The Detroit Lions and Detroit Lions fans could not have asked anything more of the Minnesota Vikings this year.
Last year, running back Adrian Peterson put the Vikings on his back and carried Minnesota to the playoffs as he rushed for 2,097 yards over the 2012 season. Peterson earned the NFL’s MVP award as he joined a very elite group of running backs, including Lions great Barry Sanders, to break 2,000 yards rushing in a single season.
This year is a different story.
Adrian Peterson still looks good, though he’s not running at a rate to break 2,000. That’s not a surprise. Repeating a 2,000-yard rushing season has never been done. Although AP is still averaging over 100 yards per game this year (100.7 as of Week 13 per NFL.com), the Vikings have struggled to win games and are out of the playoff picture.
Meanwhile, the Lions are in a very close race with the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers for the NFC division title. Even though they are out of the race, the Vikings were in a perfect position to affect the outcome of the NFC North division the last two weeks.
In two back-to-back games that ended in overtime, the Vikings proved their relevance in the NFC North.
First, the Vikings faced the Packers who were just a game back from the first-place Lions and the Chicago Bears. With both the Lions and Bears losing that week, a win for the Packers would have given them a tying record with the other two. Instead, despite coming from behind to tie the game and force overtime, the Packers were unable to defeat Adrian Peterson and the Vikings.
The game ended in a tie and the Packers were still half a game back on the Bears and Lions.
Then the Lions stomped the Packers on Thanksgiving Thursday to go up a game and a half on Green Bay.
Meanwhile the Vikings would get a chance to again help the Lions on Sunday.
And they did.
Down by 10 to the Bears in the 4th quarter, it was looking likely that Chicago would keep their record tied with Detroit’s. But to the cheers of Lions fans tuning into the game, Minnesota tied the game and forced OT.
This time, the game would not end in a tie.
After two potentially winning field goals were missed, and another was made but negated by a facemask penalty, the Vikings beat the Bears with a 34-yard field goal in overtime.
With the Lions game for Week 13 already played on Thursday, Lions fans found themselves watching and cheering for a divisional rival Sunday. Having put together a season that made the Vikings no threat to win the division, Minnesota made it easy for Lions fan to root them on to victory the last two weeks.
Putting together a 1-0-1 record the last two weeks that gave the Lions a little separation for the lead in the division, the Vikings deserve thanks from Detroit. Since thanks aren’t likely to come from the Detroit Lions themselves, I’ll say it for them:
Thank you, Minnesota Vikings. The Detroit Lions couldn’t ask for anything more from you. Of course, I can’t wish Minnesota the same success when the last game of the season (vs. the Lions) comes.