Vikings 30 - 20 Lions

I love how NFC North games are always a bizarre affair. The Vikings ate the Lions alive in the first quarter running up an early 20-0 lead, then held the Lions to -3 yards rushing over the course of the game, and forced 6 turnovers. Yet somehow the game ended up close in the 4th quarter, and a Vikings victory was only sealed by some lunacy on the part of the Lions. With only a few minutes remaining, down ten points, the Lions needed two scores. Facing first and goal on the one, they tried running the ball into the end zone. At this point in the game, the Vikings #1 rushing defense had given up approximately ZERO net rushing yards, so it was an interesting choice to run the ball three times, and lost the Lions a yard. On 4th down, rather than kicking a field goal and looking for a touchdown in the remaining four minutes, the Lions went for it, and lost more yards when Jon Kitna was sacked. They still had a very slim shot if they got a quick stop, scored quickly and then recovered an onside kick, until Kitna threw his third interception on their final possession.

The Vikings showed some rare fire and creativity today. In the absence of Chester Taylor, Artose Pinner ran for 125 yards and three touchdowns. On their first drive, the Vikings nearly stalled again in the red zone, but instead of kicking a field goal from the 20 yard line, they went for a 1st down, a risky move which lead to a touchdown. At one point on 3rd and 13 Johnson faked the hand-off on a reverse and threw a screen pass to Mewelde Moore, who got the first down on one of the few successful misdirection plays the team has pulled off this year. When Bethel Johnson handed off a kick-off to Charles Gordon to sow confusion on a kickoff return in the final two minutes of the first half, that was a brilliant play, and barring the imbecilic ruling of the officials after Gordon dropped the ball and recovered it himself, it would have been huge.

A strange, strange game, which keeps the Vikings alive in the play-off race, but more importantly was a lot of fun to watch.