Five Extra Points: Tricked-out Lions, draft-day revisited and soft defense

The Vikings never should have been caught so completely off guard by the fake punt that Lions coach Dan Campbell called one of the two biggest plays in his team's 34-23 NFC North victory at Ford Field on Sunday. "We knew the look they were going to give us," said Campbell, whose Lions have now converted six of seven fake punts after C.J. Moore's 42-yard run on fourth-and-8 from the Detroit 26 turned what appeared to be a three-and-out in Detroit's first possession of the second half into a 12-play touchdown drive and a 21-7 lead. Moore, the up back, took the direct snap and raced easily off right end because the Vikings' C.J. Ham didn't set the edge. "Our guys just make it work," Campbell said of the punt team. "And I trust C.J. [Moore]." Moore, a defensive back, now has four career carries for 86 yards, and was the game's leading rusher.

Did Campbell and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson really motion 6-5, 331-pound right tackle Penei Sewell from the left slot to the right flat and throw him the ball on third-and-7 while leading by one score with two minutes left against the NFL's comeback kings? Yep. "He could be a Hall of Fame tight end if he lost a little weight," Campbell said. "He's a phenomenal athlete. He's got real good hands. We felt he was going to be wide open, which he was. And we told him to stay in bounds, which he did" after a 9-yard gain to set up a field goal and the two-score lead with 17 seconds left. Campbell accurately predicted the Vikings would ignore Sewell, assuming he would block, as he had earlier when he went in motion. "He motions like that all the time, and blocks," linebacker Eric Kendricks said. "Hats off to them."

Let's remember the Vikings are 10-3 and that their General Manager, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, executed a fine trade last month to acquire Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson. That being said, the Lions are 5-1 since that trade, the Vikings 4-2. And it's no coincidence Detroit's first deep ball went to rookie Jameson Williams, the guy Detroit selected 12^th overall from Alabama after trading up with Adofo-Mensah. Safety Lewis Cine, the guy the Vikings waited 20 more spots to select, played two snaps on defense before an injury ended his season in Week 4. A torn ACL delayed Williams' NFL debut until last week. The speedster's first catch was the 41-yard layup touchdown he had Sunday while running unattended down the middle of the field. Safety Camryn Bynum was looking away from Williams, and who knows what cornerback Cameron Dantzler was doing. He had no one to his outside yet never moved over to remotely challenge Williams.

The Lions might be the happiest 6-7 team in NFL history because they very well could become the first to start 1-6 and make the playoffs. It helps that the Vikings got no takeaways and didn't even come close to sacking Jared Goff, who threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns — two of them over 40 yards — didn't turn the ball over and posted a season-high 120.7 rating. The former No. 1 overall pick the Rams gave up on says he's playing his best football ever with 10 TD passes and one interception the past six games. Campbell agrees, saying, "He's the direct link to why we are playing better." As for the Lions actually being favored to beat the Vikings, Campbell said, "I don't think there's a surprise here. Our guys know when we play football the way we have the past six weeks, we can play with anybody."

The Vikings were historically one-dimensional with Justin Jefferson posting a franchise-record 223 yards receiving while some awful run blocking led to Dalvin Cook being dropped for losses four times and held for no gain twice while gaining 23 yards on 15 carries with a long of 5. "We put a lot of strain on the front seven and told them they had to take [Cook] away because we used an enormous amount of resources on the back end with Jefferson," Campbell said. "But, as you can see, Jefferson is one of these rare dudes you don't see very often." Cook had run for 96, 206 and 142 yards in three of his previous four games against Detroit. The Vikings were without left tackle Christian Darrisaw and center Garrett Bradbury. Right tackle Brian O'Neill also struggled mightily. He whiffed trying to block rookie Aiden Hutchinson on Cook's first loss. O'Neill also was beaten badly on Hutchinson's sack.

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, video of postgame news conferences and other material.