Episode Description
Minnesota Tim previews the highly anticipated matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions, focusing on the historical significance of the game, key player impacts, and offensive strategies. With playoff implications on the line, Tim discusses the importance of players like Blake Cashman and Justin Jefferson, as well as the coaching styles of Dan Campbell and Kevin O'Connell. He concludes with his predictions for the game, emphasizing the offensive capabilities of both teams and the potential for a thrilling contest.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome into the show today. It's an amazing weekend ahead
of NFL football, particularly our favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
The number one seed is on.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
The line versus the Detroit Lions and a game that
will decide if one of these teams has to travel
to Los Angeles, Tampa, or Atlanta, or one of these
teams will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The
first fourteen win team to ever be a wild card
team is at stake this weekend. So let's preview this
(00:45):
Minnesota Vikings Detroit Lions matchup. First things first, let's take
a look at the odds via DraftKings dot com. The
Detroit Lions are favored as it stands right now, subject
to change by two and a half a half points. The
over under tootal is fifty six point five, and the
(01:05):
money line. If you bet one hundred dollars on the
Minnesota Vikings, you would get a plus one twenty four,
and you bet the one hundred dollars on the Detroit Lions,
you'd get a minus one forty.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Eight to win this game.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
All right, as far as this preview goes, there's a
few big talking points ahead of this game that needs
to be addressed, and one of my favorite resources for
this game preview is to actually go to Vikings dot Com.
You'd think that, you know what, and they might be
homers because they're a Vikings dot Com outlet, but they
(01:42):
do a good job examining things from both sides. They
give good talking points. So I pulled a few nuggets
that I thought was very interesting from Vikings dot Com.
And the first nugget is, of course, how historical this
game really is. Vikings versus take a look at the
history behind this game since playoff seeding began in nineteen
(02:05):
seventy five. This will be just the third time that
two opponents have played in the final game of the
regular season with the number one seed in a conference.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
On the line.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
The nineteen seventy nine Dallas Cowboys defeated the Washington Redskins
and the nineteen ninety three New York Giants topped the
Dallas Cowboys. So this is the first NFL regular season
game in which both teams have thirteen plus wins before kickoff,
and there is a lot on the line, which I
already addressed. So one of the things that I think
(02:38):
needs to be talked about is the earlier matchup, the
Vikings lost to Lions thirty one to twenty nine by a.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Last second field goal. It went back and forth.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Lions had the early lead, the Vikings made some plays,
had to turnover for a touchdown late in that game,
and late in that game, the Minnesota Vikings had a
chance to put the Detroit Lions away by completing a
third and four pass and they.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So they lost thirty one to twenty nine, and the
Vikings had to lead at that point. That put the
game away, and that was one of the games that
they couldn't quite pull off in the clutch.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It was a close game, close loss. It was a
good battle.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Now looking at this game, something that wasn't available to
the Minnesota Vikings in their prior matchup was a very
impactful player.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And that impactful.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Player is none other than Minnesota Vikings defensive linebacker Blake Cashman.
Minnesota is thirteen to zero this season in games with
Blake Cashman. The Lions in Week seven cot Minnesota during
the first of three games. Blake Cashman missed with a
toe injury, but the Minnesota native will be in the
(03:57):
lineup on Sunday Night Football This is one one of
the best free agency additions this offseason that Quezy Adolpho
Mensa pulled off Grenard Pro bowler, Van Ginkel pro bowler.
But Blake Cashman deserved just as much to be in
the Pro Bowl as those two defensive guys, but he
(04:18):
just didn't get the nod. All right, some more Blake
Cashman stats for you. Cashman leads the Vikings defense with
one hundred and four tackles and sixty three solo He's
fifth on the team with ten hits on quarterbacks and
eight passes defended, and fourth with four and a half
sacks and eight tackles for loss. The twenty eight year
(04:41):
old is indispensable to Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores as
a group functioning in top four me and he can't.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
He can't argue against that. And I love this stat
right here.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
When Cashman has played, Minnesota has allowed three hundred and
thirty one yards of offense per game and eighty four
yards on the ground, and the unit's been extremely opportunistic,
swiping two point one takeaways and notching three sacks per game.
