NFL power rankings: Playing the what-if game with Detroit Lions’ Week 3 loss to Vikings

Dan Campbell doesn’t spend much time obsessing over the “what if,” other than in the immediate aftermath of games.

“Then I’ve got to just let it go because there’s nothing I can do about that anymore other than learn from those maybe errors that transpired or things that I didn’t feel like I did well, or we didn’t do well as a team,” Campbell said Monday. “But as far as looking back, it’ll do me no good. I don’t want to dwell on all of that. Make the corrections and we move on.”

The Detroit Lions have moved on from six losses this season, but I’ve wondered a handful of times what if one of those losses — their Week 3 game against the Minnesota Vikings — was a win? How might that have changed the complexion of the NFC playoff race?

The Lions led most of that game. They scored the first 14 points, had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and did not trail until the Vikings scored the game-winning touchdown with 45 seconds to play.

That’s life in the NFL, of course, where most games are decided by a touchdown or less. But the Lions’ fortunes — not just in that game, but for the season — seemed to change when Austin Seibert missed a 54-yard field goal wide right with 1:14 on the clock and the Vikings took advantage of great field position to score three plays later for the win.

Should Campbell have tried to convert on fourth-and-4 instead of attempting a long field goal? Should he have punted? Shoot, should the Lions have kept Riley Patterson as their kicker out of training camp instead of Seibert?

Those are questions many (including probably Campbell) have wondered aloud or to themselves, not just after the Lions’ 28-24 loss to the Vikings but the following week when they dropped a shootout to the Seattle Seahawks and the week after that when they laid an egg against the New England Patriots.

Campbell said Monday, “I feel like we should have at least two more wins here, and that’s on me.”

The Vikings game is one of those, and take your pick of the other.

The Lions couldn’t stop the Seahawks and never had the ball with a chance to win late in the game, but maybe the euphoria of a 2-1 start helps get that Week 4 home game off to a better start. They had the Dallas Cowboys on the ropes the week after the bye and let them off the hook with four fourth quarter turnovers. And before ending their five-game losing streak last week against the Green Bay Packers, they traded blows with the Miami Dolphins before wilting down the stretch.

Maybe nothing else changes if the Lions hold on to beat the Vikings. A win there, after all, does little to fix their league-worst defense or persistent injury problems.

But the Vikings have seemed to capitalize on the momentum from that game, winning three more times on fourth quarter comebacks to post a 7-1 record, second-best in the NFL.

Minnesota, Dallas, Seattle and Miami all rank in the top 10 of my power rankings this week, while the Lions check in at No. 30 with plenty of mystery about what could have been.