The Minnesota Vikings entered the Christmas Day matchup with the Detroit Lions already eliminated from playoff contention, leaving little on the line in the standings. Pride, however, still mattered, leading to the 23-10 win on December 25 at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Detroit needed the game to keep postseason hopes alive, and Minnesota was more than willing to play spoiler. The Vikings’ defense overwhelmed the Lions’ offense throughout the game.
The unit forced six turnovers, picking off two passes and recovering four fumbles. Jared Goff was sacked five times, and Detroit managed only 3.6 yards per play. The result was a fourth consecutive win for the Vikings, who are pushing to close the 2025 NFL season on a high note.
Meanwhile, the Lions have been eliminated from playoff contention. After the loss, Penei Sewell spoke to reporters on December 25 to shed light on what went wrong as they had no answer for the Minnesota defense.
“We had six [turnovers] today, and that’s probably the recipe to lose,” Sewell told reporters. “It’s one of those things I [have] to peek at the film. But when the ball’s on the ground, or there’s a lot of turnovers, I think it’s just little things.
“We’re not like focused on those, and we’re just kind of being a little loose with the ball. We knew going into this week it’s going to be a lot of fronts, a lot of different looks, and it was just our job to kind of figure it out and go from there.”
Lions’ Jared Goff Praises Vikings’ Defense
Goff also tipped his cap to the Vikings’ defense, crediting their execution for disrupting Detroit’s offense and leaving the unit out of rhythm.
“They did a good job on defense, had a good plan, and exploited some things on us,” Goff said postgame. “They were able to get after us, adding an extra rusher a lot of times. Whenever that happens, it’s a free rusher. They did a good job with that. We had a plan that we thought would attack that, and it didn’t work well enough.
“… We had some good third-down conversions. They came out in the second half and adjusted pretty well and had some different stuff for us. We didn’t do a good enough job on our side of adjusting to those different things that they were doing.”
Minnesota’s defense has been key to keeping the team on a high note as it closes out the season. The unit aims to maintain that momentum in the final game of the 2025 NFL season against the Green Bay Packers, as the Vikings chase a fifth straight win to cap the campaign.
Vikings Were Ready to Spoil Lions’ Playoff Hopes
The Lions had everything to play for in the game against the Lions. Nonetheless, Vikings’ Justin Jefferson noted that they were motivated by playing the role of spoiler.
“It feels great,” Jefferson said on December 25 about the Vikings beating the Lions. “I wish we [had] started [like this] earlier on in the season. But it just feels good, really, just to see this team continue to fight to continue to strive for better.
“And of course, just like I said, we’re not in the dance, but to eliminate one of our division opponents out of the playoffs as well, that’s definitely something that we were trying to do.”
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