To everyone reeling from the Lions loss, just remember...
January 29th, 2024 at 12:36 AM ^
True, but the Lions had a chance to make it to the super bowl and blew it. Probably won't happen again for 50 year and half the people on this blog will be dead never seeing their lions play in the super bowl.
January 29th, 2024 at 5:06 AM ^
I'm not that pessimistic. The Lions roster is young, and look how well Holmes and Campbell's draft selections have worked out already. If that draft skill continues, they'll be in the playoffs regularly for a long time. I don't think this is their last shot for 50 years.
January 29th, 2024 at 6:28 AM ^
I don’t think it is realistic to expect that type of success again, if for no other reason than they have less picks at lower spots in the draft. But those younger players are still growing and even adding one decent CB would make a huge difference.
the biggest issue for them will be Goff and managing how big of an impact he has on their cap number. Along with potentially replacing the OC.
January 29th, 2024 at 6:44 AM ^
I think it's fair to have a lot of hope for our draft. Holmes has crushed every draft since he has been here.
January 29th, 2024 at 9:01 AM ^
And the NFC North suddenly looks like the toughest division in NFC
January 29th, 2024 at 9:08 AM ^
Probably the AFC Central still. I have a sneaking suspicion the Vikings are going to suck next season and we can always count on the Bears.
January 29th, 2024 at 9:40 AM ^
Still? Since when has it been the toughest division in the NFC?
January 29th, 2024 at 12:20 PM ^
There isn't even an AFC Central
January 29th, 2024 at 9:54 AM ^
we can always count on the Bears.
Or never count on the Bears, if you're a Bears fan. Either way works ;)
January 29th, 2024 at 1:25 PM ^
Double Doink < or > BLOWN 17 Point Halftime Lead?
Bears have 1985
Bears have 2006
We split with the Lions in 2023.
Better to have once been and not be now then to think you have been but never have.
January 29th, 2024 at 10:46 AM ^
The Lions have 7 picks in this upcoming draft. In addition, 4 of them are in the top 100. Holmes strength has been the ability to find players in the 2nd/3rd/4th round.
Each of the past 3 drafts, Holmes has been able to pull 4-5 players in each draft. I would expect much less in this draft. In addition, with the talent they have collected, Holmes will be able to be more selective with his targets. Also, Holmes has made it clear is that he will move up or down the draft board to get who he wants. I suspect there will be more "targeted" players that Holmes go after in this draft meaning maybe less overall picks but concentrating on positions of need.
The Lions need:
Priority 1 - A CB, fortunately this draft appears to have plenty of quality CB - my early preference (and BIG TEN slated) - DeJean - Iowa
Prioity 2 - DE, pass rushing
Priority 3 - K - Many will hammer Campbell for his failed 4th down attempts, but I have to believe that within his calculas is that he is not completely confident in. He believes that he does NOT have a Justin Tucker or Butker. Having a top notch kicker changes the calculas on these 4th down decisions
Priority 4 - G - Yay, the Lions have one of the better OL, but OL in the NFL needs to be treated like OL in college recruiting. Need to consistently keep adding to the line. Zak Zinter in the 2nd or 3rd round would be perfect...
Priority 5 - DT - See OL above, need to consistently keep adding players to this group...
Priority 6 - Big Receiver. Yes they have St. Brown and Laporta, and Gibbs, but you can never have enough weapons. Needs to be an outside receiver. Jamison is just starting to come into his own as a receiver to take the top off and St. Brown is excellent over the middle. Need a big receiver to add to the mix
January 29th, 2024 at 7:29 AM ^
I think the NFC North will be strong next year and will get two teams in the playoffs
January 29th, 2024 at 8:15 AM ^
Green Bay (much as I hate them) will be a playoff team. The best thing that happened to their offense came when Rodgers left and LaFleur could call what he wanted, without having a rickety QB who would change plays at the helm.
That said, if they draft some CBs and edge rushers, the Lions should be a playoff team. Maybe not a better record, but in the playoffs anyway.
January 29th, 2024 at 10:04 AM ^
If they draft some CBs and edge rushers and teach the whole defense to tackle. So many missed tackles to lament.
January 29th, 2024 at 8:43 AM ^
Those were my thoughts exactly.
January 13th, 1992.
January 29th, 2024 at 3:42 PM ^
Me too, back when I was 29! I thought the Lions were on their way to a super bow in the next few years, after handling the Cowboys with ease in the playoffs, and even though we lost to the Red Skins, most thought we were an up and coming team. We all know what happened over the next 30 years.
January 29th, 2024 at 6:16 AM ^
Lucky for me that I have zero emotional investment with the Lions.
January 29th, 2024 at 8:19 AM ^
Same here. Its been about 15 years since Ive been to a lions game, or any Detroit games in general. Of course being out of state makes that difficult to attend games. I think my emotional attachment to pro sports in faded about 8 years ago with kids getting older and being caught up with their sports and other life challenges. I still want Detroit teams to do well but I will never get mad or lose sleep when they lose.
