The word around the NFL used to be that if you stop Barry Sanders, you stop the Detroit Lions. That may not be true any more.
Minnesota held Sanders to just 1 yard in the first half Thursday. By then, however, Scott Mitchell had thrown three touchdown passes.Mitchell finished with record numbers and the Lions held on for a 44-38 victory over the Vikings.
And, guess what? Sanders got his numbers anyway. He finished with 138 yards on 24 carries, including a 50-yard touchdown scamper that gave the Lions a 10-point lead with 5:18 left in the game.
"Everyone, when they talk about the Lions, it's, `Stop Barry Sanders,' " tackle Lomas Brown said. "The thing is now we're making big plays we didn't make earlier, and that's why we're winning some football games."
The Lions (6-6) also were aided by the first mistakes in almost a month by Warren Moon. Moon, who turned 39 last Saturday, hadn't thrown an interception in his last four games. But he was picked off twice by the Lions and each was costly to Minnesota (6-6).
"This is really disappointing," Moon said. "We made enough plays to win it. We just hurt ourselves with mistakes."
With the Vikings stacking sometimes eight men at the line of scrimmage, Mitchell completed 30 of 45 passes for 410 yards and four TDs with one interception. Along the way, he shattered Bobby Layne's single-game record of 374 yards which had stood since 1950.
Mitchell also broke Gary Danielson's club records for both completions (252 in 1984) and attempts (417 in 1980) in a season. Mitchell has completed 259 of 440 for 3,150 yards and 23 TDs so far this season.
"We're going in every week and realizing people are going to play us differently because of Barry," Mitchell said. "We took what they gave us. We did an excellent job of blocking up front, our receivers were open and we played a sound football game all around."
Mitchell was masterful in spreading the ball around. Herman Moore, thrown in on defense for the Vikings' last drive, caught eight passes for 127 yards, Brett Perriman tied a club record with 12 catches for 153 yards, and Johnnie Morton caught seven for 102 yards.
Moon's first interception led to Mitchell's 27-yard touchdown pass to Moore late in the third quarter. That gave Detroit a 34-31 lead the Lions didn't relinquish.
Moon's second interception came on the final play of the game when he just missed on a desperation pass to Cris Carter in the end zone.
Moon completed 30-of-47 passes for 384 yards and three touchdowns. He has 14 touchdown tosses in his last four games. Jake Reed had six receptions for a season-high 149 yards.
"I don't know if I have been in a game like this since grade school," Moon said. "I've been in games that were this high-scoring, but never when there were three touchdowns taken off the board. This could have been a 100-point game."
The Vikings had two touchdowns nullified by penalties. The Lions lost one to a penalty.
Mitchell threw touchdowns of 2 and 20 yards Perriman, a 16-yarder to Morton and a 27-yard strike to Moore. Jason Hanson kicked field goals of 32, 40 and 39 yards for Detroit.
Moon hooked up with Reed for a 55-yard scoring play and throw scoring passes of 10 and 7 yards to Carter.
The Vikings got two TDs in a span of 14 seconds from special teams in the second quarter. David Palmer returned a punt 74 yards for a score and, on the ensuing kickoff, Orlando Thomas romped in from 17 yards out with a recovered fumble.
Fuad Reveiz added a 49-yard field goal for the Vikings, who saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
"We had plenty of offense, we just needed some poise," Vikings coach Dennis Green said. "Our total team pass defense failed. You have to be able to sack the quarterback, and we let him sit in there and get comfortable."
But part of the reason for that was Sanders.
"They have a great scheme and a lot of weapons," Vikings defensive coordinator Tony Dungy said. "You have to stop Barry, and that means giving them a chance to hurt you outside with those receivers. At the end, we had to blitz to stop the pass, and Barry hit us with a couple big runs."