DETROIT — Minnesota's defense held the Lions at bay most of Sunday afternoon, but a difficult final two drives saw Detroit pull ahead with less than five minutes remaining and bleed nearly three minutes of clock to finish the game in victory formation.

The Lions handed the Vikings their first loss of the season, winning 19-15 after entering Week 8 averaging 30.7 points per game.

"We've gotta get back to work," Levi Drake Rodriguez said. "That's it. Plain and simple. Watch the film, meetings, walk-through, practice — get better."

It's difficult for Minnesota's defensive players to take much consolation in multiple categorical successes — including holding the Lions to 5-of-13 on third downs, just 1-of-3 inside the red zone and sacking Jared Goff four times — when the ultimate results are what they are.

The Vikings held the Lions to just 66 rushing yards in the first half but giving up 164 in the second.

"They're trying to get into the perfect play. We're trying to check. It's just the schematics of it and the chess game of football," said Andrew Van Ginkel, who logged a career-high 2.5 sacks. "Obviously they've seen our defense [seven times] since [Defensive Coordinator Brian] Flores has been here, and we're constantly evolving. They're constantly coming up with new ideas and new schematics. It's definitely a chess match.

"They did a good job of switching it up, changing it up and keeping us on our toes," he added. "That was something that we've got to be prepared for, because every team's going to look at this film and try to emulate it."

Goff finished his outing 18-of-25 passing for 176 yards, one touchdown and one interception with a passer rating of 88.1.

James Pierre snagged the Vikings single pick of the day and added two tackles and a pass defensed. Joshua Metellus led Minnesota in tackles with 13 and also broke up a pass. Eric Wilson recorded 11 tackles and a sack, as well as two tackles for loss, and Byron Murphy, Jr. and Blake Cashman had 10 tackles apiece.

"Our game plan leading into the day was playing out perfect," Metellus said. "Came out of halftime, I thought we still were playing really well. We just knew they had good players and knew it was a matter of time, but I think we [executed] the game plan well. The fundamentals, the technique, the play style, we had to bring it up a notch."

The Vikings did get gouged early on by a Goff-to-Jameson Williams deep pass. The Lions receiver was flagged for taunting after the play, which moved Detroit back to the Vikings 24. Goff then targeted Amon-Ra St. Brown in the end zone for a play initially ruled a touchdown; the call was overturned, however, after review showed St. Brown didn't establish control.

Minnesota held its ground and didn't allow Detroit back in the paint on the drive. The Lions settled for a field goal to take the early lead.

The Vikings added a touchdown of their own to the board with a 1-yard catch by Justin Jefferson, and they forced the Lions to settle for another field goal just before halftime, hanging onto a 1-point lead.

Detroit got its run game going in the second half, and Minnesota ultimately couldn't find an answer for an attack led by Jahmyr Gibbs. He racked up 23 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown, while Sione Vaki added 65 yards on 11 attempts.

The Vikings defense struggled with missed tackles down the stretch, and several players were asked if a lopsided time of possession (the Lions offense was on the field for 35:43) had an impact.

Harrison Smith acknowledged it likely did play some role but emphasized the importance of not making any excuses.

"If you watch it and look at it, I think that would be the natural conclusion," Smith said. "But as a football player, that's just something you've got to deal with."

Metellus reiterated Smith's sentiments of not blaming workload.

"I think it's more about mindset, will. They made a couple more plays because they wanted to in those situations and we didn't," Metellus said. "So that's something, we're going to have to look ourselves in the mirror as a defense. As high as our standard is in the room, those last two drives really aren't the standard."

The Vikings struggled offensively, but similar to not leaning on excuses for missed execution, defensive players will not point fingers at anyone but themselves.

"We've got to be better getting off the field, and we gave up some silly penalties that kept the game going, kept the drives going," Van Ginkel said. "We've got to be better prepared and get off the field faster."

Smith stressed "just doing your job" individually and relying on teammates to do the same. The 15-year veteran also noted this is the time to focus on making improvements and small changes and not hitting the panic button.

"Stay positive," Smith said. "Tell us we're 6-1 at this point in the season … we're probably going to take that. It's not saying there's anything good about today and about losing, but it's the reality of the NFL.

"It's a good team over there. A lot of good players," he added. "The defense could have done more."

The Vikings will turn the page to next week, when they'll host the Bills (6-1) for Monday Night Football.

How will they respond to their first loss of the season? Dallas Turner said it's important to decide that now.

"We've got to just come together as a team and fix it," Turner said. "We play team defense, team offense, team ball. It's a challenge for us to see where we are as a team, relationship-wise, to see if we're going to bond and grow from it and progress from it as a team. That's the goal."

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