I get a little bummed out when Michigan loses, but sports are out of my control so I just enjoy seeing my teams win and carry on with life.
January 29th, 2024 at 10:14 AM ^
Sports are out of our control. Exactly. I hate the Lions lost, but given they are the Lions I'm not sure what anyone truly expected. Can't get that invested in something so 50 50.
That said. As an out of stater I'm totally buying Sunday Ticket next year from the jump rather than waiting. They are a fun team to watch even if we all know how the movie ends.
January 29th, 2024 at 8:19 AM ^
I have followed them for decades, but I don't feel crushed by this. I'm in my 60's and am somewhat resigned to never seeing a Super Bowl win from this side of the ground.
Now, if UM had lost to Washington? That would have taken a week to get over. If we'd lost to OSU this year? Longer than that.
January 29th, 2024 at 1:00 PM ^
They burned me again this year, they haven't for many years. Only after the first half yesterday did I start to think they were going to finally break through to the Superbowl AND WHEN I BELEIVE IS ALWAY WHEN THEY BREAK MY HEART!
I should have just skipped watching the game.
January 29th, 2024 at 7:03 AM ^
50 years? Remember that the WCF-related demons seem to have been exorcised [1]. I'll bet they get back sooner than that.
[1] Yes, some of yesterday's events suggest "same old Lions." But, "same old Lions" would never have won *two* playoff games.
January 29th, 2024 at 7:49 AM ^
Agreed. The decision to go for it on 4th down rather than taking the easy points (particularly when it would put you up 3 scores again) was infuriating, and the crazy bounce off of a defender to complete a pass is typical Lions-hating universe... but it was still the best year in my lifetime, and it feels like a corner has been turned. They may not be a bunch of world-beaters, but they don't feel like the dregs of the league any more either; I'd expect them to perform at average+ for the next several years.
January 29th, 2024 at 9:01 AM ^
I just have to say, Lions fans are the Lions-hating universe. Y’all gotta believe. They’ll be back. Bet.
January 29th, 2024 at 10:54 AM ^
You can pretty much go through most Super Bowl teams can point to a play or two within their run that simply can not be explained...
Eli's prayer to Tyree to beat NE in the Super Bowl...
Stafford having a sure fire INT drop in the last 2 minutes of the game just 1 play before hitting the long pass for the winning TD...
Ayuke pass catch will fall into that category, the pass was a terrible one by Purdy (over threw the receiver by 3-4 yards). Yet somehow the ball A) goes right through the hands of Vildor... B) hits his facemask.... C) bounces straight up like a soft toss for Ayuke to catch it....
That play changed the complection of the game. Certainly there are several other plays post that one, but the momentum swing on that play was tangible...
PS: I'll add Edlerman's double bounce catch off the Atlanta's CB back as another crazy play that was critical in TB's Super Bowl win...
January 29th, 2024 at 7:21 AM ^
Lions did have a chance but then the Lions came out in the 2nd half and
January 29th, 2024 at 9:58 AM ^
my brother in Christ, I am a Falcons fan. We own the chokiest choke job in NFL history. Who blows a 25 point 2nd half lead in the Super Bowl? Oh yeah, we do.
January 29th, 2024 at 7:57 AM ^
I am taking solace in the fact that the refs didn't steal it that it was the inability of our QB to make anything off-schedule turn out OK that did us in.
January 29th, 2024 at 8:13 AM ^
I'd put that choke job on the multiple dropped passes in the 2nd half, not on Goff.
January 29th, 2024 at 10:02 AM ^
You’re both right. Purdy scrambling is an underrated advantage from last night. Goff is limited when shit breaks down but catch the damn ball people.
January 29th, 2024 at 9:19 AM ^
Disagree. I think they'll make it back in the next 2-3 years. Have another solid draft, get rid of Cam Sutton (I don't think I've seen a CB get burned as much as he did this year, ouch) and MCDC getting more experience (I hope) they'll be in fine shape.
January 29th, 2024 at 4:12 PM ^
It's easy to not be pessimistic but as leagues keep expanding and promoting parity, it's going to start to get really hard to win championships. People make fun of the Cubs for taking 100 years but I think that will start to be the norm. With 32 teams in the league even if there's a different winner every single year lots of fans are only happy once a generation at best.
January 29th, 2024 at 12:39 AM ^
After Michigan won, anything the Lions did was gravy to me. And I always felt the ceiling was a playoff win, maaaaybe two and make the conference championship game if things broke right. So, really, I was happy going into today: my position is, you can't hurt me, it's already the best football year of my life.
But, man, did this game seem custom-scripted to test that assumption.