Without him, about the same yardage three hundred thirty four yards.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But a lot more rushing one hundred and six to.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Eighty four with one point three turnovers, so less turnovers
and less sacks per game. So Blake Cashman's impact is
indisputable and his impact on the Minnesota Vikings defense is
huge because Cashman affects so many other.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Positions on the Vikings defense.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When cash Ben's in, Josh Mntelis can float around and
do his thing and not have to play that middle
linebacker position. When Cashman's in, the defensive front can be
solidified and Van Ginkel and Gregnard don't have to play
these specialty positions for a down or two playing Cashman.
Him being available impacts almost the entire defense because then
(05:59):
guy's got a play out a position, Guys got to
play more important roles like an Ivan Pace junior, and
him being available for this game is huge for the
Minnesota Vikings. Something that will happen in this game I
can almost guarantee it is the Detroit Lions going for
it on fourth down, because they go forward on fourth
(06:22):
down more than any team in the NFL, and that
is Dan Campbell's personality. It's an entertaining brand of football,
and Campbell.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Loves to go for it on fourth down.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Just take a look at this stat As the leader
of the Lions, Campbell has instructed the offense to stay
in the field and attempt to convert on fourth down
on one hundred and fourth on one hundred and forty
seven occasions since twenty twenty one, Detroit has succeeded eighty
two times fifty five point eight percent, both pace the
(06:55):
NFL in that timeframe. For comparison sake, Vikings head coach
keminal Donald was hired in twenty twenty two and has
gone for it on fourth down fifty eight.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Times and converted thirty two.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So even though O'Connell has coached in one less season
than Dan Campbell since twenty twenty one, is as hired
a year later, Campbell has almost gone for it more
than one hundred times than the Minnesota Vikings led by
Kevin O'Connell. So there's no doubt with the number one
(07:28):
seed on the line, Dan Campbell is going to be
Dan Campbell, and he is going to be a risk taker,
and he will go for it on a fourth down.
The game might come down to can the Minnesota Vikings
stop the Detroit Lions on a fourth and one? Or
a fourth and two and hauled them to zero points.
(07:51):
Because at some point he is going to go for it,
and whether it's a first quarter, second quarter, third quarter,
fourth quarter, it doesn't matter. If he gets that first
down and they score a touchdown, that will impact the game.
And if the Vikings stopped them, well that's going to
impact the game just as much. So a crucial part
(08:11):
of this football game. One of my favorite things when
taking a look at the Vikings dot com website was
taking a look at statistically Justin Jefferson's success against the
Detroit Lions. And just yesterday I did a podcast on
a secondary player from the Detroit Lions talking smack about
(08:35):
the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver corps.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He says, we're a bad matchup for Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
They've got guys, but we've got cover guys, whatever that
even means. But this stat proves that this Detroit Lions
secondary player, Terry and Arnold, should have shut his mouth.
Minnesota's earth shattering wide receiver, Justin Jefferson, has recorded seven
(09:00):
hundred and thirty yards against the Detroit Lions in four
such games on the road in Detroit. And here's a
look at his games Jefferson caught nine of twelve targets
for one hundred and thirty three yards in Week seventeen
of twenty twenty. In Week thirteen of twenty twenty one,
he went eleven catches one hundred and eighty two yards
(09:21):
one touchdown.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Via fourteen targets.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Week fourteen, a year later, Jefferson said the franchise regular
season single game receiving record with two hundred and twenty
three yards catching eleven of fifteen passes, and his last
performance against the Lions was twelve catches one hundred and
ninety two yards one touchdown when he got fourteen passes
(09:46):
in Week eighteen last year. And you take a look
at these averages, Jefferson averages one hundred and eighty two
point five receiving yards per game versus the Lions on
home turf has been dominant. And this idea that the
Detroit Lions are a bad matchup defensively for the Minnesota
(10:11):
Vikings is straight up bogus, straight up bogus, because Jefferson
has had his heyday against the Detroit Lions secondary in Detroit,
all right. Now, One thing that Detroit Lions do better
than any other team in the league is score the ball.
