They were calling it a "T-shirt and hat game" this week in the Vikings locker room, Kirk Cousins and Co. expecting to come to Detroit, clinch the NFC North and celebrate at Ford Field. Taylor Decker and the Lions knew it.
"I’m sure they got the NFC North shirts and hats in their locker room," Decker said after the Lions delayed the Vikings' party with a 34-23 win Sunday. "It was a challenge for us and we met it head-on. We didn’t even blink."
The Lions never trailed against their first-place rivals, who entered at 10-2. They lived up to their billing as favorites. In the process, they made Vikings receiver Jalen Reagor eat his words after guaranteeing a win this week, while Decker started to prove some of his own.
As the Lions' longest-tenured player told his teammates last month, "It's not the fu*king Same Old Lions anymore." They certainly didn't look like it Sunday as they pulled closer to the final playoff spot in the NFC.
"I think I’ve earned the right to give my opinion on that and I feel like I know what it looks like, so tough look for Jalen Reagor this week," Decker said.
Tough look, indeed. Reagor, who entered the game with six catches in 12 games this season, failed to catch his lone target and gained nine yards on his lone punt return. Sunday's win also represented some revenge for the Lions, who had blown a fourth-quarter lead in a brutal loss to the Vikings back in Week 3.
"We owed ‘em one," said Decker. "We definitely owed ‘em one. Not to look back at that game, but I felt like we had that game won and we didn’t finish it out as an offense."
They took care of business this time, scoring on all four of their second-half drives to put the game away. The offense ran through Jared Goff, who finished with 330 yards, three touchdowns and no picks. Every week he seems to be raising the bar.
Typically not one to revel in success, even Goff admitted the Lions' recent surge "feels good." They've clawed back from 1-6 to 6-7 as they chase the final playoff spot in the NFC.
"It makes me feel like we’re making a lot of people eat what they said, mostly,. We know who we are and we know what we can do," said Goff. "Yeah, things sucked early on obviously and who knows how long that could have lasted, but we trusted ourselves, trusted the work we put in, trusted the coaching staff and we’re almost back to .500 now.
"And who would have thought that at 1-6?"
No one, except the players in that locker room.
Listen live to 97.1 The Ticket via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker