Detroit Lions vs The NFC North Week 1

what is up D Lions fans and welcome back to the NFC North report it is Vikings hunting season we are hunting Vikings in week one we're going to talk about what they did we're going to break down what is going on with the NFC North all of their opponents I watch the games so that you don't have to and I'll keep you a breast and keep you afloat about what is going on within your division is there anyone standing in your way is there anyone that can stop the Detroit Lions from winning the division the NFC North are there any threats we want to know that we want to get that information so when we talk to other fans in the NFC North and they just want to say oh the Lions suck but they don't know anything about the Lions nope the Detroit Lions fans will be able to say the Packers suck and let me tell you why they suck because this happened and this happened and this happened and this has been happening throughout the season and they've been having this problem throughout the season their offensive line isn't any good and that's been documented throughout the season and so on and so forth right so we want to be able to confidently say that the Packers suck the Bears suck and the Vikings suck and we'll do it by having a regular hunting season each week so now we are hunting the Vikings let's get right into a recap of what they did against the New York Giants so so Donald throws two TD passes and Van Ginko scores on a onehanded interception as Vikings easily top Giants 28-6 uh Sam darnold had one of those super performances at MetLife Stadium that New York Jets fans hope to see weekly after he was drafted number three overall in 2018 six years later as a member of the Minnesota Vikings he did it against of all teams the Giants on his old Herm uh home turf Herm Herm Edwards all right darnold threw two touchdown passes in a highly efficient performance and Andrew van gingle scored on a spectacular one-handed 10 yard interception return to lead the Vikings to an easy 28-6 victory over the woful New York Giants on Sunday Donal completed his first 12 passes and had touchdown passes of three yards to Justin Jefferson and 21 to jayen Naylor and making an impressive debut for the Vikings who are coming off a seven to a seven and 10 season he also had a 22 yard pass to Josh Oliver to help set up Aaron Jones's three yard TD run that put Minnesota ahead 7even to3 late in the first quarter and got Kevin oconnell team off to a good start obviously it's great to be back said darnold who finished uh with at who finished 19 of 24 for 208 yards and one interception that came on a deflected pass it's been been a while since I played here I played here my first year in Carolina coming back that was the last time I played here it's always good to get back in Met Life what's remarkable was darnold who played in San Francisco last season was signed as a veteran presence for first round draft pick JJ McCarthy the Michigan product injured a knee in training camp and won't play this season Sam darnold for a guy in a new system to start 12 for 12 and be incredibly poised throughout the day it was a huge performance for us to be able to build off uh okano said Giants inside line linebacker Bobby Oar who recovered a fumble to set up the game's opening score was not surprised by darnold he was at Stanford when darn was at UFC USC and they played against each other often you know it's fun competing against him because he's a gamer he makes plays they're going to run play action they're going to run boot said okar who said New York didn't play well enough to win okay that's something that we have to keep an eye on right they're going to run play action they're going to run boot when you're rolling out Sam darnold he's got to keep an eye out for Aiden Hutchinson hopefully at some point this season he'll have to keep an eye out for James Houston who knows we're going to keep an eye on that situation but it is what it is for now um the Vikings certainly made all the big plays and none was more impressive than van GLE left-handed grab of Daniel Jones's swing pass deep in his own territory late in the third quarter put an exclamation point on a solid defensive performance by Brian flores's unit it had Giants fans booing loudly as they headed to the exits down 28-6 also within this performance Dallas Turner got himself a sack okay he got his first NFL sack uh definitely going to keep our eyes out for Dallas Turner and see how he develops over the season he jumped up off the edge and made a nice play Giants coach Brian De said of the interception Jefferson had four catches for 59 yards with his TD coming on a quick slant on a fourth down pass it capped a 99 yard drive that ignited with a 44 yard catch that he ignited with a 44 yard catch so remember he had four catches for 59 yards one of those was for 44 yards s so we can definitely look at this tape and see how they were able to cover Justin Jefferson because he really didn't do much if you think about it right he had one catch for 44 yards if you take that catch away what's his average now I'm not into taking things away by saying well if you take away this thing then the average is this no what I mean by taking it away is if our defense is able to take that away and not allow that 44 yard catch then what is his average looking like that's what I'm saying so no you can never take away yards or or whatever or