The Lions travel to Minnesota this week, and as we'll outline in the Weekly, those games have tended to be lower-scoring in recent years. So not a great spot for Matthew Stafford. On the other hand, it's very likely that any touchdowns the Lions do score will come on pass plays.
In the last four meetings between the teams, all 7 of the Lions touchdowns have come on passes. A year ago, the Lions scored nearly three-quarters of their touchdowns on passes rather than runs (24 of 33), while the Vikings allowed over 70 percent of the touchdowns against them on passes (22 of 31).
And through three games in 2017, Minnesota is one of just 2 teams that has allowed all touchdowns against it to come on passes, while Detroit is one of just 5 teams that has scored all of its touchdowns on passes. This is the week's only matchup involving such lopsided teams (and that's the way their games have played out the last two seasons).
| TOUCHDOWNS ALLOWED AND SCORED, 2017 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Allow(R) | Allow(P) | Score(R) | Score(P) |
| Arizona | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 |
| Atlanta | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Baltimore | 1 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| Buffalo | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Carolina | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Chicago | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Cincinnati | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Cleveland | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Dallas | 1 | 6 | 2 | 5 |
| Denver | 0 | 7 | 3 | 6 |
| Detroit | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| Green Bay | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Houston | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| Indianapolis | 4 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| Jacksonville | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Kansas City | 4 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| LA Chargers | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| LA Rams | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Miami | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| New England | 2 | 8 | 4 | 8 |
| New Orleans | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| NY Giants | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| NY Jets | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Oakland | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Philadelphia | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| Pittsburgh | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| San Francisco | 2 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Seattle | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Tampa Bay | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Tennessee | 1 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
| Washington | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
So if you think Detroit will manage to score 2 TDs in this game -- or if they can make it up to 3 TDs -- it's very likely Stafford will throw all of them.
--Andy Richardson