Getty Jamal Agnew prior to a game against the Vikings.
The Detroit Lions get back to work after an elongated NFL break after Thanksgiving and will tangle with the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14 as they continue to push through the end of their season.
Time has helped the Lions to become a bit healthier this week and solve some of their bigger injury struggles, but in spite of that, there are still multiple players who will be sidelined as the two sides finish off their two battles this season with the latest one from Minneapolis.
So who will be sitting down this week? Here’s a look at the players who will officially not be able to dress for the Lions this week on the field in another NFC North tangle.
Lions Inactives
QB Matthew Stafford
DL Da’Shawn Hand
DE Austin Bryant
CB Jamal Agnew
CB Michael Jackson
G Oday Aboushi
G Beau Benzschawel
Analysis
Obviously, the Lions will miss Matthew Stafford and Jeff Driskel the most, considering they will be starting rookie David Blough, and it will be tough for them to contend with the loss of Da’Shawn Hand up front along the defensive line as well, even though he hasn’t been healthy all season long. The Lions would like to be able to get Austin Bryant going for their defensive line, but it doesn’t seem that is going to be possible in 2019 either given his injury history this season. He’s been cursed about as badly as Hand has been thus far in his career. Additionally, the Lions will be missing Agnew for this game, which will be a loss for the defense as well as the special teams. Detroit typically gets big things in the return game from Agnew, so they will miss the potential for him to explode on that side of the ball a ton this week.
In terms of the Vikings, they will miss Adam Thielen for this matchup given how he has torched the Lions before in the past. Still, the Vikings are healthy enough and have enough weapons in order to compensate for his loss against a Detroit team which has been in bad shape recently, especially on the defensive side of the football.
Lions vs. Vikings Primer
The Lions and Vikings will do battle at 1 p.m. EST and the game will be broadcast on Fox. The broadcasters for this clash will be Thom Brenneman, Chris Spielman and Shannon Spake doing sideline duty. The game will be a repeat of the Lions and Vikings clash from October where Marvin Jones went crazy with 4 touchdowns. Detroit will need that type of effort again if they want to have enough firepower to beat a solid Vikings team that has plenty of weaponry themselves. Detroit will have to deal with a controversial referee as they get set to play this game as well, which might not help at all.
With the reveal of these inactives, it’s almost time to kick off Lions vs. Vikings for the final time in 2019.
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