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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

12/28/2010

Lions should have most advantages over snow-weary Vikings

After Sunday’s win at Miami the Lions flew home, the players had Monday off and the coaching staff started to make plans to play the Vikings on Sunday at Ford Field in the season finale.

So it would appear that the Lions (5-10) have a clear advantage over the Vikings (5-9) whose game at Philadelphia was delayed until Tuesday night because of the East Coast blizzard.

You might think that, but Jim Schwartz sees it a little differently.

“There’s a lot of teams that play (with only) four days (in-between games). We play Thanksgiving every year on four days, so it’s not a situation you can’t get ready for. I think both teams are familiar with each other. If anything, you can argue that it would favor them a little bit because we would have less time to prepare for their quarterback situation, whatever it is. We really won’t know as we move on until much later in the week,’’ Schwartz said.

On Monday the Lions started with their plan against the Vikings, but usually they would have Sunday’s game film to aid them. But the quarterback is one of the big questions for the Vikings. Brett Favre has a concussion and is not expected to play Tuesday night. Instead Joe Webb could get the nod.

”It doesn’t do a lot of good to look at Tarvaris Jackson – he’s on injured reserve. Whether Brett Favre plays or not, whether it’s Webb, Patrick Ramsay – all those things are question marks and I think, from a preparation standpoint, in a strange sort of way it may actually favor them,’’ Schwartz said.

“But from a physical standpoint, it should favor us. They’re playing on Tuesday; they’ll be on a short week and also travel here, so I think those things do work in our advantage,’’ the coach added.

The Vikings are coming off a 21-3 loss to the Giants at Ford Field on Dec. 14 and a 40-14 smacking by the Bears on Dec. 20. Both games were delayed because of snow which makes it three weeks in a row of snow-delayed games for the Vikings.

Schwartz can spin it anyway he wants. The Lions will be rested, ready and in good spirits because they have a chance to win four straight to end the season at 6-10. The Vikings, distracted for most of the season by Favre, will be snow-weary and likely coming off three straight losses.

(Follow me on Twitter @PaulaPasche.)

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