Vikings at Lions NFL Game of the Season

The Vikings at Lions Sunday Night NFL season finale is the game of the year. Both NFC North division rivals are 14-2. The winner wins the division and claims the number one seed in the NFC playoffs. That top seed includes a bye week and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The loser drops to the 5 seed and hits the road next week as an NFC wild card team. No 14-win team has ever failed to win its division.

These teams met once before in week 7 at Minnesota. On that October Sunday the Vikings turned some rare Lions miscues into a 10-0 lead. But the Lions rebounded with 21 unanswered points before the end of the half. Both teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter before the Vikings scored three straight times in the the fourth quarter with two field goals and a touchdown to take a 29-28 lead with under six minutes to go. A Vikings punt gave the Lions the ball with under three minutes left and Jared Goff engineered an eight play, 44 yard drive to set up a game winning 44 yard Jake Bates field goal with :15 seconds remaining to give the Vikings their first loss of the season, 31-29.

Four days later, on Thursday night football the Vikings lost their second game in a row by falling to the Rams on the road 30-20. They have not lost since.

The only two Lions losses came in a 20-16 week 2 home loss to the Buccaneers and a home December 48-42 loss to the Bills.

These two teams are on a roll. The winner takes it all and has all of the built in advantages the playoffs have to offer. The loser still goes to the playoffs but hits the road. By the way the Lions are the only undefeated 8-0 team on the road in the NFL this year. But they hope their next "road" game is in the Super Bowl.

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