Hartman: Vikings gave Lions a much better battle

The Vikings lost a heartbreaker to the Lions on Sunday, losing 16-14 on a field goal with 3 minutes, 38 seconds to play after looking like the superior team for most of the game. The silver lining, though, is that you can see the incredible job Minnesota's coaching staff is doing and the improvements the team make each week. Compare this game to the Vikings' 17-3 loss to the Lions at TCF Bank Stadium on Oct. 12, and it's not even close in terms of increased competence and ability.

If the Vikings (6-8) play as well in their final two games at Miami and Chicago here, they could finish .500.

Teddy Bridgewater completed 31 of 41 passes on Sunday for 315 yards and one touchdown, though he did throw two interceptions that led to 10 Lions points in the second quarter. And even with a makeshift offensive line that was missing starters Brandon Fusco and Phil Loadholt, Bridgewater was sacked only four times. Compare that to the game in Week 6, when Bridgewater completed 23 of 37 passes for 188 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions and was sacked eight times.

There's no question Bridgewater is getting better and better with each game he plays. On Sunday, the Vikings had a 21-11 edge in first downs, but actually they lost the game because of two intercepted passes and a blocked 26-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

As Vikings coach Mike Zimmer told the media after the game: "Well, as I told the team, I'm not into moral victories. But these guys fought and played and scratched and clawed and gave, I thought, a great effort today. I thought we did a lot of awfully good things."

There were other positive contributions. Tight end Kyle Rudolph had his best game of the season, catching seven passes for 69 yards, which equaled his total of seven receptions in the previous four games since he came back from sports hernia surgery. The former Notre Dame star and 2011 second-round choice finally looked like his old self.

Cordarrelle Patterson caught two passes for 16 yards, his first receptions since Week 12 against Green Bay, and looked like he was going to win the game for the Vikings with a season-best 51-yard kickoff return that he nearly broke for a touchdown, which put the Vikings at their own 49-yard line with 3:27 to go.

The secondary did a tremendous job of shutting down one of the best passing attacks in the NFL, limiting Calvin Johnson to 53 yards on four receptions, and allowing Matthew Stafford to complete only 17 of 28 passes for 153 yards, his fewest completions and lowest yardage in any game this season.

It was a heartbreaking loss to be sure, and the 53-yard missed field goal by Blair Walsh in the first quarter and his blocked field goal in the fourth were huge missed opportunities. But the Vikings continued to show tremendous improvement, and all you have to do is look at their previous game against Detroit to see how far they've come.

With the Lions' victory on Sunday, they have beaten the Vikings in three of the past four meetings and have seven wins in the previous nine contests. It's a common thread in the long history of the two franchises, though the Vikings — who own a 69-36-2 overall record against Detroit — have often been the team doing the winning.

When Bud Grant coached the Vikings, they had a streak from 1968-1978 when they won 19 of 21 games. Then from 1999-2010, the Vikings won 20 of 22.

But now the Lions have the upper hand, though by the looks of things that might be changing as the Vikings get more competitive.

"It has definitely impacted recruiting, definitely impacted our image," he said. "When you walk and you go into a school, it doesn't matter if you're in Georgia or Minnesota or Kansas City, people go, 'Boy, you guys had a great season,' " he said. "That's fantastic going to a New Year's Bowl. There is no question it has helped us a lot. I was gone all last week, and there's a lot of people that are fired up about the Gophers from everywhere."

Kill said he had nine recruits in the football building on Sunday morning, eight who had committed and one who he was trying to sell on the program.

And without a doubt, he had a lot to sell to this undecided recruit because of the bowl game.

Are players getting healthy?

"I think a lot of our whole team was banged up and I think the time off has helped all of them," he said. "We ran around pretty good the last two practices. I'm looking forward to see how we run around today."

"We hope to get [sophomore wide receiver] Drew Wolitarsky back, we really need him back," Kill said. Wolitarsky had 10 receptions for 106 yards before suffering a high ankle sprain in the Gophers' loss at Illinois on Oct. 25. "He's rehabbing right now and did some individual drills the other day, and with some time that we have, he's a kid we really, really need back. He could really help us out offensively. Right now [sophomore left tackle] Ben Lauer [ankle] is very questionable and I don't know if we'll get Ben back. Other than that, we have [junior safety] Antonio Johnson [unspecified injury] back, which is something that we certainly need and missed the last couple of ballgames. Right now we're about as healthy as we can be without Ben Lauer."

Kill was asked for his feelings on the fan response, especially since it looks like the Gophers are going to send a lot of fans to Orlando for the game.

"It is fantastic, the response of the fans so far," he said. "That's not even counting the tickets that people are buying down in Florida from the Citrus Bowl, this is just the count through our ticket office. We have two buses for the students that filled up in 10 minutes, so I think they're working on getting two more buses. The fans and the students and everybody seems to be really excited to go to Orlando. I think it's great and will certainly help us down the road when we have these bowl situations. I'm just glad the fans are fired up."