The Worksheet, a fantasy football overview by Rich Hribar, breaking down everything you need to know for the Week 3 Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings Sunday afternoon game.
| Detroit | Rank | @ | Minnesota | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Spread | -6 | ||
| 23 | Implied Total | 29 | ||
| 35.5 | 2 | Points/Gm | 15 | 25 |
| 32.5 | 31 | Points All./Gm | 15.5 | 6 |
| 63.5 | 15 | Plays/Gm | 60 | 23 |
| 72 | 28 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 64.5 | 19 |
| 6.4 | 6 | Off. Yards/Play | 5.5 | 13 |
| 5.9 | 22 | Def. Yards/Play | 6.4 | 28 |
| 40.94% | 13 | Rush% | 32.50% | 28 |
| 59.06% | 20 | Pass% | 67.50% | 5 |
| 41.67% | 18 | Opp. Rush % | 40.31% | 14 |
| 58.33% | 15 | Opp. Pass % | 59.69% | 19 |
- Scoring 35 and 36 points, this is the first time that the Lions have scored 30 or more points in the first two weeks of the season since 1970.
- The Lions lead the NFL with 259 yards gained on explosive carries (gains of 10 or more yards) and rate of explosive carries (22.5%).
- 14.6% of Jared Goff’s completions have been touchdowns, trailing only Lamar Jackson (15.8%). Goff’s career rate is 6.9%.
- Kirk Cousins is the lowest-rated quarterback on third down (20.4), completing 8-of-18 for 90 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
- Minnesota has not scored a touchdown on any of their nine drives in the second half to start the season, joining the Seahawks and Cowboys.
Trust = spike production for that player
Quarterback
Kirk Cousins (TRUST): I was Charlie Brown last week, once again falling for Cousins in a primetime spot in what appeared to be a game environment set up for a shootout. Instead, Cousins bricked the matchup, completing 27-of-46 passes for 221 yards (4.8 yards per attempt) with one touchdown and three interceptions, limping his way to a QB26 scoring week.
While it is hard to support Cousins after a game like Monday, we must press on. He had done this before and this is a strong setup for a high-scoring game.
It will be interesting to see how Detroit approaches things in this matchup. Through two weeks, opposing teams have played man coverage just 15% of the time against Minnesota. No team has played more man coverage than the Lions (39.6%) while they have blitzed at the fourth highest rate (38.1%).
Cousins has only been blitzed on 22.9% of his dropbacks so far (23rd), but he is 9-of-19 (47.4%) for 3.5 Y/A on those dropbacks as opposed to completing 69.5% of his passes for 7.3 Y/A when not blitzed.
When Cousins has been blitzed, the Vikings have allowed a pressure on 47.4% of those dropbacks, which is 22nd in the league.
The aggressive play has hurt Detroit more than helped their cause. Despite blitzing so heavily, Detroit has generated pressure on just 40.5% of those blitzes (16th). When they have not gotten home on those blitzes, Detroit has allowed 7.9 yards per pass attempt (22nd) and a 77.8% completion rate (24th).
Cousins has not faced a lot of man coverage, but he has struggled on that small sample, completing 5-of-16 passes for 62 yards (3.9 Y/A). That is still a sample largely influenced by Monday night, because a year ago Cousins wrecked man coverage. In fact, over the past three seasons, only Aaron Rodgers has a higher rating than Cousins does versus man coverage while Cousins leads all passers 2019-2021 in yards per attempt versus man coverage (9.1 Y/A).
Through two weeks, the Lions have allowed 12.1 yards per completion (27th) and two top-five scoring weeks to Jalen Hurts and Carson Wentz. I understand the frustration stemming from Week 2, but I am going back to Cousins as one of the better pocket passing plays in Week 3.
