Vikings' Griffen guarantees victory vs. Lions

If the Detroit Lions needed any extra motivation for Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings (1 p.m., Fox), they got it today from Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen.

"We're going to beat Detroit," Griffen told reporters in Minnesota. "I'm very angry right now, as you can see, because we prepared way too hard to lose (on Monday). But we're going to go out there and get 'em."

Both the Lions and Vikings dropped their openers in hard-to-stomach fashion.

The Lions blew an 18-point first-half lead to fall to the San Diego Chargers, 33-28. Minnesota struggled to move the ball on offense in a 20-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

The Green Bay Packers (1-0) are the only undefeated team in the NFC North, while the Lions, Vikings and Chicago Bears are 0-1. Teams that have started 0-2 have gone on to make the playoffs less than 10% of the time since the NFL expanded the postseason to 12 teams in 1990.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@davebirkett.

Download our free Lions Xtra app on your Apple and Android devices.