Teams that turn the ball over four times in a game tend to not win a lot of football games. Teams that turn the ball over four times in the first half tend to win even less. But that's where the Minnesota Vikings find themselves after two quarters of play in Detroit, as they trail the Lions by a score of 31-17.
Towards the end of the first half, the Vikings turned the ball over for the fourth time on a fumble by Lorenzo Booker. Booker has gotten two carries on the afternoon. . .both of them resulted in the ball being on the turf. The Vikings recovered the first one, but weren't so fortunate the second time as the Lions set up deep in Minnesota territory.
Fortunately, the Vikings were able to hold the Lions to a 30-yard Jason Hanson field goal, and they trail 31-14 going into the locker room at halftime.
One positive for the Vikings in this one is that they have already sacked Lions' quarterback Matthew Stafford four times on the afternoon, three of them coming courtesy of defensive end Jared Allen. . .or, as Brian Billick seems bound and determined to call him, "Gerald Allen." Those three sacks give Allen 100.5 for his career, and 17.5 for the season. That latter number marks a career high for Allen, who is now five sacks away from tying Michael Strahan's single-season mark in that category. Congratulations to Allen on that achievement.
The other sack for the Vikings went to defensive tackle Kevin Williams.
We're at halftime at Ford Field, and the Minnesota Vikings trail the Detroit Lions by a score of 31-14.