lordstanley

Posted this in the Red Wings forum as well.

I am still confused by last year's home game against the Bears when Williams was sacked and then the ball punched out of the end zone for a safety. Bears had to kick the ball to the Lions. But after a safety they are allowed to punt it if they choose to and they did so. High up, making it a jump ball. Lions recovered, but it seemed like this type of play gave the Bears a greater chance at getting the ball than they deserved. Was wondering at the time why the Lions couldn't call a fair catch then instead of letting it be a jump ball.

Saw this on Reddit today. Although I'm not sure if 5 out of 10 five and a half years after the draft is that unusual. Still, Kakko turned out to be such a disappointment.

Two wins in a row! Almost a streak.

I already realized how hard hit the Lions have been, but this shows how unscathed have been Minnesota, GB and Buffalo.

After getting screwed in the draft lottery again, Yzerman was still fairly productive. Lucas Raymond, William Wallinder, Theodor Niederbach, Cross Hanas, Donovan Sebrango, Eemil Viro, and Jan Bednar are all notables from this class. Uhh, fairly productive? Notables? Not one NHL game other than Raymond.

Yeah if the division is wrapped up but not the 1st seed going into the Minnesota game, the Lions basically would have two shots of advancing to the 2nd round of the playoffs - a) beat Minnesota and get bye into 2nd round; or b) lose to Minnesota and beat #7 seed in wildcard to get into 2nd round. So would have plenty of incentive to go hard against Minnesota and take care of business, no time like the present.

I see some parallels between this year's Lions' season and 2023 Michigan. Both dominant through the first half or more of what was shaping up to be a dream season and then got thrown a curveball that threatened to upend everything. With Michigan it was Stallions and Harbaugh suspension and media firestorm. With Lions, defensive injuries of course. Made each team's task much more difficult but not impossible. So IF the Lions are able to get through this, it will make for an absolutely legendary story. The Lions now are basically where Michigan was prior to the MSU game - had to defeat the Spartans, Penn St., Ohio State and Iowa to make the CFB playoff, then win 2 games for the title. The Lions need a 5-game winning streak to make the Super Bowl, with the games getting progressively tougher: Chicago, San Francisco, Minnesota, GB/Tampa/Rams/?, Philly?. Really tough, but not impossible. I can't wait to see how it plays out.

I would agree with that if the Lions had been getting complacent and fell into the trap of overlooking an inferior opponent and it bit them. But surely almost squandering a big lead on Thanksgiving needing bonehead time management to survive and then needing a last-second FG to beat GB were enough wake-up calls. Can’t imagine the Lions weren’t “up” going into a marquee matchup against Buffalo. Fact is, the Lions have given up a ton of points the past 2 1/2 games, not from lack of trying.

https://www.nflgsis.com/standings.aspx

I turned on the Bears-Vikings game forgetting it’s not an 8:15pm ET start. So turns out already the Bears have already been stopped on a 4th and 1 in their own territory, given up a FG, Caleb was hit and fumbled, and now the Vikings are in the red zone trying to go up 10-0.

https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nfl/seattle-seahawks/article297178889.html The Seahawks have reason to believe Geno Smith will be able to play this coming weekend. Coach Mike Macdonald said on his weekly day-after-game radio show Monday morning Smith “seemed optimistic” in text messages with Macdonald the day after he left Seattle’s 30-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers midway through the third quarter with a knee injury. X-rays with in-stadium equipment Sunday night showed no bone breaks or immediately apparent structural damage. Macdonald reiterated Monday morning that Smith is still to get imaging tests on internal ligaments, tendons and other parts of the knee before the Seahawks get a clearer picture of the 34-year-old quarterback’s injury. Asked if there’s a possibility Smith will be able to play Sunday when the 8-6 Seahawks attempt to stay even with the Los Angeles Rams (8-6) for the NFC West title with three games remaining in the regular season, Macdonald said, “Yeah.”

Hope the injuries don’t start spreading to the fanbase. I could deal with a broken finger or concussion if necessary, have had both. Broken jaw would be rough, could drink out of straw for awhile if I had to like my dad did when he got hit by a flying puck while standing on the players’ bench. But I want nothing to do with ACL.

Vikings fans have been beaten down almost as much as the Lions the past 50 years. I'm sure they're worrying today that it would be just like the Vikings to look this gift horse in the mouth by losing to the Bears tonight!

Best thing the Leafs have going for them this year is the lack of dominant teams in the East this season. Tampa and Boston are both well off their recent peaks. Florida may be fatigued from two straight Cup finals by the time the playoffs come. Rangers need to figure things out fast. Washington and NJ may or may not be able to sustain top play. So the Leafs are one of a half-dozen teams with a shot at representing the East, with none at this point clearly ahead of the rest.

So I was at a Christmas function yesterday and only checking the score in the 1st half and seeing it be 14-0, 21-7, and so on. I'm finally driving home late in the 1st half and listening to the game on Sirius and a Lions player goes down around the 2 minute warning when the Bills are about to attempt the FG attempt. Dan Miller leaves me hanging as he takes it to a commercial saying I don't know which Lions player it is but it looks bad and they're already bringing out the cart. I'm in suspense for a minute and when back from the commercial Miller announces it is Dorsey. He and Lomas are going about how sad this is for Dorsey. I agree, but in my head I'm thinking "whew, thank God it's not Branch or McNeil or Reader or Davis!!". At this point I didn't even know Davis had left the game already. And this was before McNeil went down.

Eagles was the only one I cared about. Packers are irrelevant unless the Lions finish with a 4-game losing streak, in which GB would be the least of our problems - sucks about Geno Smith because the Seahawks play Minnesota next week. The Lions’ path to the Super Bowl has narrowed and without Davis and McNeil I no longer consider them Super Bowl favourites. But not impossible. A 5-game winning streak will make it to the Super Bowl. Even with the weakened defense, the Lions are more than capable of beating Chicago and SF on the road, but not to be taken lightly. Do that and who knows, maybe the Lions catch a break and Minnesota loses to one of Chicago/Seattle/GB and Philly loses to one of Washington/Dallas. Not counting on it but possible. Then the Lions are the #1 seed even before the Minnesota and are two home wins away from making the Super Bowl. Even with a weakened defense those two home playoff games would be coin flips at worse, so hope still exists.

Didn’t some half-joke that if we were able to beat Chicago and Minnesota then we should rest everyone against Buffalo? Because the Lions could afford a loss to a non-conference opponent and getting healthy was more important? That would have been madness. But …

Host of Lions’ radio post-game show said pretty much the same thing. So if you sound crazy so does he. You don’t sound crazy.

The Davis and McNeil injuries depress me more than the loss. I was hoping that Green Bay was the nadir with respect to depletion and that the defensive personnel would only get better week by week as players returned.

They got it. And it wasn’t.

Yeah, why not. If you fire it at a guy dodgeball, it either bounces off the guy and back to you, or if he is able to duck out or the way the defense gets the ball another 10 yards or so further back

That’s about as much as you can expect from an onside kick. Loose ball, no flags, scrum, wait for refs’ call. Wouldn’t that have been wild.

3 plays to victory: recover onside kick. Sideline pass to pick up 10 yards. Catch Hail Mary.