The Detroit Lions’ victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday was a true team win, with all three phases contributing key plays to the result. So, instead of our standard film review, which tends to focus more on a single player or theme, we combed through the play-by-play, opting to dissect the 10 most-impactful plays for the Lions.
▶ Stopping Dalvin Cook, part I
We open early in the first quarter. After appearing to force a punt on Minnesota’s first defensive series, an offside penalty against linebacker Chris Board made it fourth-and-1 near midfield. With a more manageable down-and-distance, the Vikings took an analytical approach, choosing to go for it.
By keeping three receivers in the formation, and putting quarterback Kirk Cousins in shotgun, the Vikings forced the Lions to counter with smaller, lighter nickel personnel, remaining prepared to defend a run or a pass.
With all three receivers to the left, cornerback Jeff Okudah was without an outside coverage responsibility on the opposite side. That allowed him to slide inside into a linebacker alignment. It was reminiscent of the Dallas game earlier in the season, where Okudah contributed a number of run stops from that spot.
The Vikings kept it on the ground, giving it to running back Dalvin Cook. The blocking scheme is a classic duo, with both defensive tackles doubled on the snap. And those blockers got movement with those doubles, but linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez did a nice job cluttering up the middle by crashing hard into the A gap, between the center and guard. That caused the slightest hesitation as Cook approached the line, and before he could hit his cutback lane, Okudah shot the backside gap and dropped Cook at the line to force the turnover on downs.
▶ Firsts for Jameson Williams
Two plays after taking possession, the Lions were in the end zone, opening the game’s scoring. It also marked the first reception, and touchdown, of rookie receiver Jameson Williams’ career.
After the game, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said his defense was in quarters coverage, meaning four deep defenders were each responsible for a fourth of the field. If that was the case, safety Josh Metellus was responsible for the bust, driving down on a run-fake and getting trapped in no man’s land underneath, unnecessarily overlapping a teammate’s coverage area.
For the Lions, DJ Chark played a critical role. Working from the right slot, he ran vertically, angling slightly inside, before stopping and turning back to the quarterback at a 17-yard depth. Because the route took him between the two deep defenders in the middle of the field, he commanded the attention of both.
That attention allowed Williams, running a deep cross from the left slot, to come free behind the deepest layer of the defense. Quarterback Jared Goff had a clean read on the situation and entered his throwing motion even before Williams got behind the flat-footed deep defenders. And while the throw wasn’t particularly pretty, as Goff himself joked after the game, it wasn’t overthrown. That’s the critical blunder to avoid when the receiver gets that open.
▶ The (first) special-teams play
After the Vikings responded to tie the contest, both teams went into a bit of an offensive lull, with four straight possessions ending in either a turnover on downs or a punt.
On Minnesota’s second punt during that stretch, Detroit return man Kalif Raymond provided a spark with a 35-yard return across midfield. But, as we should all know, a quality return is almost always the result of several players executing their assignments.
In this case, the jammers on the outside, starting cornerbacks Jerry Jacobs and Okudah, were key.
Jacobs, working to Raymond’s right, probably got away with a hold, grabbing the arm of gunner Kris Boyd early in the play, but after the return man took possession and Boyd decelerated to make the stop, he was knocked to the ground by a big block from the feisty corner.
Okudah, working on the other side, had some early trouble, getting tossed to the ground by his assignment, wide receiver Jalen Nailor. But in a clear example of effort, Okudah shot back to his feet, and when Raymond reversed field, the corner was in position to seal his assignment inside with a block.
Once getting that initial edge, Raymond picked up two more blocks from a pair of rookies, safety Kerby Joseph and Rodriguez, before he was eventually tracked down from behind by Nailor.
▶ Chark’s speed advantage
Wasting little time capitalizing on the momentum, the Lions took a deep shot to Chark, resulting in a 48-yard touchdown.
In terms of the coverage, cornerback Cameron Dantzler did everything right. His backpedal was smooth, he didn’t bite and turn inside on Chark’s shoulder shimmy, and the corner quickly flipped his hips to run vertically up the sideline with the receiver.
The difference here was speed. Chark ran a 4.34-second 40-yard dash coming out of college. Dantzler, on the other hand, clocked in at 4.64. It showed.
The other part of the equation is Goff. Just like he did last week on a deep completion to Chark, the quarterback used his eyes to keep the deep safety locked to the middle of the field, taking away deep support for Dantzler.
Goff also doesn’t rush the throw, getting square and setting his feet, leading to perfect placement 40 yards down the field. That allowed Chark to take the ball in stride and score.
▶ Stopping Dalvin Cook, part II
As they had done in the opening quarter, the Vikings appeared poised to counterpunch the long touchdown throw, taking 11 plays to drive to the Lions’ 3-yard line in the closing minutes of the first half. Instead, a trick play call on first-and-goal proved costly, thanks largely to the individual effort of defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs.
