lordstanley

I also read that if the Lions maintain the +15.8/game point differential the next 7 games, their season total would end up 2nd best since 2000 behind only the 2007 Patriots.

Agreed. The good news is that the only the way the Lions won’t finish ahead of Minnesota with a Lions win in the final game is if the Vikings outperform the Lions by 3 games or more the next 6 games. That won’t happen. I just don’t want to go into the final game needing a Lions win.

I think 7-9-2 for 16 points in 18 games still flatters the Wings. Almost 1/4 of the season and they’ve played worse than that dismal record.

I have no idea of the top-end quality or of the depth of this year's draft class. Sloth? Would a #5 pick this year yield a stud who'd be able to make the team the year after next?

I don't consider the Lions two games up on the Vikings and Packers because if either team beats the Lions at Ford Field and otherwise matches the Lions the rest of the way (or in Green Bay's case, otherwise outperforms the Lions by one game, it goes to a tiebreak. I think the Lions are way ahead of Minnesota on conference record but I think too early to assume that's in the bag. So if the Lions and Vikings both go 4-2 or 5-1 and then Minnesota upsets Detroit in Detroit, then it goes to the tiebreak. I think the Lions will beat Minnesota handily in the final game of the season, so it would be a moot point, but I'd rather not have to go into Week 18 worried about it. So I'm most worried about Minnesota. I think Green Bay and Philly are better teams than Minnesota. But Minnesota is the biggest risk of snatching the division title from the Lions and knocking them down to a #5 seed. I think the Lions go to the Super Bowl as long as they're at least the #2 seed. #1 seed, a bye, and 2 home games is ideal. But I think that they're good enough to go #2 seed, 2 home games, and road win over Philly even in bad-weather January. But #5 seed needing 3 road wins to win the NFC? That's a tall ask.

Talbot was giving Celebrini most of the net.

Raymond misses his chance to win it, Macklin Celebrini didn’t miss his. 5-4 loss

Off to overtime. Wings outshot by San Jose 33-19.

DeBrincat ties it. 4-4 with 2:02 to go. Would another Wings goal give Lalonde a reprieve?

Wings with a last gasp powerplay with 3:26 to go.

Sharks take the lead. Just 14 minutes to salvage a disastrous West Coast trip.

Paul Woods said that “both teams are playing at a high level”. I’m not watching, but somehow I doubt that. 3-3 after 2. The Wings have taken the lead 3 times, blown the lead 3 times.

With road wins over AFC South leading Houston (7-4), NFC West leading Arizona (6-4), Minnesota (8-2) and Green Bay (7-3). Plus Dallas, lol

Leading 2-1 after 1 in a late goal by Kasper.

Conference basement.

The hangover effect after playing the Lions is nullified by playing Dallas your next game. 14-0 Texans late in the first.

It’s hard to find positive Wings news to post so there’s this …haha, Abby hauled them right up.

For sure. And the network pundits on Monday morning. "They're the class in the National Football League, that's what they are. They are the best team in the NFL, the Detroit Lions. They have made 100% a reality what the coach said when he first introduced himself ...smart, stout, relentless, heartless. How many times have the Lions been curb-stomped in their time? They are absolutely taking decades of curb-stomping and throwing it back at the NFL".

Slightly off topic, but speaking of coaches, seems like Jesse Minter has done a great job with Harbaugh with the Chargers. The Chargers are comfortably in a playoff spot after going 5-12 last year.

And sounds from others like the "#7 offense" remark I heard might have been based on yardage. For scoring, Lions are #1 now in Points For, with the three teams below them all having played an extra game. 4th best now in Points Against, behind the Chargers Steelers Vikings, or 5th best when you consider that Denver has given up 6 more points but has played one more game.

Chiefs run out of their 9 lives. Lions will be the consensus #1 in all the power rankings this week.

9th win clinches winning season, which means 3 straight winning seasons for only the second time since 1972. The other time being 1993-1995.

Terrible ref call of unnecessary roughness after the Titans appeared to have stopped the Vikings on 4th and goal. Announcer called it “textbook defense”.

How are the Lions only the #7 offense in the NFL? Seem way more prolific than that.

Between the ball being placed at the 30 and kickers increasingly hitting 55-60 yard kicks, FG drives aren’t what they used to be.