The Minnesota Vikings head into a Week 18 matchup against the Detroit Lions with a chance to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs and get a first-round bye.
Before the season began, there weren't many fans, if any, that anticipated this kind of season from the Vikings. Now, with one game left in the regular season, Minnesota will play in arguably their biggest regular season game in team history, and it comes against one of the best teams in the NFL.
Minnesota is coming off of a solid win this past weekend, though the ending was a lot tighter than fans would like. During their win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 17, the Vikings showed a lot of positives, but they also showed some pieces that need to be fixed before their primetime matchup with the Lions.
If Minnesota wants to lock up the No. 1 seed and get a bye, what are some problems they need to fix before Sunday night?
Problems the Minnesota Vikings must fix before Week 18 vs. the Detroit Lions
1. Play a full four quarters
The Minnesota Vikings looked very impressive for three quarters of football this past weekend, and even for part of the fourth quarter, but that all came crashing down with under eight minutes left.
This scenario played out very similarly to the first matchup between the Vikings and Packers earlier this season, where Minnesota dominated most of the game, but seemed to ease up too much and almost choke away a big lead.
If Minnesota wants to be a serious contender, they need to play through the full four quarters, as Vikings fans everywhere will tell you that no lead is ever safe.
The chance that Minnesota gets out to a dominating lead over Detroit this weekend is very low, but the sentiment of playing a complete game remains regardless. Too many times this season has it appeared that the Vikings have taken their foot off the gas, and this mindset has almost cost them multiple times this year.
Minnesota could learn something from the Lions in this regard, as Detroit has shown that they are not afraid to beat teams down even when the game is far out of reach.
2. Handle the run
The Vikings did a fairly good job of handling the run this past weekend against a solid Packers rushing offense, as they held Green Bay running back Josh Jacobs to 4.1 yards per carry on the day, a little bit under his season average of 4.4.
With that being said, Minnesota is about to face off against another impressive rushing offense in Detroit, a team that averaged 5.3 per rush attempt when they played earlier this season.
Though the Lions will likely be without star running back David Montgomery, his backfield counterpart Jahmyr Gibbs is coming off of back-to-back 100-plus yard games on the ground.
Gibbs put up 116 on Minnesota when they first played, as the combination of Detroit's stellar offensive line paired with Gibbs' incredible ability was too much for the Vikings to handle.
Minnesota will have Blake Cashman this time around, as he missed the previous game against the Lions, so Vikings fans are hoping that he can help turn the tide on Detroit's high-powered rush attack.
3. Get Will Reichard back on track
All things considered, Minnesota rookie kicker Will Reichard has had a solid first year in the NFL. With that being said, Reichard's poor performance this past weekend against the Packers needs to be fixed, as Minnesota cannot go into this massive game with an iffy kicker.
Minnesota needs to let Reichard know that they still have faith in him, as they can't let the rookie get into his head too much and develop the yips.
Reichard has shown that the talent is there and had been lights-out this season before injuring his quad against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9. Before the matchup with Indy, Reichard had made all of his kick attempts, but he ended up missing two kicks in that game as he was clearly hurting.
He hasn't been automatic since that injury, so who knows if his quad is fully healed up now or potentially still bothering him. Whatever the case may be, Minnesota needs to instill confidence in the young kicker, as an anxious kicker is pretty much worthless in the NFL.