(10:31):
Detroit's offense leads the league this year with thirty three
point one points per game. Buffalo thirty one points a
game and Baltimore thirty points a game are the only
two other teams averaging more than thirty points a game.
Since Week fourteen, Detroit's average per game has spiked to
thirty seven point five points per game, so no doubt
(10:54):
that this is going to be a huge part of
the football game. Is the Minnesota Vikings defense of ability
to slow down the Detroit Lions offense. As far as
prediction time goes, the Lion says the Lions are favored
by two point five points, subject to change via DraftKings
dot com. Lions move up to kickoff all the time,
(11:16):
so that could change. And the Detroit Lions offense is
high scoring, but so is the Minnesota Vikings offense. They're
not as high scoring as the Detroit Lions offense, but
recently the Vikings offense has been clicking twenty seven against
Green Bay, twenty seven against Seattle, forty two against Atlanta.
(11:38):
The Vikings offense is no joke, and against a injured
defensive secondary and against an injured defensive unit on the
Detroit Lions. I would expect the Minnesota Vikings to put
up at least thirty five points in this game, which
in my mind means that the Detroit Lions will have
(12:00):
I have to put up thirty seven to win, and
I don't think they're gonna do it. I'm not trying
to sound like a Homer here. And if you take
a look at my last reel on Facebook talking about
the Vikings celebration.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Everybody will think I am anything but a homer. Call
me a Packers fan.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Tell me to st if you tell me how much
I suck, tell me how much I'm an idiot. And
I don't understand lions and odds, and I'm not a
betting guy, and I'm not analyzing that on a weekly
basis or a monthly basis at all. I don't make bets.
But when I take a look at this line, I
am surprised that the Detroit Lions are favored by as
(12:39):
many points as they are.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
In my mind, this game is a pick them.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
In my mind, the Minnesota Vikings will win this football
game because the Detroit Lions defense will not be able
to stop the Minnesota Vikings. And in my mind, the
Minnesota Vikings might not be able to stop the Detroit
Lions offense the entire game, or at least wait.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Wait, wait one second, huh.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
In my mind, the Minnesota Vikings defense will not be
able to slow down the Detroit Lions the entire game,
but at some point of the game, the Detroit Lions
offense will not score on a possession and the Minnesota
Vikings defense has a.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Takeaway in every single game this season, so.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Expect that to continue on Sunday Night football against a
Detroit Lions team. So my analysis is fairly simple for
this game. I don't think the Detroit Lions defense can
slow down the Minnesota Vikings offense as much as the
Minnesota Vikings defense can slow down the Detroit Lions offense.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Two offenses are rolling, but the.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Minnesota Vikings defense is better than the Detroit Lions defense
at this point in time. So even though the Lions
says the Lions are favored to win, I actually expect
the Minnesota Vikings to win this football game on the
road and capture the number one seed in the NFC
and have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. So Darnold
(14:18):
Jefferson Addison Hockinson. You take a look at how Kevin
O'Connell schemed against the Green Bay Packers last weekend, and
he did an incredible job of getting Naylor open and
getting Howkinson catches and getting Jefferson and Addison involved. And
I think it's going to be the same on Sunday.
(14:39):
I don't know how the Detroit Lions defense slows down
Kevin O'Connell's scheme.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And you know what, in this game.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The Vikings offense is going to pull out all the
stops because they know how important this game is. The
Lions know also how important this game is. They'll pull
out all the stops offensively too. But I think that
the minute set of Vikings will win this game. The
Vikings will put up thirty five points on the Detroit
Lions and beat them thirty five thirty one and keep
(15:13):
the Cinderella miraculous season going by capturing the number one
seed in the NF seed. So that's my take. Those
are our predictions. Skull Vikings and enjoy the game. Thank
you for making this podcast part of your day. Hit
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(15:35):
follow button wherever you are listening to this podcast. Appreciate you,
Thank you for going on this journey with me, on
this lovely, lovely Friday morning,