Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions: Five keys to victory

The Minnesota Vikings will travel to Michigan to take on the Detroit Lions on Sunday, October 25, 2015. This NFC North battle is important to both teams, as the Lions are looking to rebound from an 0-5 start to the season and redeem their season. On the other hand, the Minnesota Vikings are one of only five teams in the NFC that have a winning record and are looking to stay relevant in the insanely early playoff picture.

Defeating the Lions will be hard, but it can be done. Here are my five keys to success for the Minnesota Vikings when they take on Detroit:

Rattle Matt Stafford. Last meeting, the Minnesota Vikings found success by getting to the Lions quarterback and knocking him down repeatedly. This time, the goal should be no different. With all the weapons that Detroit has on offense, stopping them before they get going will be essential.
Establish the run. Detroit might have a similar strategy to stopping Minnesota as the Chiefs did last week. If Detroit can take away the effectiveness of Adrian Peterson, they’ll force the Vikings to try to win the game through the air. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater will have to do much better than one touchdown to keep up with the Lions.
Keep tabs on Calvin Johnson. This should be an obvious one, but “Megatron” is a game-changer. Even if the Vikings can get to Stafford, that doesn’t mean that he can’t put a pass up to Johnson and let his top wide receiver make a play on it. This should be a group effort, but there’s a good chance that Xavier Rhodes will be the one given the biggest role in containing him.
Make smart decisions in the passing game. Everyone loves to see the long pass, but it isn’t always the most efficient way to pick up yardage or move the chains. Bridgewater can’t turn the ball over twice like he did against Kansas City and expect to walk out of the Motor City with a win on Sunday.
Prove that the Vikings can play on the road. Earlier this week, I wrote about the struggles that Minnesota has had when playing away from home. Those terrifying stats show a team that doesn’t know how to seal the deal at the opposing stadium. This should be a tough task, as the Lions have much, much more talent on their roster than their 1-5 record shows.

Those are the five biggest things that I think the Minnesota Vikings will have to achieve in order to come out of Detroit with a win on Sunday. What do you think? Do you have any keys to victory that I didn’t mention? Disagree with one that I have listed? Let me know in the comments below.

Next: Minnesota Vikings 2015 Game By Game Previews

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