The Lions officially clinched a playoff berth last night after the Eagles fell to the Washington Redskins 27-24. The guaranteed spot in the postseason for Detroit is their first appearance since 2011 and only the second since the turn of the century.
The Lions’ business this regular season however is far from over and in no way should anyone be satisfied with JUST a trip to the playoffs.
Heading into today’s game against Chicago, the Lions still must win in order to help themselves capture their first division title since 1993. Of course in order to clinch today the Lions would need some help from Tampa Bay who would need to beat Green Bay BUT if both the Lions and Packers win the two teams would be on a collision course for the NFC North title next weekend in Lambeau. This includes an opportunity to host a home playoff game in the first round of the playoffs.
But back to the satisfaction level of fans and the team as we finish out these final two weeks of the regular season.
First I want to preface that what the Lions have done this season thus far is certainly deserving and worthy of categorizing them as a good team. Aside from the Buffalo and Carolina games they’ve gone out and won the games they were suppose to win. Not to mention those loses against the Bills and Panthers are certain instances throughout the season that most teams have in the NFL. Hell Green Bay lost to that same Buffalo team this season while the Packers were on their hot steak… so again it happens.
What I’m not going to do though is overrate what the Lions have done so far this year.
Yes for the most part again they’ve won the games that they should have won. However as a whole the opposition for the Lions this year have gone 84-97-1 for a .461 winning percentage. Against the team’s they’ve beaten in 2014 (again so far) the opposition has gone 49-77 good for a .388 winning percentage. Simply put the teams the Lions have faced this season haven’t been good and the abundance of quality wins isn’t there. The 19-7 home win over Green Bay back on September 21st I would say is a quality win but even that Packers team is different from the Packers team we have now. The real test comes next weekend when the Lions face Green Bay on the road.
Aside from Green Bay where’s the quality win against a good team? Can you really say the home win against the Saints was quality when the Lions had to eek out a victory in the closing minutes after looking awful for essentially the entire game? Or how about the fact that New Orleans has an awful defense and currently sit at 6-8 on the year?
What about the following weekend against Atlanta where again the Lions had to overcome a piss poor first half in London to come back and beat the Falcons 22-21 on a last second field goal by Matt Prater? (which he ended up missing the first time) And like the Saints and the rest of the NFC South Atlanta sits below .500 with a 5-9 record.
We shouldn’t be looking for a perfect team here. That’s unreasonable since no perfect team exists in the NFL. The Lions also have their fair share of problems still whether it’s the inconsistencies with Matthew Stafford or the running game, offensive line, red zone offense and the uncertainties with the secondary. What really worries me though about this Lions team and regime up in the front office is mediocrity being good enough. Is making the playoffs good enough for this Lions squad and organization that has only one playoff win during the Superbowl era? I’m not saying Detroit needs to go out and win a Superbowl this year nor am I even saying they have to win the division this year. What I’m not going to do though is consider it a successful season for the Lions simply by them making the playoffs against opposition that wasn’t good. If Detroit can go out and win a single playoff game this year then I believe we can finally sit back and say that we have some real progress with this team and regime.
However if the Lions go out and get spanked on the road (or at home) in their playoff opener what can we really say about this team? Can we really say progress is being made especially after what happened in 2011 the following year?
As fans be excited about the playoffs but don’t be satisfied. This Lions team still has plenty of work to do and they owe you so much more.