It’s one of the biggest regular season finale football games in NFL history. This weekend, the 14-2 Minnesota Vikings and 14-2 Detroit Lions will play for the 2024 NFC North title, but that is the least of what’s at stake.
The winner will also receive the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff bracket, which includes home field advantage through the NFC Championship Game and the only first round bye awarded to the conference. Meanwhile, the loser on Sunday night will have arguably their best regular season in franchise history reduced to a No. 5 seed and a first round road game in either Tampa Bay or Atlanta.
Much will be made about all of the storylines, leading into this epic finale. But at the end of the day, the game will be decided by the players on the field. Those players included Lions rookie CB Terrion Arnold, who will be one of the Detroit defensive backs tasked with stopping arguably the most powerful passing attack in the league.
Terrion Arnold talking smack to Minnesota Vikings wide receivers?
If a banged up Lions team is going to take home victory on Sunday, their secondary will have to find a way to slow Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and TJ Hockenson, something that proves more and more difficult as the season goes on.
Does that make the 21-year-old rookie CB out of Alabama nervous? Apparently not. In an interview on Wednesday (via the Detroit Free Press), Arnold told reporters that the Lions are a bad matchup for the Vikings because, while Minnesota’s “got good receivers”… the Lions “got cover guys”.
“We’re a bad matchup for Minnesota. They got good receivers, but we got cover guys.”
Terrion Arnold – Detroit Lions Cornerback
Sometimes, you have to wonder what is going through a person’s mind when they let things like this fall out of their mouths. All it takes is a quick peek at the defensive team statistics page at Pro Football Reference to see that the Detroit Lions may not have the “cover guys” Arnold thinks they do.
Are the Detroit Lions defensive backs even good?
The 2024 Lions have allowed the 2nd most passing yards in the NFL to opposing quarterbacks, at 250.4 yards per game. They also have the 6th highest Net Yards Allowed per Completion, at 6.6 yards. Teams pass on them for first downs high rate, too.
To Detroit’s credit, they rank tied for 2nd in passing touchdowns allowed, at just 18. They also have the 3rd most interceptions this season (16), behind only the Houston Texans (19) and our beloved Minnesota Vikings (22). Even so, these aren’t the overall defensive numbers that teams are striving for and bragging about on a yearly basis.
| Stats | Pass Yds/G | Pass TD | Interceptions | Net Yds/Cmp | 1st Downs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ’24 Lions Defense | 250.4 | 18 | 16 | 6.8 | 191 |
| NFL Rank | 31st | T-2nd | T-3rd | 27th | 25th |
The Vikings have won nine games straight. The Lions had won eleven straight games, before falling to Buffalo in week 15, before rebounding with victories over the Bears and Niners. Minnesota was supposed to finish last, with an over/under preseason win total of just 6.5 games. Detroit is the defending NFC North champion and picked in the preseason to win the division.
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But none of that will matter at 7:20 PM CST on Sunday, when this game kicks off. At that point, the entire 2024 season will come down to Minnesota Vikings vs Detroit Lions. Two coach of the year candidates will do battle, along with the 22 players on the field.