Both teams had short-yardage personnel on the field, with the Lions stacking the front with six defenders weighing a combined 1,761 pounds. The Vikings lined up in an I-formation and motioned to an offset I. Cousins took an under-center handoff before flipping it to Cook, heading right.
What looked like a standard power run was actually supposed to be a pass, with Cook tossing it over the mess of bodies at the line of scrimmage to tight end Johnny Mundt, who leaked into the second level after initially blocking.
That throw was open and would have worked had it not been for Buggs, who immediately tossed Vikings rookie guard Ed Ingram to the ground and hit Cook as he was trying to adjust the ball in his hand to make the pass. That forced a fumble that was recovered by Joseph, ending the threat.
▶ Gutsy special-teams call
Still holding a seven-point edge early in the third quarter, the Lions dialed up the aggressiveness with a fake punt from their own 28.
Repeating a successful strategy from the past, Scott Daly angled a direct snap to personal protector CJ Moore. Lions coach Dan Campbell had said the team had been seeking a specific look and it was clear the Vikings were light on that side of the formation.
On the snap, linebackers Anthony Pittman and Rodriguez did an excellent job crossing the face of two Vikings, sealing each inside to give Moore an initial lane around the right edge of the formation. The veteran safety then followed fullback Jason Cabinda into the second level, but he got overpowered in the open field, dangerously shy of the first-down marker. Moore, showcasing impressive vision, was able to cut back inside, where he picked up a second block from Rodriguez, springing the big, 42-yard gain.
▶ Everybody loves Raymond
Following the successful fake, the Lions were able to work into the red zone and appeared to have earned a first-and-goal, but D’Andre Swift’s converting run was negated by a holding penalty against guard Logan Stenberg. That left the team with a daunting third-and-12 just inside the 20-yard line.
But a successful conversion, a 15-yard completion to Raymond, set the Lions up to add seven points, instead of settling for a short field goal.
Prior to the snap, Raymond motioned from the right side of the formation into the left slot. Metellus, who had the coverage bust on Williams’ touchdown, rotated down, patting his chest to let his teammates know he’d be picking up Raymond.
But on the snap, Metullus first jammed Josh Reynolds, attempting to disrupt the outside receiver’s route. This defense-initiated contact provided a screen for Raymond to slice underneath on a slant into open space for the catch-and-run conversion.
▶ Jackson gets the corner
The Lions pushed their advantage back to two scores early in the fourth quarter on a well-executed run design. The primary purpose was to get the defense moving in one direction before hitting them the other way.
On the snap, Detroit’s offensive line collectively slid right, with running back Justin Jackson taking a handoff on that side of Goff’s body. But after taking two steps forward, Jackson sharply cut to his left, behind the pulling block of tight end Brock Wright.
That block gave Jackson the edge, and Reynolds was able to dig out Metullus in the second level, leaving the back one-on-one with Dantzler in the open field. The cornerback had been flowing with the rest of the defense and had to abruptly reverse field after Jackson’s cutback, and although the cornerback was able to get an angle, it was too late. In a foot race, Jackson was able to dive and get the front pylon for the score.
▶ Hutchinson makes plays
Trying to counter and stay within reach, the Vikings’ high-powered passing attack had them back in the red zone in just three snaps on the team’s ensuing possession.
But instead of netting another touchdown, they were forced to settle for a field goal, thanks in large part to rookie Aidan Hutchinson registering his seventh sack of the season on first down.
Standing up in a wide-9 alignment across the right side of the Vikings formation, Hutchinson exploded out of his stance, and with his outside arm, he was able to swat away both of right tackle Brian O’Neil’s hands, get the edge and drop Cousins. From snap to hit, Hutchinson got home in under 2.6 seconds for the 7-yard loss.
The cherry on top for Hutchinson was he came clean on a stunt on third down, knocking Cousins down and forcing an incompletion.
▶ The big man has hands
The Lions all but sealed the game with a completion to offensive tackle Penei Sewell. For three consecutive snaps, Sewell lined up outside of his traditional right tackle spot, motioning on both the first and third snaps, potentially lulling the Vikings into a false sense he was merely a decoy.
On the catch, Sewell lined up wide left and motioned across the formation. Goff snapped the ball while Sewell was still in the backfield, and defensive end Danielle Hunter, expecting Sewell to block, was late on an effort to redirect the route into the flat. Receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown also did an effective job keeping that side of the field open, leaning into cornerback Patrick Peterson’s jam.
The last piece of the puzzle was Goff, who had to demonstrate some touch on the throw to get it over the reach of Hunter, resulting in the unorthodox conversion.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers