The Lions played one of their best halves of football in quite some time today and even took a 10-7 lead into the locker rooms after two quarters. Detroit was running the ball effectively on offense and the defense was containing Adrian Peterson. It wasn't until the very end of the half when the Vikings finally put together a good drive, which ended in a touchdown and gave Minnesota lots of momentum. From that point forward the Lions looked lost and simply let the Vikings take over the game. Favre had his way with the defense; Peterson finally broke free for some big gains; and the Lions' offense couldn't do anything. The Vikings went on to win 27-13 with all of those points being unanswered until a late Jason Hanson field goal.
This was a tale of two halves for sure. In the first half the Lions were playing extremely well. Aside from a Matthew Stafford interception, the offense was controlling the ball and taking time off the clock. Thanks to a great running attack of Kevin Smith and Maurice Morris and couple Vikings penalties, the Lions moved down inside the 10 on one drive and Stafford threw his first touchdown pass in the NFL to Calvin Johnson. That put Detroit up 10-0, but it was really all downhill from there.
After cutting the lead down to a field goal with their late touchdown drive in the first half, the Vikings came out in the second half and slowly took over the game. The Lions went three and out to start the half, and then the Vikings worked their way down the field and tied the game with a field goal. Kevin Smith fumbled two plays into the next drive, and Adrian Peterson scored on the very next play to give the Vikings a lead. In the fourth quarter Minnesota added another field goal and Percy Harvin scored a touchdown following another Stafford interception to put the game away.
The Lions showed that they are a better team than last year with their performance in the first half, but they also showed that there is still lots of room for improvement with their play in the second half. Matthew Stafford has not played well at all in the first two weeks of the season, and he has to stop throwing interceptions if the Lions are going to win a game. I said it last week, but I will say it again: Detroit is not talented enough to win games with all of the mistakes they are making. It will take a mistake-free game for the Lions to win, and they will get a chance to do that next week at home against the Redskins.