The Winners and Losers from Vikings Win over Lions
The Minnesota Vikings clawed their way to .500 on Sunday, winning at Ford Field for the first time since 2020 and evening their record at 4-4. Consider the following players as winners and losers from the showdown in Detroit.
In a suspense thriller, the Vikings defeated the Lions for the first time in three years, and here are the winners and losers from the event.
Kevin O’Connell’s team desperately needed a dub to stay relevant in the evolving NFC playoff picture, and it did precisely that.
Vikings’ Winners & Losers from Week 9
The sweet and salty for the purple team.
Winner: Eric Wilson
Once again, Wilson played the role of hero, just like he did in Week 1 at the Chicago Bears. The veteran defender banked 6 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 2 QB hits. The takeaway from Week 1 also persists: Minnesota may not have won at Detroit if not for Wilson, the same sentiment at Chicago in Week 1.
Wilson has infringed on Ivan Pace Jr.’s workload, and no one is too mad about it. He’s that damn good, always making splashy games in division games.
Loser: Tavierre Thomas
Thomas got cooked. Plain and simple. He wasn’t cooked in a traditional sense by the Lions’ pass-catchers, but his special teams gaffes damn near spoiled everything.
Electric return man Myles Price took a 99-yard kick to the house for a touchdown, but it was negated by Thomas’ tomfoolery — a holding call that probably wasn’t even necessary.
Soon after, Thomas tracked a punt fully out of bounds, drawing a 15-yard penalty, which set Detroit up marvelously for a possible comeback.
Fans raged on social media, with most instructing the team to leave Thomas in Detroit.
Winner: Javon Hargrave
The Gravedigger emerged two days after Halloween.
Minnesota signed Hargrave in March, and before Week 9, most fans bemoaned the signing because Hargrave hadn’t done much of anything, especially on run defense. The former Pittsburgh Steeler and San Francisco 49er still packs the juice, for the most part, as a pass-rush specialist, but in the season’s first couple of months, his run-stopping prowess wholly vanished.
All of it returned at Ford Field, as Hargrave turned back the clock with 8 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 QB hits, and a sack. Folks could peek into general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s soul from March. That was the Hargrave he wanted eight months ago.
Loser: Adam Thielen
The Vikings legend hardly played against the Lions, a team he used to cook before his recent downturn.
Thielen barely sniffed anything, aside from a touchdown celebration when he congratulated the quarterback. J.J. McCarthy didn’t target him at all in the passing offense. He suffered the wide receiver’s version of a shutout, and Adofo-Mensah’s trade from late in the summer for Thielen looks worse by the day. When it’s all said and done, the deal might have been all about the symbolism of Thielen returning home, and that’s not worth it in the NFL.
Winner: Blake Cashman
Cashman exploded against the Lions. He played from cover to cover, tabulating 14 tackles and a tackle for loss while commanding the middle of the field.
Wilson and Cashman played marvelously on Sunday, so much so that fans asked, “Where has this been?” for the better part of three hours. Cashman swarmed the ball, and for once, Minnesota’s defense put the clamps on running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who is usually a Viking killer.
If Wilson and Cashman perform like they did Sunday for the rest of the regular season, Minnesota can reach the postseason for a second consecutive year.
Winner: J.J. McCarthy
Everyone’s last memory of a McCarthy before Week 9? A total dud performance at home versus the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, a game that featured a now-notorious high ankle sprain for the 22-year-old quarterback.
He played so poorly that September day that Vikings fans wondered if their team had drafted a turd. Of course, that panic was severely premature.
McCarthy looked the part of the franchise quarterback in Detroit, accounting for 3 touchdowns and just a few youthful mistakes. His team immensely needs a spark from somebody — anybody — with a 3-4 record through seven games, and McCarthy said, “Sure. Yeah, that’s me.”
His game-ending 3rd Down completion especially inspired hope for the future. Cold-blooded.
The Vikings asked McCarthy for a momentous performance. He delivered.
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