Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings: Key information and first quarter discussion

We are an hour away from kickoff at U.S. Bank Stadium for today’s NFC North clash between the Detroit Lions and your Minnesota Vikings. This is an important one for the purple, so we want to make sure you have everything you need to know before it kicks off.

Date and Time: Sunday, 10 October 2021, noon Central time

Location: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Television Coverage: KSTP-9 in the Twin Cities, FOX affiliates around the country, DirecTV Channel 711

Radio Coverage: Vikings Radio Network, Sirius Channel 146, XM Channel 231, SiriusXM App Channel 820

Line: Vikings -10, Over/Under 49.5

Chris’ Prediction: Vikings 34, Lions 17

Three Keys

1) Remain disciplined - On paper, this is a game that the Vikings should win, but the way to give the Lions a chance is to have the same sort of dumb mistakes that plagued this team in the opener against Cincinnati. The team has gotten much better about penalties over the past few weeks, and they’ll need to maintain that in order to ensure a victory today

2) Hammer Jared Goff - The Vikings don’t have Matthew Stafford to kick around anymore, as he’s been replaced by Goff. The last time the Vikings saw Goff, he was lighting the Vikings up, but that was when he was with the Rams. The Lions come into this one without both of their starting tackles and their starting center, so there should be plenty of opportunities for Danielle Hunter, Everson Griffen, and company to make Goff question his life choices.

3) Keep things balanced - With Dalvin Cook still nursing his ankle injury, it’s time for the Vikings to lean on some of their other playmakers. Kirk Cousins had been playing well before last week’s hiccup against Cleveland, and we should see plenty of Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson today against a Lions’ defense that’s missing its top two corners. Alexander Mattison should get some significant run today as well. If the offense stays balanced, Detroit should have a lot of trouble keeping up.

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We’ll have a brand new discussion thread at the start of each quarter, so be sure to keep your eyes open for those and keep the discussion moving accordingly.

With that, it’s time to get ready for kickoff at U.S. Bank Stadium, folks. Here’s hoping that, in about three hours or so, we’ll all get together and talk about how much fun we had watching the Vikings pick up win #2 on the season.

SKOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL VIKINGS!!!!