Keenum inspires win to extend division lead
DETROIT — Case Keenum stood in the pocket to take a hit, dipped his right shoulder to slip out of a sack and shuffled his feet in the pocket to give his receivers more time to get open.
Looking like a savvy winner, instead of a journeyman, he picked apart Detroit’s defense with his arm and made plays with his legs to help the Minnesota Vikings beat the Lions 30-23 on Thursday.
Keenum threw for two touchdowns and ran for a score in the first half to give the Vikings a doubledigit lead and they went on to win a seventh straight game.
They took a huge step toward winning the NFC North by taking a threegame lead over the secondplace Lions.
Keenum, undrafted out of Houston in 2012, is suddenly 7-2 this season after going 9-15 with the Texans and the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams.
“I want to be great and I have confidence in myself that I can be great,” Keenum said.
The Vikings signed him to be a backup and he has made the most of his opportunities.
Keenum was 21-of-30 for 282 yards with both touchdown passes to Kyle Rudolph, giving the Vikings a 20-3 lead late in the second quarter.
“Case is amazing because he does so many small things to pick up first downs and keep drives alive,” Rudolph said. “Every time he finds a way to convert another third down, it means we’ve got three more plays to attack the defense. With the number of big-play guys we’ve got now, we can do a lot of damage with those three plays.”
Detroit (6-5) made mistakes in every phase of the game and Minnesota took advantage. Keenum’s 1-yard pass to Rudolph was made a little easier because the Lions had just 10 defenders on the field.
Keenum’s 9-yard touchdown run came after Matthew Stafford was charged with a fumble while trying to hand off to Ameer Abdullah.
The Lions rallied to pull within four points early in the fourth quarter on Stafford’s second touchdown pass to Marvin Jones, but Xavier Rhodes sidetracked Detroit’s comeback hopes with an interception at the Detroit 37 late in the game.
Instead of winning to pull within a game of Minnesota and having a potential tiebreaker, the Lions’ loss hurts their chances of making a second straight postseason appearance.
“Don’t count us out just yet,” Detroit coach Jim Caldwell said. “We’ve got a lot of football yet to play.”