In a matchup of division rivals, it’s hard to find two teams moving as quickly in opposite directions as the Detriot Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, who meet this Sunday at 1:00pm ET at Mall of America Field in Minneapolis.
The Lions have been on the ascent since their rock bottom season of 2008, where they were a perfect 0-16. Now they sit at 2-0 and have become a trendy playoff pick in the always difficult NFC North, where they compete with the defending Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, who met in last season’s NFC Championship game.
“It’s a good start,” said Matthew Stafford, who has thrown for 599 yards in two games this season, and has 7 TD passes, tied for the NFL lead with Tom Brady and Ryan Fitzpatrick. “That’s the way we look at it. We’ve got to keep it going, though. It’s a 16-game season.”
Meanwhile, the Vikings have fallen from winning the division at 12-4 in 2009, to 6-10 last year and are currently in the basement of the NFC North at 0-2.
They picked up Donovan McNabb in the offseason and drafted Christian Ponder to solidify themselves at quarterback. So far McNabb is 30thin the NFL with a passer rating of 71.3 and just 267 yards passing and 1 TD over two games. No word on when Ponder will be ready to take the helm, as this appears to be a year for rookie quarterbacks with Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert and Andy Dalton already getting the call with their teams.
McNabb still holds the starting job for now, so we’ll have to continue to wait for the opportunity to publish a “Christian versus the Lions” story.
McNabb said this week, “I think it’s now the time for everyone to really challenge themselves and find out what they are doing individually wrong and get it corrected so that we won’t have these problems later in the season.”
The Lions are strong favorites to extend their record to 3-0 and at least a piece of the division lead.
