Vikings Gashed by the Run Again

Credit: Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When the Minnesota Vikings turned their attention to the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football, they knew slowing down a prolific offense was the only way to win. Dan Campbell’s defense is hurt and leaves plenty to be desired, but in a 31-9 defeat, that really didn’t matter.

The Vikings should have felt confident about their ability to put points on the board. Ultimately they had shown a reason to believe the sides weren’t far off when playing Detroit in Minnesota earlier this season. Of course, that game was ages ago, but the sides were separated by just a couple of points.

If only that had been the case in the repeat matchup.

Vikings Struggle Against the Run

Minnesota did a good job to slow down Jared Goff and the Lions passing attack.

Although Detroit’s signal caller had just six incompletions, he turned the ball over twice. The Vikings intercepted Goff on two separate occasions, and they sacked him twice for a loss of 15 yards. That’s probably where the good defensive fortune ended.

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All season Brian Flores has done an exceptional job to ready his defense by generating an ability to stop the run. The Lions are now without David Montgomery, but that didn’t stop Jahmyr Gibbs from feasting on the opposition.

The Lions running back ripped off 139 yards on just 23 carries (6.0 yards per carry) and scored three touchdowns on the ground. He added another 31 yards on five receptions, and scored on a passing touchdown, as well. To say that the running back gashed the Vikings defense would be putting it lightly.

Unfortunately, and despite being the primary threat, Minnesota had no answer for Gibbs. Craig Reynolds got eight touches as a change-of-pace option, but it was Gibbs that did all of the heavy lifting. He looked infinitely quicker than the opposition, and the Vikings were consistently tripping over themselves in hopes of bringing him down.

Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports.

Goff didn’t burn Minnesota through the air much, but the success of Gibbs made it so that the Vikings constantly were left guessing. It was an awful outcome and certainly not something that the defensive unit should have expected.

If the Vikings do get a third crack at Detroit, they’ll need to do a much better job in making the Lions offense one dimensional.

Ted Schwerzler is a blogger from the Twin Cities that is focused on all things Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings. He’s active on Twitter and writes daily for Minnesota Sports Fan. As a former college athlete and avid sports fan, covering our pro teams with a passion has always seemed like such a natural outlet.