MichiganCardinal

I won’t be at all surprised if Green Bay loses the next three games against Denver, Chicago, and Baltimore. Their offense relies on blown coverage and Love not throwing it to the opponent too often.

Lions control their own destiny to the playoffs.

Does Fargo, North Dakota count?

These teams are very evenly matched. I think they split the series in two weeks. I also think Denver beats Green Bay next week if they can score 14 points.

Just kidding. Temple and Kansas have both declined invites. Still no opponent identified.

Birmingham Bowl can’t find an opponent to play Georgia Southern (6-6). Rutgers, Florida State, Auburn, Baylor, and UCF (all 5-7) have all declined an invitation. Crazy that bad teams have no interest in playing a meaningless exhibition game in Birmingham, Alabama. Who will agree? Kansas? Mississippi State? Do they start asking Temple, Rice, Akron, and Kent State, or move to P4 4-8 teams?

Bears and Packers are tied up midway through the 4th quarter. Too early to say this, but a tie would be the worst possible outcome.

Bears cut it to within three.

If they split (or the Bears lose any one game) and the Lions go no worse than 2-1 against the Rams/Steelers/Vikings, we’ll have the chance to beat the Bears in week 18 and pass them via tiebreaker. Regardless of everything else. I know I’m the resident optimist, but with the Packers having to play the Broncos and Ravens in addition to the Bears twice, my eyes are still set on the division. But I could understand rooting for the Packers today (or at least hoping they win, FTP always) because it gives the Bears the one loss we need to catch them if we can win two of three.

Has anyone smarter than me done math on who we should be rooting for tonight? I know we want them to split. I think the Packers are better so intuitively I want the Bears to win, thinking this would be the one they would “steal.” But I’ll defer to analytics if they know better.

I feel like I never heard of guys tearing their Achilles until a few years ago. I know Marino did it way back when, but I feel like since maybe Cousins tore his a few years ago it’s just been one after another. I can’t think of a more devastating injury to an athlete’s career. Not one you want to see at the rate we see it.

I’m in a very similar place as @buddha Oregon over JMU, 41-10 Oklahoma over Alabama, 24-10 Ole Miss over Tulane, 31-17 Texas A&M over Miami, 38-16 Oregon over Texas Tech, 35-20 Indiana over Oklahoma, 21-17 Georgia over Ole Miss, 42-20 Ohio State over Texas A&M, 24-23 Oregon over Indiana, 21-10 Georgia over Ohio State, 27-20 Georgia over Oregon, 30-24

Exactly. This gives a glimmer of hope to every Minnesota, Rutgers, Kansas, Wake Forest, and NC State fan out there. And more. College football may be evolving fast but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible for your team to succeed.

Good for IU. Good for college football.

Week 14: Bears @ Packers (4:25) Week 15: Browns @ Bears (1:00), Lions @ Rams (4:25), Packers @ Broncos (4:25) Week 16: Packers @ Bears (Saturday Night), Steelers @ Lions (4:25) Week 17: Lions @ Vikings (Christmas Day), Ravens @ Packers (TBD), Bears @ Niners (Sunday Night) Week 18: Lions @ Bears (TBD), Packers @ Vikings (TBD) Lots of important football to be played and only a game-and-a-half out of 1st in the division. It's not out of the question that 3-1 could be good enough if the Packers lose difficult games to the Broncos and/or Ravens. Would be very helpful for the Bears and Packers to split their two against each other.

I would counter that he defies that with what he's doing this year with the likes of Trystan Colon, Kayode Awosika, and the ghost of Graham Glasgow's past being featured at times on the offensive line.

When we drafted Gibbs, I liked the pick because I liked the player, but I also thought a reasonable strategy was to draft a running back in the first two or three rounds once every five years and never give one a second contract, because the position is so fragile. Just ride with youth at the position. I still think that's a reasonable strategy for most teams. But I also think you have to acknowledge pure generational talent when you see it. Gibbs is special. He's also got staying power, because he's so agile and elusive that he can generally avoid hard contact. And he's only 23! He could easily keep going another 5-7 years. You have to be smart with running backs, because when they fall off they fall off very quickly. 28-year-old Saquon signed a $41MM deal this offseason and may not rush for half the yards he did last year, behind one of the best offensive lines in football. But that all being said, it would be incredibly stupid to not extend Gibbs. Just keep it to three years or so.

I wouldn't be shocked to see them spend the money earmarked for Branch on extending Amik for two or three years instead and drafting a long-term replacement. You can keep Branch around on a one-year deal for 2027, but as awful as an Achilles can be, you have to plan as if he's not going to re-take the field in a Lions uniform.

That's likely a career-altering injury for a guy like Branch. You can't put the stretch back in a rubber band and have it be as springy as needed.

Me and you will be remembered as the believers! Or the delusional. Worth the risk in my book.

We will all remember how we felt after the Thanksgiving loss before this team won 9 in a row en route to a Lombardi Trophy!!!!

Ten days to prep for the biggest game of the season.

It helped. But this Lions offense sure looked capable of outscoring anything Dallas brought to the table tonight.

A win for the glass half full crowd!!!!! @Hongbit where you at?? 😁😁😁