The regular season is at its conclusion and the Detroit Lions are your NFC North division champions. This game isn’t a must-win to make the playoffs or win the divisional title for Detroit. The Lions have their playoff appearance locked in, so the stress of years past isn’t around this time. The only thing the Lions can play for is the two seed in the NFC as the one seed is locked in by the San Francisco 49ers. Another thing Detroit can play for, eliminating the Minnesota Vikings from making the playoffs.
Minnesota needs a hail mary to make the playoffs this season, needing to beat the Lions is the main objective, but they need help elsewhere. They need the Chicago Bears to beat the Green Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals to beat the Seattle Seahawks and either the Atlanta Falcons to beat the New Orleans Saints, or the Carolina Panthers to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That is a tall order to ask for, but the Vikings will play hungry and will play with something on the line.
While the Lions need the Dallas Cowboys to lose to the Washington Commanders and the Philadelphia Eagles to lose to the New York Giants to get the two seed, they have something else to play for. To eliminate the Vikings from the playoffs. Last season, the Lions had nothing to play for in Week 18, but wanted to eliminate the Packers from the playoffs and they did it. While I didn’t see a point in playing the starters in Week 18 if things were mostly locked in, I think now it makes sense because of what this team wants to do. They just don’t want to take the divisional title from the Vikings, they want to send them to the golf course as well.
Let’s look at the Week 18 scouting report for the Detroit Lions against the Minnesota Vikings.
2023 Minnesota Vikings
2023 season thus far (7-9)
Week 1: Loss against Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-17
Week 2: Loss against Philadelphia Eagles 34-28
Week 3: Loss against Los Angeles Chargers 28-24
Week 4: Win against Carolina Panthers 21-13
Week 5: Loss against Kansas City Chiefs 27-20
Week 6: Win against Chicago Bears 19-13
Week 7: Win against San Francisco 49ers 22-17
Week 8: Win against Green Bay Packers 24-10
Week 9: Win against Atlanta Falcons 31-28
Week 10: Win against New Orleans Saints 27-19
Week 11: Loss against Denver Broncos 21-20
Week 12: Loss against Chicago Bears 12-10
Week 13: BYE
Week 14: Win against Las Vegas Raiders 3-0
Week 15: Loss against Cincinnati Bengals 27-24
Week 16: Loss against Detroit Lions 30-24
Week 17: Loss against Green Bay Packers 33-10
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