Sunday turned into a rough day for the offense for the Detroit Lions and it led to a tough home loss to the Minnesota Vikings coming out of the bye. The Lions are now 5-3 and have already lost more games in the 2025 regular season than they did in the 2024 regular season.
How much did the loss drop the Lions in the various power rankings? Let’s dive and take a look.
USA Today: No. 9 (Last Week: 5)
After stumbling out of their bye, maybe they’ll find a trip through the entire NFC East over the next five weeks will be a welcome respite from the unforgiving NFC North.
ESPN: No. 6 (Last Week: 2)
From Eric Woodyard: (on most important game remaining):
The Lions will get tested by an elite squad in a showdown with the reigning Super Bowl champions on “Sunday Night Football.” They will need to bring their A-game to win in Philadelphia, and it’ll serve as a good barometer for where the Lions stand among the league’s elite teams after already losing to Green Bay and Kansas City on the road. Detroit is looking to secure its third straight NFC North crown.
The Athletic: No. 7 (Last Week: 2)
From Josh Kendall and Chad Graff: (On Aidan Hutchinson)
Their running game was stuck in the mud Sunday against Brian Flores’ Vikings defense, but this is still a really good football team. There won’t be many more opponents who can bottle up Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery the way Minnesota did.
NFL.com: No. 7 (Last Week: 1)
In games where the Lions run for 100 yards this season, they’re 5-0. Less than 100, they’re 0-3. Teams have learned that if you corral Detroit’s ground game early, it makes the offense one-dimensional — and that especially hurts in a contest like Sunday’s, when the Lions had multiple injuries along the O-line. They also were without Kerby Joseph on defense and couldn’t get enough stops against J.J. McCarthy. They held the Vikings to 13 points over the final 49 game minutes, but it wasn’t enough after allowing TDs the first two drives. Detroit’s special teams are also partially to blame, giving up long returns and allowing a blocked field goal in the fourth quarter. A humbling home loss for our former top dogs.
FOX Sports: No. 8 (Last Week: 1)
This may seem like a huge fall, but they’re a 3-loss team now. And losing at home to J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings should be embarrassing to a team as talented as they are.
NBC Sports: No. 4 (Last Week: 2)
They’ve lost more games than they lost all of last season.
CBS Sports: No. 11 (Last Week: 4)
Losing at home to the Vikings is not a good look for this team. The offense looked disjointed in that game, and now they have two on the road.