2017, Week 11, Detroit Lions @ Chicago Bears

Rambling thoughts.

The 6-4 Detroit Lions beat the 3-7 Chicago Bears 27-24. The Lions had a mere 4 point lead at half time, scored two field goals in the 4th quarter, then allowed the Bears to get into field goal range in the final minutes of the game only to have them miss wide (very wide) right their attempt to tie the game (after having scored a TD earlier in the 4th quarter). There was nothing easy about the game but the Lions managed to eek out their third and final divisional away game win of 2017. I can't recall the last time the Lions won all 3 divisional away games in the same year... come to think about it, I don't think they ever have, since it was probably 1991 or before and at that time the Tampa Bay Bucs were also in the Lions division (the old NFC Central).

Matthew Stafford was 21 of 31 (67.74%) for 299 yards with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions, and he gave the Bears great field position for their first touchdown when he fumbled after being hit by the guy who blew right by Zach Zenner early in the game. There was a whopping 65 yards rushing by the Lions offense, but the Lions defense allowed 222 yards rushing. Trubisky went 18 of 30 (60%) for 179 yards and a touchdown. What turned out to be the game winning field goal by Prater was just over 50 yards into the wind and while it went through the uprights nearly dead center it had just barely cleared the bar as it actually hit the padding of the pole that holds the whole thing up in the air... so inches to spare. Hayden scored one of the Lions touchdowns via a fumble recovery of his own. The Lions defense didn't have a lot of luck after that though, creating only one sack and getting no interceptions. Still, they did just enough to help. In fact, one could say all three aspects of the team (offense, defense, and special teams) were helpful in getting the win, and all three were at various times responsible for the problems they had allowing the Bears to nearly beat them.

The next game the Lions play is coming up this Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, against the division leading Minnesota Vikings. The Lions have only won 2 games at home (losing 3) so it's not really a home field advantage necessarily but it is the first of their three remaining home games for this year and all 3 of them are against division rivals, so hopefully a home field advantage begins to show its self this week. How they will handle this national game is also hard to predict as they have won 2 of their 3 national games so far this year so no track record to go by there either. Finally, the Vikings have only lost two games so far this year and one of them was to the Lions in week 4. Can they do it again? The Lions have won 3 in a row to keep them in the playoff hunt, but if they want to win the division then beating the Vikings (again) is going to be a very critical part of that.

Enough of my rambling thoughts and hopefully the Lions find a way to stop opposing teams from rambling along with so many yards by the running backs. If they can't, hopefully they can find ways to score enough points to win anyway. My prediction? If the Lions can keep the game close going into the 4th quarter I think they can and will win... I'm just not so sure they can keep it close. I'd love to be confident they will win, but lately their wins seem to be harder to come by. It was nice to see their starting offensive line intact and playing together for the first time this year... more of that could help everything on offense a lot... but the Lions defensive line is not intact nor being especially helpful much of the time, they will have their work cut out for them once again. My final rambling thought is... I hope Lions fans can get loud and remain loud for the entire game. The harder they make it on whomever the Vikings have at QB, the better.