All the Vikings know is to play to their opponent. Arif Hasan of The Athletic explains in our Lions/Vikings preview podcast.

The last time the Detroit Lions faced off against the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit made an improbable comeback helped out by a missed 49-yard field goal (short?) and a late Alexander Mattison fumble. Unfortunately for Dan Campbell and company, the Vikings then made an improbable comeback of their own, driving the field with less than 40 seconds left to kick the game-winner from 54 yards.

Since then, the Lions have really only come that close to a win once. However, the Vikings have continued their shenanigans for the rest of the season. All six games Minnesota has played since that contest have been decided by one score. The reason for that?

Well, according to Arif Hasan of The Athletic Minnesota—our guest for First Byte this week—it’s because the Vikings have an uncanny ability to play to their opponent every single week of the season. Sometimes that means beating the Green Bay Packers. Sometimes that means losing to the Cleveland Browns.

But that doesn’t mean the Vikings are a bad team, just an inconsistent one. There are some things that this team does really, really well. But there are also interesting matchups the Lions should be able to exploit this week (see: Minnesota’s run defense).

Hasan walks us through all of those, gives us some injury updates on the Vikings’ side, and makes some predictions for Sunday’s game.

Arif is always one of our favorite guests due to his sense of humor, and his intense knowledge of the game. You should absolutely check out his coverage over at The Athletic, as he does a lot more than just Vikings content.

Here’s our chat with him from Thursday night:

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