catches or touchdowns or anything from a player they made those they they ran for those yards they made those catches they scored those touchdowns okay now this a little bit of a lion Centric situation Jamal Williams Jamal Williams breaking Barry Sanders record 17 touchdowns come on you know he was a goal line Merchant you know that okay so I'm not impressed by that so certain things like that yes okay we we don't we don't we don't recognize Jamal Williams breaking Barry Sanders record I'm sorry we just don't Jamal you know loved you when you were here you don't represent the Detroit Lions touchdown record that's Barry Sanders all right gó kicked field goals of 23 and 50 yards for the Giants who played just like the team that posted a 6 and 11 record last season Jones who was coming off a major knee surgery did not play well and got Little Help from either his new revamped offensive line or his receivers first round Drive pick Malik neighbors had five receptions for 66 yards including two for 25 yards Jones finished 22 of 42 for 186 yards and two interceptions the second by 35-year-old safety Harrison Smith Giants co-owner and chief executive John Mara said after last season he wanted to see significant progress this year but New York did little on offense with day ball taking over the play calling and the Giants got little pressure on darnold on darnold despite acquiring Edge rusher Brian Burns from the Carolina Panthers in the off season obviously not the way we wanted to start disappointing game d ball said a lot to clean up and that's what we will do all right so the injuries for the Vikings were wide receiver Jordan Addison he was ruled out after an ankle injury in the second half um I don't know that that is something to keep an eye on this season you know it's week one we play the Vikings let's see when is our first game against the Vikings first game against the Vikings is week seven okay so from week one to week seven I'm pretty sure he'll be fine I I don't think that it was a severe injury they would have said that okay so next up for the Minnesota Vikings they host the San Francisco 49ers now that is the litmus test I've said and I said in my most recent live that there are certain teams that you cannot really judge their performances in week one whether the performances were good or bad more so the really good performances based on the opponents that they played we know that the New York Giants are awful and that's who the Vikings played we know that the Carolina Panthers are awful that's who the Saints played we know that the Washington commanders are not awful but they're not very good okay so we know these things about these teams and then when you play against them it's very hard to say okay this team is good because they beat this team right so the Giants are one of those teams and I don't believe that we can accurately judge the Minnesota Vikings so the Litman test for the Minnesota Vikings is going to be San Francisco 49ers next week now there are some things that we have to remember about this team the Vikings beat the San Francisco 49ers last season when they had no business beating them okay it was like week seven they had only won two games they were in a tail spin um Jeff Justin Jefferson got injured for the first time in the season very early in that game um or was it the first time in the season or did he come back I think it was he came back from injury uh yeah that's what it was I think he came back from injury and very early in that game like his first Target or two he got injured um and he didn't play for most of the game against the the San Francisco 49ers the Vikings were still able to beat the San Francisco 49ers okay they were still able to beat them so obviously the 49ers are going to have that bad taste in their mouth because at that point they were five and one um and that was kind of the start of their little Tail Spin I think they had like a four-week St where they may have lost three three of four or maybe even four of four um but yeah it was it was bad so now the San Francisco 49ers going to be looking for some get uh some get back the the Vikings do not have kurk cousins okay so this is going to be the litus test this is going to be how we understand are the Vikings who we thought they were or are they a little bit better than we thought they were now they don't have to beat the 49ers next week for us to be at least a little bit not concerned but to have your antennas poke up a little bit it just depends on how they play against the 49ers now if they straight out beat them after the 49ers dominated the Jets who people have in the Super Bowl for some reason I don't know why I mean I know it's from Aaron Rogers but they straight up dominate ated them Christian mcaffrey no Christian mcaffry no problem okay so they straight up dominated them so if the Vikings are able to beat a team like that then I think they are a lot better than we thought they were um if they're able to beat the San Francisco 49ers that's going to mean that their defense showed up and showed out and if that's the case that defense is going to be a problem for everyone um in the NFC North and around the NFL if you're able to shut down the San Francisco 49ers I don't think that they have the Firepower to go toe-to-toe with the San Francisco 49ers um Sam Darnell was decent but then again Sam Darnell played for the 49ers last season so the 49ers know