Lions serve a Thanksgiving turkey
Early deficit overwhelms Detroit, all but handing NFC North to Vikings
In the northwest corner of Ford Field hangs the division champion banners won by the Detroit Lions.
Three divisional banners hang in the corner next to the club’s 1957 championship banner. The last division title was in 1993.
Any hopes of an addition to the rafters this season likely came to an end on Thursday before a U.S. Thanksgiving Day record home crowd of 66,613 after the Lions fell 30-23 to the NFC North-leading Minnesota Vikings to fall three games back in the division race with five games to play.
“There’s a lot of football left,” said Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, whose team is now 6-5. “We were 6-6 when I was at Indy and needed to win the last four, and we won the last four. Don’t count us out just yet. We’ve got a lot of football left to play. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I know the media will paint it as the sky’s falling. The sky’s not falling for us. We’ve got to get ourselves a bit better and move forward.”
But this Lions team continues to make things hard on itself.
For the third straight week, the Lions faced a double-digit deficit near the start the game.
While an early deficit might not be insurmountable against weaker teams like Cleveland and Chicago, it was an opportunity the 9-2 Vikings weren’t going to squander.
“That was the key point of the game, missed opportunities,” said Lions receiver Marvin Jones Jr., who had six catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
“They capitalized on more opportunities than we did. When that happens, it’s hard to beat a tough team, but we were still in the thick of things.”
Vikings quarterback Case Keenum scored on a nine-yard run in the final minute of the opening quarter to give Minnesota a 13-0 lead.
The Vikings got the ball after Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and running back Ameer Abdullah botched a handoff exchange.
“We’ve just got to execute better,” Stafford said. “As a team, we’ve got to find a way to start a little faster.
“Obviously, you’d love to win, but we didn’t make enough plays in all phases to win. We put ourselves in a tough situation being down double digits.”
Even when the Lions were moving the ball, the club could not finish and Detroit had to settle for three Matt Prater field goals.
“We didn’t play well enough to win,” Stafford said. “Left too many points out there. (I) missed a couple (throws) out there that could have changed the game. That’s never fun.
“A couple of fails in the red zone, a couple we ended up getting threes instead of sevens — and if they’re sevens, we’re sitting in a better place at the end of the game.”
Down 20-3, the Lions made it a 10-point game at the half with Stafford hitting Jones for a six-yard touchdown to cap a 75-yard drive in three plays and 27 seconds.
But when Minnesota got the ball to start the second half, the Vikings ran the ball five straight plays and went 74 yards to restore its 17-point lead on a two-yard TD run by Latavius Murray.
“They just took it right down the field,” Caldwell said. “Up until then, I thought our guys had been doing a pretty decent job of getting stopped in the first half, but that one was tough.”
Two Prater field goals and another touchdown reception by Jones made it a four-point game early in the fourth quarter.
But Stafford, who hurt his ankle on the second touchdown throw to Jones, failed on two possessions in the final four minutes to drive the club to the tying score and was limping noticeably after the game. Keenum had another solid outing for the Vikings, with 282 passing yards and two touchdowns. Murray had 84 rushing yards for Minnesota.
With the division out of reach, the Lions turn to the wild card chase, where they trail Carolina (73), Atlanta (6-4) and Seattle (6-4) for one of two spots.
“We just have to look forward,” Jones said. “We can’t go on with that should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. We have a lot of football to play and that’s what we have to focus on — can’t focus on anything else.
“We know we’ve missed some opportunities in some games, but we can’t think like that. We have to go forward and we have the team to do it. There’s no doubt in my mind that we will do it.”
You don’t know what’s going to happen. I know the media will paint it as the sky’s falling. The sky’s not falling for us.