Are These Lions For Real?
Over the course of the past six years, no team has faced more ridicule and has fared worse than the Detroit Lions. As a fan of the team, I know this from personal experience. Not only has our talent been mediocre, at best, resulting in many, many losses, our coaching staffs and front office have been generally incompetent. How else do you explain us having no more than six wins in a single season over this period?
But forget about Joey Ballgame being a bust or the four first-round WRs drafted over the last five years. These Lions have been, so far, pretty good. While the defense is still far from championship-caliber, the offense has clicked from the get go. Kitna and his talented receiving corp seem to having timing routes down perfectly and Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson open up the deep ball every play.
Most of all, the Lions have shown that, unlike in past seasons, they can come back from deficits and bad situations and win. Against Oakland, the team squandered a big lead before rallying for multiple scores to seal the game. Against Minnesota, the team overcame losing Kitna for a half and missing a game-winning field goal try before overtime. And verses the Bears, the team overcame three quarters of horrendous play, a back-breaking 97-yard touchdown return by Hester, and a couple of bad turnovers to win.
Three wins right now does not guarentee the playoffs or Jon Kitna’s guarentee of ten wins, of course. But the way the Lions have fought to win games they would have lost in past years is impressive. Add in the fact that the NFC seems weak, as usual, and the playoffs are not an unrealistic goal if all continues. Before we start booking playoff plans, however, remember that the team did start 3-1 in 2004 too.
But if Detroit keeps playing like this, ten wins are not out of the reach. You can reach the playoffs by outscoring the opposition and the Lions certainly have the tools to do that.