NYLion

This was the year to win the division. The Bears and Packers have ascending young teams that won't be down for long and the Vikings have a lot of talent. If the Lions blow the division this year, the drought might last quite a bit longer.

They can only draft defense if he's a perfect saint off the field and he has to be a gritty, try hard guy. Must pass Campbell's "I love and breathe football and need to eat kneecaps for breakfast, lunch and dinner" test first talent be damned.

They're not though. They haven't played "to their potential" since before the Baltimore game. It's been a mess since then, got trouced by Baltmore, just about gave away the Raiders game, looked horrible against the Bears twice and against the Packers, gave up 5 straight TDs to a Chargers team that has been a popgun offense since and got lucky against New Orleans that Winston sucks. They're roughly a .500 team disguised as 9-4. Beat up on the god awful NFC South and has largely struggled against everybody else. The main thing to take away from this is that Goff has turned into a pumpkin. I wonder how they handle this going forward.

I said this last week and will say it again. This is the '22-'23 Vikings with the difference being that the Vikings built up enough of a good record to still win the division despite the late season collapse. They MIGHT still win the division but this is a one and done team. Also, I was wrong about Goff, he's starting to show his true self down the stretch. Need to give Hooker some reps next season.

Ivey without Monty > Ivey with Monty In fact, you can say that about a lot of Pistons. The roster is obviously a big issue but Monty has sucked all the life out of it. At least they were competing under Casey, I have no idea what this is that we're witnessing. On another note, Popovich is the Belichick of the NBA. Road the coattails of Duncan/Brady to coaching immortality. Good coaches but propped up big time by all time great players.

I feel for the 25 and under group that have experienced nothing but misery. I'm in your age group and am lucky to have witnessed not one but two Championship eras so in a way we've been spoiled because most fanbases never get to experience that. The Pistons from roughly 1986-2010 were a top 5 NBA franchise. Seems like so long ago now.

While I agree I'm just saying that nobody, nationally especially, will care one bit about the Pistons once they win a game. They're relevant and are a story now because of the losing streak, once they win a game they'll go back to obscurity even locally until they threaten the Sixers 9-73 season.

I wholeheartedly disagree with ranking Fontes ahead of Ross and even Clark although I wasn't around for most of the Clark regime. @buddha touched on it. Fontes was a caricature, a clown. I remember him as a coach that had no idea how to coach in game, his best characteristic was being a nice/funny guy that players liked but the guy had no clue how to actually coach a game or put a gameplan together. He rode a HoF RB, a wealth of receivers and mostly decent defenses to mediocre results. The worst was The Win Killer M Era. Millen, Mayhew, Morningweg, Marinelli, Mariucci. Vomit Inducing.

There was a segment on The Valenti Show (I know, not everybody's Cup of Tea) saying that they're must watch TV for that very reason. It's witnessing history. Once they win a game IF they win a game, they'll go back to irrelevancy.

We should have known Weaver was in over his head the moment we heard him talk and realized that this man can't even put together a coherent sentence. Uh..restore...uh...uh...restorating....uh....uhhhh....uhhh....restoration. My apologies if he actually has some kind of speech disorder but he just sounds like a guy who would be a bad GM.

The Pistons continue to find new lows, it's quite remarkable. Is there any chance that Gores sells? That's the only way to pull this franchise out of the dumpster because it's been nothing but **** since Davidson passed away and it gets worse every year.

Suh is a frontrunner. He's only going to sign with a true contender/big name team so I expect either the Ravens, Niners or Eagles to snag him, maybe Miami?

In my lifetime? #1 by a very large margin and Holmes is the best Lions GM by an even larger margin. It's a combination of these guys knowing what they're doing and also how low the bar was set in the last 35+ years, I can't speak on the regimes prior to the Schmidt/Fontes regime.

It should also be noted when evaluating the defense is that they've been missing their best PURE pass rusher and quite possibly their two best secondary players pretty much the entire season. That would be tough for most teams to overcome and is also why I have a hard time putting all the blame on Glenn. I see issues with Glenn's scheme in terms of not knowing when to blitz, blitzing at the wrong times, not using enough D-Line stunts, coverage disguises etc. but he's working with a beat up group.

They're flawed particularly in the secondary but I'm just saying they get different treatment than the Lions because their group is established winners while the Lions are still in the "prove it" stage. Plus, they're just more talented overall and people believe in their talent.

The Eagles have earned their rep as a SB participant just last season with pretty much the same team they have now while the Lions haven't won a playoff game yet so there's a reason why the Eagles get the benefit of the doubt in the comparison.

Maybe it'll be different on the road but the Lions ran well against the Bears the first time, I actually think they didn't run it enough even though they were playing from behind a lot of the game. They only held the Lions to 115 yards because the Lions didn't run a lot, Montgomery had over 6 yards a carry. This won't be a "spread out" game, they need to establish the run early and often or it'll be a long day at the office.

This will be a good test for the Lions and Goff in particular playing outdoors in the elements. The Bears are playing really well as well so this would be an impressive win if the Lions can get it and quite possibly set up a win division scenario against Denver.

It looks like they're playing him off ball more often which is helping to free him up a bit instead of multiple guys blitzing him constantly when he's doing all the ballhandling.

Oh damn. I had no idea yet I'm completely unsurprised that Gores would do something like that.

Do tell...

I didn't like it either because he could have hurt himself. On a related note, I have no idea why they aren't getting the ball in his hands more not even in conventional routes necessarily but on screen plays, sweeps etc. He makes good things happen just about every time he gets the ball, the few times he does.

I believe if the Packers lose once, the Vikings lose once and the Lions beat the Bears next week that they can clinch by winning the Denver game so I think the magic number is 4 or maybe it is 3 if @MichiganCardinal is right.

Oh, don't get me wrong. The 2023 Vikings is a big upgrade on what they were when Quinntricia left them in ashes but this is a one and done team. They have a long way to go to be a real contender IMO.

This team is the 2023 Minnesota Vikings. Sorry guys