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They always say that when a team’s winning the quarterback gets more credit than they deserve and vice versa. Judging from all the chatter about Minnesota’s Christian Ponder leading up to this game you’d think he was the next coming of Tom Brady — maybe he is, but certainly not yet. No, this is a team that’s wining on the philosophy of solid defense, a strong running game and high quality special teams. All those facets came together here to make Ponder’s lackluster display (-0.8 ) in this game pretty much irrelevant.

In the last 16 regular season games they’ve played, Detroit have gone 6-10. They took a step forward initially last year but have stalled badly since. The biggest issue is a defensive line that can hold its own in the running game against average offensive lines, but when it comes up against a quality group (as it did here and against the 49ers) gets steamrolled. Good pass-blocking from the Lions’ own offensive line is also being squandered, not least because the skill positions have developed a penchant for dropping catches — 16 in total and seven in this game alone.

These are two teams currently going in different directions. However, both have strengths and weaknesses as you’ll see below.

Minnesota – Three Performances of Note

Building up Steam

Adrian Peterson (+2.6) may not be quite back to his best yet, but there were moments in this game he didn’t seem too far from it. He picked up his highest participation of the season so far, playing on 79% of the offensive snaps, and ran with great verve and no lack of movement. He never broke anything really significant, but it was his second effort that stood out. For example, with 3:45 to go in the third, he cut smoothly into the hole, accelerated through it and then dragged the middle linebacker for another four yards and the first down.

More good news is that of the 15 times he’s stayed into pass protect this year he’s given up nothing. Peterson has a habit of working on his weaknesses and, after having recently addressed issues with fumbling, it looks like this may be next on his list of things to cross off.

Holding the Line

Run defense against Detroit is a bit like filling your car up with gas; it’s really not much to worry about until it doesn’t get done. Jared Allen (+1.6) isn’t necessarily the person you see as taking the lead in this regard, but he understands better than most he can’t pin his ears back and get after the QB if he hasn’t done the hard grind first. Well in this game (+2.9 run defense grade) he certainly did that. He was never caught out of position and consistently got into the backfield to either disrupt the play or make the tackle.

In this game he made as good a play against the run as I’ve personally seen all year when, with 6:04 left in the second, he blew inside the tight end, was picked up by the pulling guard, shed him and made the tackle for a one-yard loss.

Short Underneath

If there was a deficiency in the Vikings anywhere, it was really in pass coverage at linebacker. Chad Greenway was his usual productive self, but Jasper Brinkley (-1.8 ) looked like a guy who was used to coming forward, not dropping back. He was often out of position, slow to react and overall he allowed six of eight passes into his area to be completed, for 59 yards, with 29 of those coming after the catch. He only played four snaps less in coverage in this game than he’s done in the entire season, as he filled in for the injured Erin Henderson. With Henderson likely back next week from concussion, it may be that the Vikings have ridden out the worst because Brinkley is a good run defender. If Henderson still can’t go though, expect the Titans to try and take advantage.

Game Notes

- Quietly, Harrison Smith is making his way up the defensive rookie of the year rankings. Zero yards allowed, two passes defensed and zero missed tackles is my view of what a safety is all about.

- Talk about caution. Christain Ponder’s average depth of target was 5.2 yards, even lower than his previous 30th-ranked 5.6 yards.

PFF Game Ball

The Vikings won because while they didn’t take many risks and they were able to move the ball on the ground, and that was due in large part to Adrian Peterson.

dead_poet wrote:Short Underneath

If there was a deficiency in the Vikings anywhere, it was really in pass coverage at linebacker. Chad Greenway was his usual productive self, but Jasper Brinkley (-1.8 ) looked like a guy who was used to coming forward, not dropping back. He was often out of position, slow to react and overall he allowed six of eight passes into his area to be completed, for 59 yards, with 29 of those coming after the catch.

TheCoolerOne wrote:The stuff about Brinkley in that article is not nearly as glowing as what Pelissero had to say about him in his weekly tape breakdown. Odd.

Jasper Brinkley... was often out of position, slow to react and overall he allowed six of eight passes into his area to be completed, for 59 yards, with 29 of those coming after the catch

- Talk about caution. Christain Ponder’s average depth of target was 5.2 yards, even lower than his previous 30th-ranked 5.6 yards.

Mothman wrote:They make some interesting observations and I enjoy reading their take on things but they're still just amateurs watching and grading games on TV....

I trust Pelissero a lot more when it comes to that sort of thing.

Eli wrote: I'm beginning to worry that the Vikings are trying to make things _too_ easy for Ponder. At some point they have to open it up more.

When special teams or defense score all of the TDs in a game, as long as it results in a win, the lack of offense gets almost completely overlooked. Had the score been Lions 13-6, the post-game analysis of the offense would be 180 degrees different.

You can argue that the Vikings were playing conservatively on offense to protect a lead, but scoring zero points on offense in the second half won't protect many leads in the NFL any more.

Crax wrote:I read both, but I'm not sure Pelissero is any less of an "amateur watching and grading games on TV". PFF watches far more teams than the Vikings and doesn't have any vested interest in making them look good/bad. I'm not saying Pelissero is biased, but I'd doubt he watches near as much tape.

Does Pelissero have any additional qualifications for judging responsibilities then the guys at PFF?(I honestly don't know, asking for more info here)