The Lions can beat the Vikings by allowing Minnesota to do what it does best on defense

The Minnesota Vikings are having quite the start to their season and the biggest reason for that is their defense. The Vikings have been cleaning up there for weeks with blitzes and turnovers.

The blitz one is what we really want to talk about here. No team blitzes more than the Vikings. They've blitzed 106 times this year. That's 41.1% of their defensives snaps. That is a ton. This is Brain Flores' game and everyone knows it and it's hard to stop. Yet, letting it happen is how the Lions can beat the Vikings on Sunday.

The big reason why is that there is no quarterback in the NFL right now that's better against the blitz than Jared Goff. I know the whole wrap on Goff is that he's supposed to be bad against pressure and all that, but he picks up the blitz quite well.

Per Pro Football Focus, Goff has picked up a league leading 701 yards, on a league leading 12.1 yards pet attempt, against the blitz this year. He's thrown four touchdowns and three interceptions. If you remove the game against the Bucs, it gets even better. It's 15.7 yards per attempt and only one interception. That is very good. He's also completing 70.1% of his passes.

You might be wondering about how pressure is affecting Goff this year and I'm going to refer to my pal Colton Pouncy of The Athletic on that one.

It's not bad at all. Sure, everyone is bad against pressure, but this was supposed to be the thing Goff was the worst at and he's very much not that this year. He's completing a league leading 64% of his passes against pressure. You take that Tampa game out and it's 73.3%. The guy is at another level right now.

If he can play at that level against the Vikings on Sunday and the Lions can also continue to run the ball the way they've been running it, the Lions should walk out with a win and first place in the NFC North.

Related: Where is James Houston? Lions head coach Dan Campbell gives his thoughts on Houston getting time with Aidan Hutchinson out