Despite predictions of the Lions’ demise as a team to be reckoned with, Detroit went out in Week 2 and, after a furious fourth quarter rally, put a little scare in the Eagles.

The man orchestrating the near-comeback for Detroit?  Matt Stafford’s back-up Shaun Hill.

Viking fans are very familiar with Mr. Hill.  He played for Minnesota in 2005, but never got to throw a pass in a game.  He ended up leaving the Vikings for San Francisco, where he developed a reputation as an able back-up.  In 2009, Hill made his return to the Metrodome, in a game that will forever be remembered for Brett Favre‘s last-second winning TD pass to Greg Lewis.

The other thing Viking fans remember about that game is that Shaun Hill played pretty darn well, and with a lot of help from beastly tight end Vernon Davis, almost beat us.  In fact, had Dre Bly hung on to a pick he had right in his hands late in the fourth, the 49ers would’ve won that game.

As it was, the Vikings went to 3-0 that day, on their way to a 12-4 season.  Had they lost the game and fallen to 2-1?  Who knows how their season would’ve turned out.

Hill’s season turned out somewhat disappointingly:  After rebounding from the Vikings game with a win over the hapless Rams, the Niners went on a four-game losing streak.  Halfway through the streak, Alex Smith took over as the quarterback.  Hill didn’t see the field again all season.

Now, Hill is in Detroit…and thanks to Stafford’s injury, he is back starting.  Last week against Philly, Hill threw for 335 yards and 2 TDs.  Granted, his completion percentage was not great and he threw 2 picks, but still, he showed that he is a steady performer who knows how to use his weapons.  Against the Vikings last year, he and Vernon Davis did the gashing.  This year, Hill has discovered a great target in Jahvid Best, who caught 9 balls Sunday for 154 yards and a score.

You have to believe Hill, Best and the Lions will be a confident bunch going into Sunday’s game.  They have played well despite being 0-2, and should have a chip on their shoulder after the way the referees robbed them against the Bears.   They have a lot of young players who don’t give a crap about past Lions nightmares in the Metrodome.  And you know Hill will have no fear of that environment, given his success there last year.

Also, the Lions certainly realize how the Vikings have struggled so far in 2010, and will be looking to stick an early dagger in the Vikings’ playoff hopes.  The Vikings need this game to keep from sinking even lower.  Meanwhile, the Lions must view it as a chance to make a statement to the NFL that their solid play the first two weeks was not a fluke.

There are a lot of uncertainties going in.  For the Vikings, the entire offense is a question mark.  For the Lions, there’s the question of how good their defense actually is, after getting ripped apart by Michael Vick.

One thing I’m sure of though?  Shaun Hill will play better than people expect.  If you’re a Viking fan and you’re ready to write off the Lions just because Matt Stafford is out…you obviously weren’t paying attention a year ago when Hill came in with the Niners.

Hill can play.  And I’m sure the Vikings defense remembers him well, and will not take him lightly.  This guy is no Joey Harrington, and Sunday’s game will be no cake-walk for the Purple.

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It isn’t because Daryn Colledge is playing left tackle instead of Chad Clifton.

No, there is no need to rehash all of that.  If you’ve been watching ESPN today, you’ve gotten your fill of Favre.

So, instead of concentrating on the extra drama and the reasons for it, I will now endeavor to look through the blinding glare of hype and consider the actual game.

It is, first and foremost, an NFC North division match-up.  We know why such games are important.  We know that, if the Vikings win, they will put the Packers down two games in the race.  We know how vital division wins are to tiebreakers and such at the end of the season.

This has nothing to do with bragging rights or who is up in the rivalry – it’s all about standings and positioning.  The Packers win, they pull even with the Vikings and Bears atop the division.  They lose, they slide.

The game also has significance in terms of our perception of the two teams.  We thought the Packers might be pretty good after the defensive effort they mustered in Week 1 against Jay Cutler and the Bears.  Then they laid an egg against the Bengals, at home, and we wondered if maybe we didn’t over-estimate them.

Coming off pounding the Rams – not a great accomplishment – the Packers want to show that they can go into a hostile environment and win a tough game.  They want to show what their new 3-4 defense can do against Adrian Peterson.  They want a signature victory, something that will put them on the map.

What better statement could the Packers make than to defeat Brett Favre and the Vikings with all the sporting world watching?  What better statement could Aaron Rodgers make than to outplay the man he replaced?

Yes, it’s impossible to separate the game from the hype.

And the Vikings, too, would like to make a statement.  They may have beaten the 49ers last week, but they know they didn’t play well.  They know AD was getting stuffed.  They know they had that game lost before Favre bailed them out.

They need to come back, at home, and play better on both sides of the ball.  They need to run it better.  They need to pass block a lot better.  They need to cover better.

They had problems handling Shaun Hill and Vernon Davis.  Aaron Rodgers is better than Shaun Hill, and the Packers’ receiving corps is vastly better than the Niners’.  They’re hoping the loss of Clifton will lead to a big pass rush from Jared Allen.  If Allen can harass Rodgers, then they should be able to control the Packers’ passing game.

If not…Rodgers has a lot of weapons.

