Lions’ Dan Campbell: These Vikings are better than 13-win team
The 7-7 Vikings of 2023 are better than the 2022 Vikings that went 13-4?
That's what Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell thinks...
"I do think this is a better team than we faced last year," Campbell said this week. "I get it, they don't have [Kirk Cousins]. But they ask the quarterback to do what they do well, manage the game, get the ball to your playmakers and this defense is much better."
Cousins was playing at an MVP-caliber pace when he ruptured his Achilles at Lambeau Field two days before Halloween. Since then the Vikings have started Jaren Hall once, Josh Dobbs four times and Nick Mullens will get his second start Sunday against Detroit.
Despite the chaos, which includes losing star receiver Justin Jefferson for eight games and edge rusher Marcus Davenport for all but four games, the Vikings have found ways to stay in the hunt. Entering Sunday, Minnesota sits seventh in the NFC playoff race and has a chance to move back up to sixth with a win over the Lions. A win would also keep them in the hunt for the NFC North crown, though to win the division title they'll need to win out and have the Lions fall in Dallas next week.
"It's not going to be easy," Campbell said of playing in Minneapolis. "On the road, and I think more than anything, we gotta keep everything simple and just function at a high level. Efficient. We cannot make mistakes. We do that, then we will come home with [the division title]."
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.