My preseason prediction of the Lions winning the Super Bowl looks better by the week.
Most will still scoff at the prediction, but wins for Detroit don’t get any bigger than beating the Bears at Soldier Field here in Week 10. Now the Lions should be the clear favorite to win the NFC North when most were predicting they’d do a little better than their disappointing 4-12 season from a year ago before this year got rolling.
The Lions can’t even think about the Super Bowl though, they have to concentrate on finishing the season one game at a time. But without a doubt they should take the day to celebrate.
This first win in Chicago since 2007 gives the Lions a clean sweep on the Bears and clinching the tie-breaker against them. So if Chicago wants to win the division, they not only have to catch their record up to the Lions’, but surpass it.
Without Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay is struggling. Their loss today was the other piece of the puzzle allowing Detroit to stand alone atop the NFC North. Granted, Nick Foles is looking good for Philadelphia, but it’s hard to imagine the Eagles beating the Packers if Aaron Rodgers is on the field.
However, with the win and Foles’ performance the last couple weeks, the Eagles are knocking on the division title door and making people question whether the Cowboys should still be favored in the NFC East. But who cares about the NFC Least? Sorry, Jesse (you’d know who I’m talking to if you read my Can the Detroit Lions Finish article).
Alright, America’s Team has plenty of fans, but back to America’s Heartbeat as Nate Burleson likes to call Detroit.
The Lions still manage to make it’s fans nervous.
Reggie Bush had some drops and a fumble in the win against Chicago. He did manage to grab that fumble to keep it from being a turnover. Despite these missteps, Bush played a good game, getting over 100 yards rushing and breaking for a big 40-yard-run that set up a Matthew Stafford to Calvin Johnson TD.
Megatron had 2 touchdowns to go with 82 yards receiving—low yardage numbers for him, but a number almost any other receiver in the league would be happy with.
It’s that combination of Reggie Bush and Calvin Johnson that made me confident in making such a bold prediction for the Lions (though not that alone).
Still, a personal foul penalty—a penalty that hurt the Lions more than once in this game—pushing Detroit out of the red zone and a pass of Stafford’s getting picked off kept the Lions from pulling away from the Bears.
This game came down to who would finish the two halves. Detroit was the team that finished, making three big half finishes in a row going back to the Dallas game.
Against the Bears, it was Detroit’s defense that finished, led by the defensive tackle duo of Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairly.
At the end of the first half, it looked like the Bears would go up 14-7 as they were in the red zone looking for a TD. Ndamukong Suh got pressure and tipped Jay Cutler’s pass, allowing DeAndre Levy to get his fifth interception of the season.
Then, Nick Fairley—who has been fairly quiet this season—made a game saving play of bursting through Chicago’s offensive line and preventing a two-point conversion that would have tied the game for Chicago.
If Fairly is past the little injury issues that slowed him down for the beginning of this season, and the health of Suh, Stafford, Bush, and Megatron hold up, you’ll start seeing more predictions of Lions success. This is a team on the rise.
In fact, when I made the Super Bowl prediction for the Lions, the Vegas odds for them winning was somewhere around 250-1; last week, those odds were 33-1. Expect those odds to get better after this win against the Bears.
