[rodge827]

LIR98 how are you going to handle Sundays game? Steelers are coming to the Linc should be a great interstate game!

[twitch54]

LIR98 how are you going to handle Sundays game? Steelers are coming to the Linc should be a great interstate game!

'intrastate'.........

[Letitroll98]

LIR98 how are you going to handle Sundays game? Steelers are coming to the Linc should be a great interstate game!

As everyone's certainly tired of hearing I lived in both cities for 30 years each doing the Chuck Noll years in the Burg and the Andy Reid, McNabb years in Philly.  So when this happens every four years I root for good plays by either team.  It's rarely this impactful of a game with two good teams vying for 1st round byes.  My youngest son is a big Steeler fan so I do give it to him a little on this game, but he pointed out that the Steelers can lose every game except the one with Ravens and still win the division.  Of course they want the best seeding possible.

For this game I'll be wearing a Hines Ward throwback jersey and an Eagles hat at the Pittsburgh staple Primanti's Bros restaurant (think Chickie's and Pete's).  With Pickens out and the defensive and offensive line advantages of the Eagles I'm picking the Birds in my pool.

[VinceT]

Save the date.   12/15/2024.   Pre-SB matchup?

The Lions have a lot of injuries on defense. They just signed 3 practice squad players and all saw decent amount of playing time versus Green Bay. The Lions that you may see in the SB will be a lot better version then this Sunday once they start getting healthy. That is the scary thing about this team. Still 12-1 and playing good defense with practice squad guys. There is only one starter left from the front 7 on defense by the end if the game last week. CRAZY... Hopefully they start getting more guys back.

[rockadanny]

Lions vs Bills ... Like most games I'll record this and watch after, avoiding spoilers like the plague. Way too many breaks/commercials for me to watch live.  My long time suffering Lions' guts are already churning with anxiety. And if the Lions start getting whooped severely I'll skip to the end. And if they somehow won, or at least made it close, I'll rewind and watch it through. After the insanely fast, high scoring Bills vs Rams game, where Joshy went super hero, I am askeered to watch this one live.   

[vrao81]

Wow Bills win a shootout and the Lions lose even more players. Josh Allen MVP front runner?

[twitch54]

Wow Bills win a shootout and the Lions lose even more players. Josh Allen MVP front runner?

yeah and this one they won ! IMO, the Bills are the most 'weaponized' team in the league offensively, but that defense ???

As for the best most balanced team on both sides, no question.......Eagles

[rollo]

After the NFL social justice pop ups on EVERY game. I just turned it off. Just play the dam game. Rant over.


charles

[VinceT]

My poor Lions

The curse of Bobby Lane lives on.

I can't remember a team that has had so many injuries. They are literally playing 4-5 guys off the street on defense.

[FireGuy]

yeah and this one they won ! IMO, the Bills are the most 'weaponized' team in the league offensively, but that defense ???

As for the best most balanced team on both sides, no question.......Eagles

Agreed the Bills defense is not the '85 Bears.  Josh has the team running on JP5 jet fuel (1003 yards, 14 TDs and zero turnovers last three games)...and making it look easy.  Come the playoffs, if JA keeps this pace, staying with him will be extremely tough.  Now imagine if they did have a '85 Bears defense.  No need for anyone to show up.

[Letitroll98]

Well, actually the '76 Steelers had a better defense than the '85 Bears, thus the four SBs instead of just one.  But this year's Steelers are the Three Bricks Shy of a Load team like the '73 Steelers were.  A great book btw.  They ran up against the buzz saw that the Eagles front lines are   The Eagles had the ball for 24 minutes of the second half, they punted once during the game, and had kneel downs at the end of each half.  You can't scheme against them, backing up the O line if you load the box and play tight man they have two fabulous man coverage beaters in Brown and Smith.  So you play zone to curtail the pass and they kill you with Barkley.  With the Lions hurting so bad from injuries the Eagles have the favorite's role in getting to the Superbowl.

As I said I watched the first half at Primanti's Bro's wearing my Eagles hat and a Steelers coat.  Today I had an appointment at my sports centric Ortho practice and thought I grabbed a non descrpt white hat, but mistakenly put on that Eagles hat.  The nurse, the PA, the surgeon, all gave it to me for wearing THAT hat into their practice, which I had no idea I did until it was too late.  The doc even swore, and they're all the nicest people.  I repeated my explanation endlessly.

[twitch54]

Well, actually the '76 Steelers had a better defense than the '85 Bears, thus the four SBs instead of just one.  But this year's Steelers are the Three Bricks Shy of a Load team like the '73 Steelers were.  A great book btw.  They ran up against the buzz saw that the Eagles front lines are   The Eagles had the ball for 24 minutes of the second half, they punted once during the game, and had kneel downs at the end of each half.  You can't scheme against them, backing up the O line if you load the box and play tight man they have two fabulous man coverage beaters in Brown and Smith.  So you play zone to curtail the pass and they kill you with Barkley.  With the Lions hurting so bad from injuries the Eagles have the favorite's role in getting to the Superbowl.