Of course Brett Favre has weapons too.  The problem is that, so far, he hasn’t been able to consistently use them.  He still hasn’t found any chemistry with Bernard Berrian, who didn’t help matters by developing Kleinsasser-like hands last week.  And Visanthe Shiancoe hasn’t been as big a part of the offense as we hoped.

Mostly we are hoping for a bounce-back game from Adrian Peterson, but we are also hoping for crisper, more efficient offensive execution overall.  The machine has been sputtery.  The Vikings need to put together two good halves.  As exciting as last-second game-winning touchdowns are, they are not something we want to become overly familiar with.

This is a home game for the Vikings, and they are favored, and they should be favored.  Now they have to come out and play like a favorite, take control of the game from the start and hold on.  Unfortunately, this being a Viking-Packer game, I expect that there will be numerous gut-wrenching turns.  Some more #4 heroics may be needed.

Aspirins may be required.  Or perhaps something stronger.

1. Yes, that is why you bring in Brett Favre.  Because when he’s on your team you feel like you are never out of the game.  Even with only a few seconds left on the clock and a bunch of field in front of you, you believe Favre can make something happen.  That belief will continue to exist as long as he makes plays like yesterday’s.

I know it kills certain people, but, there’s a reason people make a big deal about Favre.  That magic touch is real.  It’s not luck or a fluke.  Not after all these years.  And yes, it does feel good to be on the right side of one of those last-second miracle plays.  For once, it was the other guy’s defense taking a shit when it mattered most.

2. The circumstances leading to Favre’s miracle play should never have come about.  The Vikings should never have been in such desperate straits.  They thoroughly outplayed the 49ers in the first half and had no business being a point down at the half.  They had no business letting Shaun Hill and Vernon Davis tear them up in the second half.  They damn near gave the game away; Brett Favre, Greg Lewis and Percy Harvin bailed them out.

Of everyone who is rippable for the way the Vikings played Sunday, #1 on the list is Brad Childress.  I have stated in the past that I think Chilly’s conservative, stubborn, “this is who we are” approach can be good for Favre – the mad dog needs to be kept on a leash – but I think there comes a moment when you have to set that aside and let Brett be Brett.  What’s the point of having him if you’re not going to let him occasionally try to win a game for you?  Yes, that’s what ended up happening anyway, but like I said before, the Vikings should never have gotten in that desperate situation to begin with.

It became pretty clear, about halfway through the third quarter, that Adrian Peterson was not going to have a huge second half against the Niners defense, was not going to bust the big play, was not going to do his magic.  The Niners were just flat-out stuffing him.  But what does Childress do?  Stick with the plan.  And it almost lost him the game.  Sorry, but Chilly should’ve let the dog off the leash much, much sooner.  Maybe coming out of halftime.

I hope Chilly has expressed his gratitude to Brett, possibly in the form of flowers, or a new Toro.

3. The pass protection has to get better or Brett Favre is going to die.  The hero is going to be reduced to a quivering bag of broken bones and someone is going to have to come scoop him up and carry him off and I do not want to see that.  Chester Taylor – no more missing blitzing corners, please.  And Phil Loadholt – yikes.

4. Can we now all agree that Jim Kleinsasser is utterly useless in the pass game?  I loved that sideline play where Brett threw it up to him and he had absolutely no chance of coming down in bounds.  You could almost hear Brett saying in his head, “Okay, so the Kleinsasser fellow isn’t nimble.  Got it.”

5. The “missed a lot of preseason” excuse only goes so far for Bernard Berrian.  Dude is supposed to be an almost-Pro-Bowl type receiver and he was just flat dropping balls.  I said on Twitter yesterday, half-jokingly, that Berrian liked those nice soft Gus Frerotte throws better than those Favre heaters; then, not long after, one of the announcers remarked that he thinks the Vikings receivers aren’t yet used to the ball coming at them so fast, hence the drops.  Hopefully this will get worked out.

6. Percy Harvin is fast.  Faster than your normal fast person.  And unlike other fast guys we’ve had (Troy Williamson?  Kelly Campbell?), he actually catches the ball and has moves.  Wow.  Cool.

7.  The Vikings have had some problems in recent years covering tight ends.  That came up again yesterday when Vernon Davis had a career game against us.  It wasn’t quite Owen Daniels-from-last-year huge, but it was pretty big.  Of course, Vernon is a physically talented player, and some of those Shaun Hill passes were just pretty passes.  Like that one touchdown over three defenders.  That was spectacular.

8.  I don’t think we’re getting the push up the middle from our defensive line that we got last year and in previous years.  Doesn’t seem like Fat Pat and K-Will are playing in the backfield as much as they used to.  I wonder if Pat isn’t finally winding down a little.  I think Chilly may have to mix in more Fred Evans and Jimmy Kennedy to keep Pat fresh.

9.  I don’t want to become a broken record about this, but, why the hell don’t we throw more screens?  Isn’t keeping the defense off-balance a good thing?

10.  It doesn’t matter that Chilly isn’t an inspirational leader like Mike Singletary.  The Vikings players just have to find their inspiration within.

Bonus Point:  Someone tell the 49ers it’s okay to pass and try to get the first down to end the game when the other team has three time outs left and is tackling your running back in the backfield.  I like to help out when I can.