Coming off consecutive losses and having tasted defeat in three of their previous four games, the Minnesota Vikings headed to the Motor City for a Sunday showdown with the rival Detroit Lions as 8.5-point underdogs, which made perfect sense, seeing as how Dan Campbell & Co. had won five of their previous six and were well rested coming off their bye week.
There was also the matter of not knowing in the slightest what to expect from Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who'd missed five games with a high-ankle sprain and had basically only played one good quarter of football in the two games in which he'd appeared this season, that, of course, being the final frame of Minnesota's wild Week 1 win over the Chicago Bears.