first-hand at Ford Field on Sunday night. It also means he's thinking the Eagles and Buccaneers will win their Wild Card Round games as favorites, thus leaving Vikings as the lowest seed left for the Divisional Round.
Maybe Campbell is hoping to face the Vikings again in the playoffs, even if the "beating a team three times in a season is hard" thing sort of stands. But let's not dive that deep, and just chalk up Campbell's "I'll see you in two weeks" as a dose of positive sentiment for the coach he just beat.