Gannon’s Passes Keep Vikings Up and Lions Down : Pro football: Minnesota off to best start since 1976 with 31-14 victory over Detroit.

This time, quarterback Rich Gannon and the Minnesota Vikings didn’t wait. And now it looks as if the Detroit Lions will have to wait until next year.

Gannon, who rallied the Vikings from a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit to a 21-20 victory over Chicago in their previous game, led them to a 24-0 lead Thursday night and Minnesota defeated Detroit, 31-14.

“We jumped out hard and fast. We felt there would be chances to make big plays down the field,” said Coach Dennis Green, whose Vikings have lost only once in 10 games--including four exhibitions. “We like where we’re sitting right now. We like being in first. We like it a lot.”

The Vikings (5-1), one of the NFL’s surprise teams after going 14-18 the last two seasons, took a 1 1/2-game lead in the NFC Central. The last time they had a better start was 1976, when they went 5-0-1 en route to the Super Bowl.

Defending division champion Detroit (1-5) has lost once more than it did all last season, when it reached the conference title game.

“When you go from the penthouse to the outhouse, you hurt, man,” Detroit’s Chris Spielman said. “When you’ve got big expectations and you don’t reach them, it hurts.”

Said Lion Coach Wayne Fontes: “We left the locker room with tremendous enthusiasm and a very fine team just beat us. No excuses. We didn’t think we were flat. They’re just better than us.”

Gannon completed eight of 10 passes for 146 yards and two touchdowns before leaving early in the second quarter with a hyper-extended left knee.

“I was excited about how we were playing. We were making big plays,” said Gannon, who also aggravated an injury to the thumb on his passing hand. “I’m disappointed this happened.”

Green said he expected Gannon to play in Minnesota’s next game, Oct. 25 against the Washington Redskins.

Gannon’s replacement, Sean Salisbury, struggled before clinching the victory with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Cris Carter 1:26 into the fourth quarter.

Carter, who tied a club record by catching a touchdown pass for the fourth consecutive game, was one of three Minnesota receivers with long scoring receptions. Gannon hit Anthony Carter from 47 yards and Hassan Jones from 43.

“The focus was on me the last three or four weeks,” Cris Carter said. “It was nice to see those guys get theirs. We all work hard. We all have egos. One week A.C.’s hot, one week Hassan’s hot. One week, it’s me. There’s enough for all of us.”

Detroit, meanwhile, hasn’t had enough offense.

Barry Sanders scored the Lions’ first touchdown, but he continued to be bottled up by opponents and by his team’s ineffectiveness. Used as a decoy early in the game and virtually ignored while Detroit played catch-up late, Sanders rushed 16 times for 52 yards.

Sanders, who averaged 4.9 yards per carry while rushing for 4,322 yards in his first three NFL seasons, has gained only 258 yards in 85 carries since opening this season with a 109-yard performance.

The Vikings used linebacker Mike Merriweather to “spy” on Sanders, daring Rodney Peete to pass.

But Peete couldn’t carry the Lions, completing 13 of 23 passes for 171 yards and two interceptions before being replaced early in the fourth by Erik Kramer. Kramer threw a 47-yard scoring pass to Herman Moore with 11:21 left.

Asked if it was difficult to remain optimistic, Sanders said: “Yeah, but we’re gonna have to play the games, so we might as well go full speed.”