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Matthew Coller is a published author and football writer who covers the Vikings. He also writes a weekly Vikings column for Bring Me The News, in addition to hosting a live broadcast on Bring Me The News YouTube and Facebook pages every Tuesday. You can find more of his work on Purple Insider.
No one wins when the Minnesota Vikings face the Detroit Lions. For years the Lions have been a speed bump that tells us very little about who the Vikings are and for Detroit it’s a waste of jet fuel to get to Minnesota.
This wasn’t always the case when the Vikings’ defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed and Barry Sanders played for the Lions. Barry has played 19 times against the Vikings and won nine times. He’s averaged 98 yards per game and over five yards per carry in those games. Between 1994 and 1998, Sanders had 12 carries over 20 yards against the Vikings alone. The next highest number against Minnesota is three during this period.
Detroit was also competitive at the time. They had five winning seasons between 1991 and 1997 and lost four times in the first round of the playoffs in five years, from 1991 to 1995.
The Vikings were really in the same competitive boat. Between 1991 and 2000, the Vikings’ worst record was 8-8. So every time they played in Detroit, it was a big game. And there were a few mixed up, including a 44-38 victory for the Lions in 1995 and the opener the following year in which the Vikings defeated Scott Mitchell four times in a 17-13.
Sweet mom of Joey Harrington, that hasn’t been the case in recent years. Over the past three years, the Vikings have beaten the Lions by a combined score of 184-110.
Only one contest between Vikings and Lions since 2018 has been in single digits and it was the Week 17 Misery Bowl of last year. All other games were insane shots. David Bluough’s game. The game of 10 bags. The game where the Vikings mercilessly threw a bomb at Stefon Diggs at the end.
It’s okay if you don’t remember it. Why should you?
A funny word people use to describe bad football teams is “woebegone”. But the misfortune of the Lions seems far from over. They started this year 0-4 despite Dan Campbell’s best efforts to pump up his squad by looking like Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Understand this: they have a bad attack and a bad defense. Not really shocking considering they have finished outside the top 10 in attack and defense in all but three years since 2000.
And yet, this one could be memorable.
If the Vikings let Dan Campbell’s club win, and 65,000 people rained down boos like confetti of frustration, we could see a major change in this organization.
I am already working on the names for this. How about “The Goff Who Broke Zimmer’s Back?” Or maybe something like “Spielman on Spielman Violence”. KNEELED.
He probably never will. The Vikings beat the silver paint of the Lions because that’s what they do. They lose the game that matters, then come back with a win over the Lions that is just statistically impressive enough to earn another contract extension for Cousins.
This time it’s different though. We’ve reached the Nobody Cares part of the Zimmer-Spielman-Cousins era.
Nobody cares about beating the Lions. Nobody cares about Cousins’ quarterback rating or any other statistical yardstick the broadcast may throw up to make him look like Tom Brady. No one cares about the bad breaks they got and no one wants to hear that they are the best 1-3 team in the NFL. No one cares about the roster-damaging injuries or the curses that seem to haunt them this year (looking at you, kicker). Nobody cares if the umpires fucked you or if the guys you drafted this year will ever make things better.
It’s finish. Wins against the Lions aren’t cute anymore. The real road to convincing the world that the money the Wilfs paid this team over the past three years was worth anything starts against Carolina 3-1, then continues against teams that don’t have to explain all their evil breaks every week in Dallas, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Green Bay and San Francisco.
Win these matches and there will be reason to believe the Vikings have something different from every other year where they ended up floating in the middle, putting “We Were In The Hunt” banners in the rafters.
Back to the Lions. Do you know what’s weird? Lions are pretty cool again. They sure don’t have Barry Sanders running wild, but they’re tanking and if we think of some of the teams that have hit rock bottom in recent years, we see the dynamic quarterbacks of the Bills and Cardinals throwing passes all over the place. ‘opposition. Cleveland also has a pretty strong club, eh. It could be the Lions in two years. It’s fun for their fans to think about.
If the Vikings crush the Lions with a 2×4 it won’t change the reality that they are on a path that has a higher success rate than teams fiddling around the middle trying to grab the seventh seed. .
And if the Vikings lose to them, they could get to the same tanky spot, only by accident.
But they probably won’t lose, so enjoy the fourth preseason game and prepare for one of the toughest proving grounds the Zimmer era has faced.
PS Sorry Barry Sanders, you deserved better.
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