RandyMarsh

One of Detroit or Minnesota is likely going to finish with 14 wins and be rewarded with going on the road for the 1st round of the playoffs(and likely all rounds).

And yes the 49ers are now officially eliminated from the playoffs.

The Eagles now likely aren't an issue for the Lions since it would take us losing the last 2 games for them to pass us and if that were to happen in all likelihood we wouldn't win the division anyway so it wouldn't matter.

Nice to finally get some help against the Eagles or Vikings, first time in almost 2 months that has happened.

If the Eagles were to actually lose there's a good chance that next week's game against the 49ers could end up meaning practically nothing for the Lions cause either way a win would be needed in Week 18 for the division and number 1 seed. If the Vikings were to lose today or next week that could change but with our game being on MOnday Night we will know ahead of time if that is the case.

LOL at the Bears, might as well throw in the towel by kicking a FG there.

No doubt the stumbling was on purpose in my opinion. Like the announcer said what is the likelihood that BOTH Gibbs and Goff stumble with Gibbs falling down on the same play? Wonder how many teams are gonna try to steal that one now?

I hate OSU but damn is Jeremiah Smith good, it's criminal how OSU seems to churn out these stud WRs every year and Michigan throws out a bunch of chumps.

Funny that assuming OSU holds on it will be them and Oregon in the Rose Bowl next week, just your average old school Rose Bowl matchup.

I wonder if all the SECSPN guys are gonna complain about Tennessee getting in after getting trucked like they did Indiana when Indiana was getting blown out yesterday?

The numbers may or may not back it up but to me it feels like Santana is Nelson Cruz light in terms of being a Tigers killer so seeing him stay in the AL Central playing on our biggest rival doesn't exactly thrill me. I remember him hitting a walk off bomb off of Benoit in a crucial late season matchup when the division was still up in the air, and here we are nearly a decade and a half later still going to have to face him in likely/hopefully big divisional matchups.

Weather forecast doesn't look too bad, partly cloudy with temps in the low 30s. Wind gusts from 10-20 mph though which could possibly pose a problem throwing the ball.

JV also could throw a 100 as a teenager, between his natural delivery and God given talent he essentially always had it. Same with Nolan Ryan and the other hard throwers that had longevity. Gerrit Cole is starting to break down but he is another guy who threw hard since college who stayed relatively healthy most of his career until finally breaking down a bit. Today you have guys who "naturally" may be low 90s guys go through extreme workout regimes to get to the upper 90s/triple digits. I think guys like that are the ones more likely to get injured, of course there is no hard and set rule cause Stephen Strasburg fit the first criteria and now he struggles to even play catch with his kids.

Yeah me too, when they drafted Vaki as a RB I figured he was going to take over for Montgomery after this year thats why I was surprised they handed out that extension to him.

Johnson and the Lions offense also benefit greatly by Campbell's aggressiveness, Johnson knows that in most cases he has 4 downs to work with every series so he can call running plays on typical passing downs or throw short of the sticks on 3rd and long. Stuff like that makes things so much more difficult for defenses. Now Johnson may very well keep that same mindset initially as a Head Coach but will he take it to the extreme that Dan does or have the stones to stick with when he gets heat the times they backfire is another thing?

Honestly, I'm not too concerned about Montgomery either way. In reality he hasn't been all that productive the past several weeks, he's basically only getting 3-4 yards a carry and hasn't had a run over 13 yards in 2 months. Given our offensive line that isn't all that impressive and I feel confident that we can get similar production from Reynolds and extra Gibbs carries.

Yeah I was saying something like this to people at work the other day. Teams tend to get more banged up as the season goes on and we still have 4 more games before the playoffs and another potential(hopefully) 3-4 come playoff time so who knows if or how many more key guys we may lose. OTOH the same can be said for other teams, maybe we'll get lucky and we won't lose anybody else while other contenders do to make the playing field more even.

I saw somebody post that, had no idea about that rule. Seems like something the "same ole Lions" would've came across at some point and lost a game because of.

I think if you were to kick it high a team could immediately call a fair catch preventing the kicking team from gaining possession until the receiving team touches the ball.

Arnold is playing much better now than Sutton was then, plus you got an improved Campbell, Branch and Joseph.

There's no doubt the margin for error has gotten alot smaller but as long as the offense can stay mostly healthy the Lions are gonna be a threat. Last year they easily could've went to the Super Bowl and I don't think our defense playoff time was much better than what we are throwing out there now. Its going to come down to the defense forcing a turnover and a few punts a game, if they can do that with this offense it should be enough to win the game. I don't think that is asking too much or being unrealistic even with the worst of defenses.

Also it just happens to coincide in a year where 2 other division foes collectively have 3 non Lions losses and another NFC team only has 2 losses total. Most years if you finish 13-4 you comfortably win your division and likely have a bye in the 1st round. The Lions could go potentially 14-3 and end up a 5 seed.

Again to credit Buffalo nobody in the league is playing at a higher level than Josh Allen now and his weapons were the healthiest they've been all season, when he is playing at his best even the best defenses have a hard time slowing him down. Despite our struggles defensively a lesser QB wouldn't have made many of them and the results probably would've been much different. Luckily for us there isn't a QB in our conference near his level.

I just want to also say that sometimes you have to credit the opposition and I think the Bills deserve a lot of credit. They played great, didn't turn the ball over, didn't make many dumb or costly penalties, their RBs didn't miss the holes that were created and Allen didn't miss open receivers. They were an elite team that played as close to flawless as you could on offense with their only real miscue being the missed kick.

I may be misremembering or not playing close enough attention but to me it felt like when the Lions did run the ball they were pretty vanilla in doing so as well. Like I don't remember many if any times where Jameson or St. Brown could come presnap like it was going to be a jet sweep or fake throws leading to delayed handoffs like they often do. To the untrained eye it felt like nothing but straight handoffs between the tackles.