Locker room buzz: What the Lions were saying after beating the undefeated Vikings
Minneapolis — Here’s what I learned bouncing around the Detroit Lions’ locker room following the team’s thrilling, 31-29 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Replacing Hutchinson
One of the top storylines coming into the game was how the Lions would approach replacing Aidan Hutchinson. Well, undrafted rookie Isaac Ukwu got the start, but several guys rotated along the edge opposite Josh Paschal, who was the known commodity entering the day. That rotational group included Levi Onwuzurike, Mekhi Wingo, Pat O’Connor, James Houston and Trevor Nowaske.
The Lions didn’t generate a lot of pressure in the first half, but settled into more of a groove along the front in the second half, with Paschal being the first to get home for a sack. The effort was the first of four for the Lions on the afternoon.
“It felt like a play-action boot,” Paschal explained. “Everybody (blocked) down, I read my keys and it led me to the quarterback. I just had to get him down. I could not let him go.”
Talking to Paschal in the locker room on Friday, it was easy to sense how much he was putting on himself to step up. Well, he delivered a quality performance, his third in a row. Yet in the minutes after beating the Vikings, Paschal was already thinking about the next one.
“I always want to play better and rush better than I did, so there are some rushes I wish I could take back,” he said. “There were a lot of funky techniques and looks that we got, and a lot of shivers, but I was able I was able to get one. Now it's time to move on to the next week and go get some more.”
Collectively, there was a sense of pride with how the defense fought through the adversity of losing their leader to a season-ending broken leg last week.
“Like we emphasize, it's next man up,” Nowaske said. “We don't blink, we don't flinch and we go from there. It's obviously unfortunate with Hutch, but we have to keep moving forward. We've got a lot of special things going on here and we're not going to let that derail our season.”
Another rule to learn
There was some controversy at the end of the game when the Vikings were flagged for an illegal formation in the closing seconds, but given another chance to run a Hail Mary. Many wondered why the opposition didn’t have to deal with a game-ending, 10-second run-off, given the clock was running and they didn’t have a timeout.