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With a 3-4 record, the Detroit Lions are still at the heart of the NFC North race, just one game away from first place. But they will participate in Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings (4-3-1) without their best receiver.
The Lions exchanged their Golden Tate at the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday, but head coach Matt Patricia said it did not mean the Lions were giving up the current one.
"I think the most important thing for me is to make sure everyone understands that it also shows great confidence in the people in this room," Patricia said. "There are some great players in this room, and there are many, and many guys have the ability to play and play at a high level, and we're all good at it."
Tate led the Lions at receptions in each of his four seasons in Detroit. With 44 catches in seven games this year, he was ready for a career-high in the category.
But the Lions chose to separate from Tate, who becomes a free agent after the season.
"It surprised me," said Xavier Rhodes, the Viking cornerback, about trading with the Tate. "He was their main player in the third rounds, he was excellent, yards after the flight, one of the best, probably the # 1 with YAC yards, I was quite surprised by that." Was one of those situations where you were like, 'Oh, let me check my phone.'
Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford still has Marvin Jones Jr. to play, but Tate Jones will be replaced by TJ Jones and Brandon Powell, who have combined for three catches this season.
The Lions may have to rely more on rookie Kerryon Johnson, who leads the team with 466 yards and an impressive average of 6.1 yards per run. He had 158 yards rushing in a 32-21 win against the Dolphins two weeks ago, but he had only 22 rushing yards in eight races last week in a 28-14 loss to the Seahawks from Seattle.
The yards will be hard to beat against the Vikings, who rank fifth in the NFL defenseman and give them only 3.7 yards per attempt.
New Orleans Saints Mark Ingram II and Alvin Kamara's halfbacks combined their efforts to collect 108 yards rushing against the Vikings in the Saints' 30-20 win, but two Minnesota turnovers were a bigger factor. important in this result.
One of those shifts was an interception by quarterback Kirk Cousins, who made 16 touchdowns and only four interceptions.
The other rotation of the Vikings against New Orleans was made by the receiver Adam Thielen, one of the best receivers of the league. He was second in the NFL receiving yards per game (115.6) and tied Calvin Johnson's record in the NFL with his eighth consecutive 100-yard game last week.
Lions cornerback Darius Slay will probably be in charge of covering Thielen. Slay knows that Lions must force more turnovers.
The Lions have only two interceptions and forced only six turnovers. Only one team, the San Francisco 49ers, forced fewer turnovers.
"Rude over there, is not it?" Slay said. "It's hard, I do not know, man, we have to put all this together, find a way, we just need to contribute more, we need to find a way to put the ball back on the offensive. in our hands, the better we have the chance to win it. "
Cousins do not want to add to Lions' total takeaway. He has only started four interceptions this season and he knows how important Sunday's match is with the four divisional teams.
"It's a good division," said Cousins. "I think anyone can win, I think it's filled with good quarterback games, it's filled with good defenses with passers, and that's the way I'm going." I imagined NFC North, I think the margin of error is very small in most divisions and I think our division is no different, I'm sure it could be reduced to the last two weeks of the season. "
The Vikings' next three games will be against opponents of the division, which could determine their fate.
"Great division game this week," said head coach Mike Zimmer. "Nice to get back on the field and continue to improve, try to improve, I'm happy with this team, we just need to do a little better finishing."
Lions have two key injury issues.
The Ziggy Ansah defense has missed six consecutive games due to a shoulder injury. It is debatable to come back this weekend.
Running back Dalvin Cook has only played three games this season because of a sore hamstring injury, but he's trained in a limited way this week and could be ready to come back against Lions.
The Lions have won three of the last four games against the Vikings, including a memorable stint at US Bank Stadium in 2016, when Stafford led the Lions 35 yards in 23 seconds without delay for the 58-yard goalkeeper. then found Tate for the winning first round pass in overtime.
The Cousins know that a defeat on Sunday would make things difficult for the Vikings, who were hoping to reach the Super Bowl after acquiring the Cousins free.
"I just want to beat the Lions and get back on track," said Cousins. "And we think that with eight games and a lot of division opponents, we can put ourselves in a very good position not to be disappointed at the end of this regular season."
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