The Lions have won their last two opening games by scoring 27 points each against the Rams and Buccaneers over the past two seasons. I don’t think the Vikings offense is ready for a shoot-out in the Motor City, so let’s hope the defense and special teams can keep us in the game.
The Lions lost their final eight games of the season last year to end a disappointing 4-12 campaign after making the playoffs in 2011. You can bet Jim Schwartz will have his team fired up and ready for a fresh start on Sunday.
Detroit has averaged 26 points in 4 preseason games and could be on the brink to a fast start in 2013. Detroit has scored 11 touchdowns and converted 72 first downs compared to 8 touchdowns and 65 first downs for the Vikings over the last 4 weeks.
The good news for the Vikings is Mathew Stafford only connected on 49% of his passes in preseason. So, if the Vikings’ defense can set the tone early and disrupt the connection between Stafford and Calvin Johnson, they might have a chance to grind out a win.
In week four last year at Detroit, the Vikings sacked Stafford 5 times and the special teams returned a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns to steal a 20-13 victory. Can the Vikings dial up a similar game plan again this week?
The Lions added another weapon this off-season in RB Reggie Bush. Stafford might look to dump the ball off to Bush a lot to help relieve some of the pressure from our front four. It is no secret the Vikings’ corners will need to do a great job covering Calvin Johnson, but I think the linebackers and safeties will also need to do a good job containing Bush and TE Brandon Pettigrew if the Vikings want to leave Detroit with a win.
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For sure. Division opponent, would scary even if we were 10-0 and they were 0-10. I take comfort in how last season played out.
Don't know how the season shakes out yet, but we lose this game.
Way to be positive!
Enough negative talk, Vikes will win this game, Jarius Wright will have a good game as will AD. Jennings gets a TD. Defense holds lions to 17.
The key, as is usually the case...turnovers.
Remember, I'm pretty much always wrong, so I just did us all a favor by predicting a loss.
They looked really, REALLY good most of the preseason. I do love the fact that Schwarz is their coach, that's worth at least two touchdowns.
Vikes will need to execute early and often....should be a good gauge of how they will be this year.
The Lions look really, REALLY good every preseason. That's what the Lions do. Regular season is a different story.
Lets not kid here, this game will be like all the others, it will come down to Chris Ponder. Peterson will do his job, the Defense will keep us in the game, Detroit special teams are terrible, this will all come down to one question... Can Chris Ponder lead our much improved offense.
We will find out soon,
Hopefully so.
Woooo Yoooo! The season is finally here! Happy Football Day everyone.
Norse,
Back at ya !
Who wins tonight?
Denver, 34-21
I'm going with Peyton...Peyton Manning! I see you Peyton!
I like Denver too but they're a little dinged up and the Miller suspension doesn't help.
Delayed because of a little rain? C'mon man!
delay due to chance of lightning. turned it off near end of 3rd qtr., had to go wipe the drool off my chin watching manning
it's very difficult to judge our vikes from this pre-season. the defense looks pretty solid and should get better with williams healing and floyd and rhodes getting more pro experience. AD didn't really play, and having him in the game changes our offense quite a bit. ponder looked the same as last year, mediocre, so we haven't seen what we've got on offense yet. the one surprise i think we might get from ponder this year is more running from him. he thinks he's good at that
i was more enthusiastic earlier this summer about our team than i am now, and i think that's because we had three first rounders in the draft, who i still like, and i thought we'd see a better ponder at QB, but that hasn't been the case, so that's put a damper on my expectations. trying to read how our players feel about ponder from their interviews doesn't help, as they paid lip service to their QB, but didn't sound like they're very excited about him. hopefully, like last year, ponder has a good start to the season. i think our O-line will be solid, despite what we saw in pre-season. AD is AD, and that scares the chit out of opposing defenses. we've got a better group of receivers now, so ponder should be better and improve as the season progresses and he gets in sync with them
it'll be harder to win in chicago, so we need to win this first game in detroit and have some momentum going into the bears game. if we go 0-2 and ponder looks bad, it'll feel like desperation time and everyone will be calling for a QB change. heck, even if we beat the lions and ponder looks uninspired, people will complain. we can't go very far with a QB who averages six yards and has -100-yd games. i know ponder CAN do it, he just has to be consistently good
i'm just so glad the season is here. let's win a super bowl!
All good points Cal. The Reggie Bush factor is what worries me the most.
Hey Johnny,
Hows life treating ya bud ?
Hello there Charlie. Life is good how about you?
Johnny
Kids keeping you running still ?
Not anymore Charlie. Already starting to miss it tho.
Dang it Kevin is.out. come on floyd
this is a tough one to predict. can't deny history. vikes have owned the kitties for over a decade. people have pegged the kitties to win the super bowl in prior years, how'd that play out? 4-12 last year. as far as schedules go, the vikes rattled off how many wins at the end of last season? many thought the end of the schedule was going to be the toughest last preseason, but we ended-up winning out. only thing that bothers me is it's the season opener and despite how s@#tty detroi-lette will be this season, they'll be jacked-up for this one. but, so will the vikes! SKOL!!!
Good,
Mrs. and Family are doing fine. Grandson is looking for his 1st car, Can't believe he is that old already lol.
Summer was busy this year working, Back to 40 hours :)
Just in time !
Dear Freds old pal Charles -
Please, never never never ever use lol in a sentence ever again. All of your dead grade school teachers are now spinning in their graves.
Thank you.
Freds
Yeah, Mrs. Beck would be around 121 years old.
lol sorry... I meant :)
I'll bet Mrs. Beck was a hottie some 90 years ago.
Hey Charles, Freds just learned that WTF didn't mean Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Who knew?