Sam Darnell but also Sam Darnell knows the 49ers so uh again it's going to be a good test for us as lions fans to be able to see that game from afar and go yep the Vikings are going to be better than we thought they were in the division or no the Vikings are who they thought the who we thought they were um so if we want to Crown them we can go ahead and Crown them but they are who we thought they were okay shout out to Denny grade could had to do that CU you know the Vikings but some things that I saw again their grade is going to be incomplete because of the the opponent that they played against they they were rarely able to get pressure on Sam darnold but then when they did get pressure on him he did look a bit rattled um there was a tip ball interception that you know it got tipped up at the line and the Giants were able to pick it off Aaron Jones I would say looks good he's still looks explosive he's still looks fast he can still catch the ball out of the back field he may be a step slower you know he's older he's coming off an in injury riddled season but I may be a little bit higher on Aaron Jones than than some Lions fans because I remember Aaron Jones giving us problems when we played the Packers you know it was a it was a difficult thing to play against Aaron Jones so uh he looks like that's that's something that we need to keep an eye on now if you look at the Vikings offensive line being able to keep daral clean the New York Giants defensive line that front seven is supposed to be outstanding they've got Kon Kon Tibido they've got Dexter Lawrence they got Brian Burns um so for them to be able to keep him clean that means that they had to play a good a very good game um so that's something that we going to have to keep keep an eye on now I know Valencia and all those guys 97.1 said that we can't get pressure on the quarterback I mean hch had 11 quarterback pressures he had a win rate of almost 50% people want to say well it was against backup tackles and all these things look these are NFL tackles you should never beat a man 50% of the times that you line up against him in the NFL that just shouldn't happen Okay this is the highest in a game the highest pass rush win rate in a game since 2021 it doesn't happen every year okay the last time it happened was three years ago okay and as far as who who was ranked higher than Aiden Hutchinson it was only TJ Watt it's only TJ watt there were people that got more sacks okay there were multiple people who got three sacks in week one but they didn't rank higher than Aiden Hutchinson okay 11 pressures in a game is crazy it's crazy like 11 doesn't sound like a whole lot but when you extrapolate that out for an entire season Aiden Hutchinson is on Pace for crazy numbers okay so we have to just keep an eye on the Vikings offensive line um again what is the connection going to be like between Sam darnold and uh Justin Jefferson they did connect on one big play obviously they're going to look to build on that again this is week one uh Jordan Addison you know are there health concerns you know it seems things are kind of piling up for Jordan Addison one thing after the other uh so he seems to be kind of at a a flash point right now I don't want to say for his career I mean it's just the second second season of his career but it just again things piling up off the field now he's getting injured on the field he's able to produce when he's on the field so that's just something to keep an eye going uh obviously we know TJ Hockinson is out will he be back by week 17 uh seven I don't know um so he got injured pretty late in the season so when you tear tearing ACL late in the season it's usually going to cause you to miss most of the next season so we'll have to keep an eye on things of that nature um but that's pretty much all I saw and you know like I said it's incomplete I did say Dallas Turner got his first sack will keep an eyee on Dallas Turner because obviously his potential is is through the roof um the Vikings defense did look as good as advertised but again they played against the New York Giants so we'll have to see what it looks like elsewhere you know what I mean it it's hard to kind of give them a great but uh that is going to be it for the NFC North report this edition of Vikings hunting season let me know in the comments Below guys if you like this type of content if you want to keep a breast of what is going on around your Division if you want to be able to confidently speak to fans of other teams and talk your talk and talk your trash back it up with knowledge back it up with information so you don't just sound like a homer Slappy right my team is going to beat your team because it's just my team no you guys have the opportunity to be very well informed very well-learned uh Detroit Lions fans and we want to make sure that we keep bringing you this information so that you are the most knowledgeable fans in the NFC North maybe even the NFL but we're not talking about the entire NFL we're just talking about the NFC North and that is why it is the NFC North report I am your host chef and this is another all all grit podcast production and as always you know where to find us it's all grit it's all day peace thank you for watching the all grit pod if you enjoyed this content make sure you like subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications so you can get notified when the grit starts cooking