The Vikings Big Problem in DET Was Quite Simple
The Detroit Lions defeated the Minnesota Vikings for the second time in their last 11 tries on Sunday, winning the NFC North bout 34-23.
The Vikings intense-game luck ran out, as the franchise has tended to find pathways to triumph in gritty games. But Sunday at Detroit was a different animal. Minnesota’s typical 2022 mojo didn’t bubble to the surface. Such is life.
And while the Vikings did a handful of things poorly — could not run the football, put no pressure on Jared Goff, allowed a punt fake 1st Down, etc. — one glaring item doomed the club: a lack of turnovers on defense.
You see, the Vikings defense isn’t good. It doesn’t stop opposing ball-carriers or quarterbacks at all. This is why Minnesota ranked 31st in the NFL per yards allowed heading into Week 13. The only saving grace for Ed Donatell’s unit was (is?) the ability to force takeaways. To the tune of fifth-best in the NFL, the Vikings force turnovers. They’re good at it. Period.
But they were not good at it in Detroit.
Conversely, the Vikings gave the ball away to the Lions in a crucial end-of-half situation. Kevin O’Connell dialed up a fancy and tricky halfback jump pass by Dalvin Cook to Johnny Mundt, but the Lions sniffed it immediately — or, at the very least, sniffed Cook personally. He was gobbled up, fumbled, and the Vikings did not put three or six points on the scoreboard.
To make up for that gaffe, the team needed to force a turnover of its own thereafter. But it didn’t, and instead, the Vikings defense encouraged Goff to orchestrate his playground, dicing the Vikings for chunk plays as safety Harrison Smith was not available to patrol the secondary.
The Vikings surrendered 464 yards to the Lions, a sum that seems like standard operating procedure since the Dallas Cowboys gutted the purple team right before Thanksgiving. At a time when the Vikings defense should be improving, it’s getting worse — a troubling development for a 10-3 team with somewhat reasonable Super Bowl aspirations.
For the rest of the season — or the rest of Ed Donatell’s employment tenure — his “bend-don’t-break” motto only works when the defense forces turnovers. If it does not steal interceptions of the sky or grab fumbles on the turf, it’s just a lousy defense. Plain and simple.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Viking fandom dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
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