January 29th, 2024 at 1:15 AM ^
Yeah, it wasn't the loss--I fully expected them to--it's how they lost. Blowing a huge lead with multiple drops, the fumble, missed fourth downs instead of kicking FGs, etc. They had the trip to the Super Bowl in their hands and they just pissed it away...
January 29th, 2024 at 6:48 AM ^
I’m not typing those three letters…but they fit perfectly right here
January 29th, 2024 at 7:27 AM ^
That is a little unfair. After 60 years of fucking pathetic ownership by the FFF, they finally have a decent GM.
January 29th, 2024 at 7:58 AM ^
i expected more from you. it's not the GM it's the guy who hired the GM. The guy who wanted to go to Michigan but his dad wouldn't let him.
January 29th, 2024 at 7:03 AM ^
I agree.
But there is just something dirty about choking the game away. If you're going to lose, get beat.
Going for it had the feel of a Bartman moment.
January 29th, 2024 at 7:13 AM ^
Right there with you -- this was all found money.
My wife asked me why I wasn't more upset. Then she realized I wasn't kidding that this was THE GREATEST LIONS SEASON OF MY LIFE.
(And this passing D was *not* going to beat Mahomes in the next game....)
January 29th, 2024 at 1:35 PM ^
"So, really, I was happy going into today: my position is, you can't hurt me, it's already the best football year of my life."
I can say the same thing however the schadenfreude of the Lions blown 17 point halftime lead makes this Bears fan season ever more that equal.
We also have 1997 in the top 3.
BEARS fans have 1985. As crushing as the Lions blown lead was to Lions fans (maybe equivalent to Doulbe Doink) is the pure elation of the 1985 greatest single NFL season ever played and I understand the 72 Dolphins popping champagne celebrating that nobody else gets to enjoy something that glorious!
January 29th, 2024 at 12:57 AM ^
I was among those hoping that either the Harbaugh family or the Michigan family might get to enjoy an NCAA football championship and an NFL championship in the same season. For the first half of the NFC championship game, I thought that Michigan might have the chance to celebrate those two wins. Sorry that it wasn’t meant to be.
From my perspective*, I understand why Lions fans will be suffering. I hope that those of you who root for them will get to experience that elusive Super Bowl victory during their lifetimes.
____________________
* During the seventh game of the 1986 World Series, I was at Shea Stadium in New York, hoping to see the team I’d rooted for since the late 1950s finally break “The Curse of the Bambino”. Leaving the stadium that night, I never thought I’d live to see the Red Sox win the World Series again. But then 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 happened and the Red Sox had won four World Series championships.
As a long-suffering New York/San Francisco Giants fan, I also thought that I’d never see another Giants’ World Series championship during my lifetime. Then the Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
January 29th, 2024 at 1:51 AM ^
You're a Red Sox fan AND a Giant fan? Two pro teams in the same sport in vastly different cities? Frankly, you deserve to suffer for your weak-ass divided fandom. Pick ONE team and support them wholeheartedly.
January 29th, 2024 at 4:47 AM ^
A friend at work, born and raised in Ohio is a Seahawks fan. The nfl is strange.
January 29th, 2024 at 12:52 PM ^
I must've missed the rule that says that you're only allowed to root for one team in Major League Baseball, even if those teams have been playing in different leagues for your entire life.
Because I grew up in the metropolitan NYC area and my father was a Giants fan, it was easy for me to become a Giants fan at a young age in the 1950s. I was at the Polo Grounds during the last weekend when the Giants played there before they left for San Francisco.
Long before I spent my college and law school years living within close proximity to Fenway Park, I'd been a Red Sox fan for many years. I didn't hate the Yankees and Dodgers even though most of my friends and relatives rooted for those teams.
There was something to having seen Willie Mays and Ted Williams play when I was very young that made me give my "whole heart" to BOTH of those teams. Maybe, based solely on the west coast/east coast divisions, my left atrium and ventricle root for the Giants and the right atrium and ventricle root for the Red Sox.
January 29th, 2024 at 12:59 AM ^
lions are a work in progress
it took harbaugh three bites at the apple before he won his championship, the lions are just beginning their championship arc.
January 29th, 2024 at 1:52 AM ^
My thoughts as well. In the end, the moment was just a little too big for them with all the mistakes.
If Jim Harbaugh is coaching that team he takes the points.
January 29th, 2024 at 5:20 AM ^
Not sure I agree. Need a reliable kicker. Those weren’t sure points.
January 29th, 2024 at 9:33 AM ^
The first one was sure points. That is a 45 yard field goal from the left hash. Nothing is guaranteed but that is pretty much three points in your hand. A three score game. Any momentum for the 49ers stalled and they are back to square one. I understand going for the second one. 51 yarder right hash? I'm not loving it and if you miss it the game is pretty much over. There is really no excuse for not kicking the first one, analytics be damned.
January 29th, 2024 at 6:02 AM ^
Or if Josh Reynolds catches an easy pass on 4th down, the mood is likely different today.