ALLEN PARK >> The Detroit Lions’ first divisional matchup of the season might just end up being their most important.

The undefeated Minnesota Vikings await at U.S. Bank Stadium this Sunday, and with Minnesota having a leg up on Detroit (4-1) after its 5-0 start, there’s a good chance we look back on this Week 7 affair as a turning point in the season for both teams, no matter who comes out victorious.

For the Vikings, who are coming off a bye week, it’s a chance to prove that their unexpected start is real. The sportsbooks projected Minnesota’s win total at 6.5 wins this season, a number they’re trending toward shattering before the first half of the regular season is over.

For Detroit, the reigning NFC North champion, it’s a chance to show it’s the top dog, despite losing its top dawg, defensive end Aidan Hutchinson.

“It is big,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. “It’s a division game. They’re playing well … they’ve already got a division win on the road at Green Bay, so this is big, this is a real big game, and that’s the way you have to approach it.”Detroit sealed its first division title in 30 years by beating Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium in Week 16 of last season, then completed the sweep of their rival by handily winning a Week 18 matchup at Ford Field.

After Sunday, the Lions won’t see the Vikings again until Week 18, when the two get together at Ford Field in the season finale. There’s a long way to go between now and then, but the result of Sunday’s game could heavily dictate how much — if anything at all — the next meeting means.

It’s not just the Vikings that pose a threat within the division. The NFC North is the first division since 2000 where all four teams have at least four wins through the first six weeks of the season. It’s looking like a possibility that all four teams have similar records at the end of the year, and the first tiebreaker for the division race is the in-division record.

“This is a very important week of preparation because we’re playing one of the best teams in the National Football League,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “A really good team in all three phases, Dan (Campbell) is one of the best coaches in our league and his team and his staff, everything they’ve got going on is going to be a heck of a challenge, and really, with how well everybody’s playing in our division, these division games are going to be really important.”

The Chicago Bears are off to a 4-2 start under rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, and the Green Bay Packers are 4-2 despite missing quarterback Jordan Love for multiple games. The NFC North has a combined record of 16-4 in games played outside of the division.

“It’s important because it’s a division game and they’re at the top of the division … but if we were playing Green Bay or Chicago, it would be equally as important,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said.

If you needed any indication that this game means a little bit more, it’s evidenced by the extremes that Detroit has gone to prepare itself for the road environment it faces. At practice this week, the team has repeatedly blared the opponent’s first-down sound — a Vikings horn — to the point that you can hear it from the parking lot outside the team’s facility in Allen Park.

“Isn’t it annoying?” Campbell asked a reporter who noted hearing it from inside the media room. “Because the point of it, it’s supposed to be annoying. It’s supposed to annoy them.”

In other words, it’s supposed to help the Lions train to keep their composure in a hostile environment.

One of the things that’s helped the Vikings get off to such a great start on the season is their ability to get off to great starts in games. They’ve run just five offensive plays while trailing this season and are averaging nine points per game in the first quarter, nearly double what they’re averaging in the second and third quarters (4.8 points in each).

While playing at Green Bay in Week 4, the Vikings raced out to a 28-0 first-half lead. The Packers stormed back to make it a game but couldn’t overcome the early deficit, as a fourth-quarter field goal was all Minnesota needed to escape Lambeau Field with a 31-29 win.

“The common denominator between all five of these teams that they’ve beaten is, man, they lose their composure and communication is not there and things start going sour and it snowballs, and it gets worse, and really, nobody’s taken them down to the wire, really,” Campbell said. “We have to take this thing to the fourth quarter and make it a game, because if you don’t do that, it’s going got be hard; you’re going to be running uphill.

“So, that’s really the focus here — keep your composure, communicate and you’ve got to battle.”

The respect is mutual, in part because these two teams aren’t so different. Both play physical football and have developed a reputation for being tough to play against.

“It’s a talented team, really, across the board,” Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores said about Detroit. “They play physical. They don’t really have a lot of weaknesses. … So, really from the backs to the tight ends to the receivers to the O-line to the quarterback to the play-caller, all of it is high level. They do a really nice job. It’ll be a big, big challenge for us.”

The Lions have had success in the division under Campbell, particularly in the last two seasons. Detroit was 4-2 in the NFC North last season and 5-1 the year prior. On the whole, Campbell’s staff consistently reinforces how important it is to win those games: The Lions don’t just want to make playoffs; they want the playoffs to go through their house, which means taking the division race seriously.

“I mean, how do you make it to the playoffs? First off, you gotta win your division,” Lions pass game coordinator Tanner Engstrand said. “They’re 1-0 (in the division) right now, and we haven’t had a division game, so we gotta start off this week by putting the (best) foot forward on the next opponent, which is Minnesota.”

In the place where the Lions secured their last division title, they’re determined to get a head start on their next one.