RedRamage

The injury to Swift should have been a penalty too. Swift was essentially tackled and was on his knees, head up... a defender came in and put a hard forearm right in his facemask, snapping his head back. Could have been a serious injury.

Walker was kinda leaning in to see what was going on with Swift. The trainer put a hand on him to move him back so he could get in and then walker pushed the trainer in the back.

Oh goodness Swift... that was ugly looking.

Nope. This certainly doesn't help with him home/away splits.

Collinsworth is really slobbering over Rodgers isn't he?

I'm really not super upset that the Lions won't make the playoffs. In some ways I hope that makes them hungrier for next year, plus I kind doubt they'd make a deep play off run this year. But I do want 'em to knock out GB. I'm really gonna hate to see GB celebrating if they win.

Seeing this will come into play here, I'm gonna make a plug for my OT rules again: First time to lead by 4 pts wins in OT.

Nice job Mayfield.

Wow.

So... if it ends in a tie... does that help the Lions?

The refs are screwing the Lions before the Lions game even starts!

As much as I'd love to see the Lions gain a half a game, I don't think you can do that. Both teams had to play on the same surface so it wasn't like it gave an advantage to one team vs. the other.

That was my thought. I'm not sure how in the world you catch a fan in the act of throwing a snow ball. Now, after the fact there might be enough video from others in the stadium that you can find out who threw it and determine if it was a visiting fan or not, but I don't see anyway in the moment to be able to pinpoint the fan who threw it and figure out if it was a Bills backer or not.

Yeah... and that sorta bring up a possible point 3 of questionable things he's done. I mean Patricia as the "not-OC" just so the Lions have to still pay him is worth mentioned as well as 'Spy-gate,' 'Deflategate,' and many other times he's been accused of cheating.

I've mentioned this before (even in the game thread this week) but I honestly think that Belichick as a coach is overrated. I think he lucked into Brady, perhaps the greatest QB who's played the game professionally, and too many people just assumed that he was the driving cause of the success that Brady has had. I'll point to two bits of evidence on why I think Belichick is overrated... neither of which is a smoking gun, but still substantial enough that I think it's telling: 1. Record. Over all, including playoffs, Belichick as a HC has a pretty nice record: 328 wins to 163 losses, or a 66.8 winning percentage. Not bad at all! But most of his HC career has overlapped having Brady as his QB. In games where Brady was NOT the starter for Belichick, his record is uninspiring: 79/87... or 47.6% The reason this isn't a smoking gun is that the sample size here is small and consists mainly of his time in Cleveland and a few years in NE w/o Brady as the team has struggled to find a starting QB. However, if Belichick is to be considered one of the best coaches of all time, should he not be able to coach up a replacement QB? Should he not have been able to find some level of success outside of his once-in-a-generation QB? 2. Coaching Tree. I would expect that a coach who is to being considered as the greatest of all time would have at least a decent level of successful coaches developed under him. Even if he wasn't actively trying to train/teach his lower level coaches, I would expect some level of his thinking/talent/ability would wear off on his coordinators. And yet I can't think of a single person, outside of Nick Saban, who's had even a solid, successful career as a HC after parting ways with Belichick. And even looking at Saban, he was Belichick's DC during his Cleveland years when Belichick only had won winning season. We'll see if Belichick proves me wrong later, but as of right now I think Belichick is an average coach at best... I think he lucked into a super star QB and road on Brady's coat tails to fame and fortune.

I think it's perfectly fine to have disagreements with people on a message board. It's even fine to once in a while get a little heated with the discussion. But everyone please remember that this is, ultimately, supposed to be a place where we can discuss our favorite team(s). If you find yourself constantly getting upset or angry at any given posted, I would highly recommend using the 'ignore' feature. For the record even though this post is coming right after NTLion, it is NOT directed at him in particular. There were quite a few people throwing shots around in this weeks thread and that's just not enjoyable for anyone one. If you can't find yourself responding in a civil manner to someone else, perhaps don't respond at all. If you can't help responding when you see a specific poster, please using the ignore feature.

I honestly have no problem with that. Now, in a perfect would I would not want a team that is .500 (or worse!) in the playoffs, let alone hosting a playoff game. But I would rather that vs. not having the division winner in the playoffs. I think especially in the NFL were you do not play that many teams in the league, winning your division is important and should count for something. It shows you are the best of the four teams at the very least. Now, I could probably be persuaded that hosting duties should be determined by record vs. just given to division winners, but honestly I don't think it happens that often where a division winner is that much worse than a wild card winner.

I'm 51 now, but only really started following the Lions closely in the 90s. That said, I'm a bit of a history fan so I'm aware of the Lions successes in the 50s and especially that magical season in Detroit in 35/36... so I'm very okay with "Restore and Roar." Also, I 100% agree with you that I feel optimistic that the Lions could... dare I even say should??... win any game they are in. I just don't have that same dread of: "Okay, how are they going to find an obscure way to lose this one?" anymore.

Oh man... that would be a very, very hard pill for me to swallow. I don't know if I could root for Rodgers.

So another road game for Goff is in the books and the results are.... inconclusive. Goff definitely did not have is best game... just 23 completions on 38 attempts. He did cross 252 total yards, but 20% of that came on one play... that play also accounted for his lone TD. He averaged 6.6 yard on those 38 attempts, well under his 7.5 average this season. Now on first blush that all seems to play into the idea that Goff is much worse on the road vs. home, right? Well, not so fast. Looking at a few other numbers: The Lions managed just 107 yards on the ground compared to 126 average per game this season. This means there wasn't quite as much of a rushing threat to keep defenses honest. However, beyond that the Jets are just a really good defense. They've allowed the 4th fewest yards in the NFL this season. They also allow the 3rd fewest yards per attempt of just 5.8 yards per attempt... which if you'll look at the paragraph above, the Lions beat. So all in all... I'd saying this is a totally inconclusive. Goff didn't have a great game, but he was on the road (always harder) and was up against a top 5 defense. I would expect ANY QBs numbers to dip a bit in that situation. And Goff still have over 250 yards, still got a TD, and didn't throwing any INTs, take a sack, or fumble. That's far from what I'd consider a 'bad' performance.

I will say that last year and previous years I always feared a 3rd and 5+ cause it always seemed impossible that the Lions would pick that up. These days I feel more surprised when they don't pickup a 3rd and 5.

I've said this before, but I consider anything said in game to be "off the record." I think most of us (I know it's true for me) then to way overreact to stuff in game. I'm very rarely in the thread during the game cause I'm usually watching on delay so I can skip through the commercials, but I know I have plenty of reactions during the game where I'm calling out player-X for stupidity one play, then praising him for his brilliance two plays later.

Personal opinion of course but I think Belichick gets WAY too much credit for the Brady years.

Apparently no team as tied twice in a season since OT was added in 1974.