As I said I watched the first half at Primanti's Bro's wearing my Eagles hat and a Steelers coat.  Today I had an appointment at my sports centric Ortho practice and thought I grabbed a non descrpt white hat, but mistakenly put on that Eagles hat.  The nurse, the PA, the surgeon, all gave it to me for wearing THAT hat into their practice, which I had no idea I did until it was too late.  The doc even swore, and they're all the nicest people.  I repeated my explanation endlessly.

too funny !

As for the best defense, IMO it would have been the 2000 Ray Lewis led Ravens, they gave up the least amount of points(16 game season) in History and again, IMO 'points allowed' is 'the' stat that shines above all others.........

[vrao81]

Beagles lose their QB and lose the game in the finals seconds.
Meanwhile Bills stumbling vs. Patriots.

[vrao81]

Bengals Broncos was a classic game last night. Should be some good games today , Puckers vs. Viqueens for example.

[vrao81]

ViQueens getting cooked in Detroit. Will fall to #5 seed.
Broncos stomped Chefs for last playoff spot.
Patriots wasted no time firing their coach. Should have lost vs bills to get #1 pick.

[Jeff_From_Michigan]

"As for the best defense, IMO it would have been the 2000 Ray Lewis led Ravens, they gave up the least amount of points(16 game season) in History and again, IMO 'points allowed' is 'the' stat that shines above all others........."

I agree, points allowed and points scored are the two stats that determine the outcome of the game.  Seems like a pretty simple and logical thing, right?  But try telling that to someone who believe that RBI's is a more important individual offensive stat in baseball than runs scored. Again, runs scored and runs allowed being the two stats that determine the winner....Once when I was having this debate, one of the more clever people said that "Sure you can win a game without scoring a run - in the case of a forfeit." (Forget that there have been a grand total of 5 forfeits in MLB in the last 70 years, that answer still doesn't address whether runs or RBI's is the most important stat.)

All of that said, back to football. It was sure nice to have Anzalone back in the Lions lineup to shore up our depleted defense last night. We haven't rested since the Week 5 Bye, so the #1 Seed and week off are HUGE. I see Philly in the path to the Super Bowl, and either the Chiefs or Bills if we get there. Likely, but who knows until they play the games, right? The only thing that I know for sure is that it isn't going to be easy. I'm very impressed with how the Lions have played despite having so many injuries, and I'm confident that we can get it done this time around.  And after an entire lifetime watching teams in the poor to mediocre category year after year and decade after decade, I have to say that this is a pretty great feeling.

[VinceT]

I agree Jeff.

Philly will be a tough match up, Hurts is always tough and running QBs are always a tough to defend with the Lions man coverage schemes.

Huge effort from this defense yesterday, but Darnold left A LOT of plays in the field yesterday and don't think he will be back on the Visqueens next year.

Goff man.. he just has a nack to stay positive and make plays when needed despite the early turnovers, pretty special player!

[Jeff_From_Michigan]

True enough, Vince. A lot of QB's on that Vikings roster.  It's a funny predicament.  I don't think many in the game expected Darnold to have such an outstanding year. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

I was thinking early in the game that it was crazy how many big passes by Darnold just missed, how they probably should have had at least one or two TD's early when they only came away with field goals. I believe that period early in the game had a psychological impact that the Vikings couldn't shake for the rest of the night.  And let's face it, it just wasn't their best night.  The repeated failure on goal-to-go downs HAD to be demoralizing, no way around it.

The Lions defense eventually dialed it in and kept the intensity up for the remainder of the game, and the inevitable played itself out. 

Crowd noise surely played a part as well.  I wasn't at the game, but reports are that it was VERY loud inside Ford Field.  In fact, this was the first time that I recall hearing the broadcast team say that it was so loud that it was making verbal communication within the defense difficult.

Now that the afterglow of the big victory starts to dim down a bit, this little voice in the back of my head keeps screaming at me: "You know how hard it is to beat a team three times in the same season?" I don't even want to think about having to play the Vikings again, but guess what, that might just be in the cards....

[twitch54]

yes indeed, congrats to the Lions for playing through some mighty injuries  While it would be nice to see them play the Bills in the SB I just don't see McDermott getting there. I will be happy to be proven wrong though ..........

[FireGuy]

TD!  The product of an amazing 4th down play.  The catch, the circumstance, its location and Josh's throw worthy of playoff pressure.  This team is just different.