I am concerned in this game about motivation. With a division title wrapped up, it’s easy to fall in love with the headlines. And then themselves.
But I can’t get over this feeling that the ‘feel good’ Lions are being a bit … patronized. The history of ineptitude that precedes this team is still being held against them. It feels very much like, “Awww shucks, look at that cute little team in Detroit finally winning! WARM HUGS ALL AROUND!” instead of, “This team is coming to whoop someone’s ass.”
And that can be defined in one metric: as of this writing, the Cowboys are favored by a touchdown.
Let me repeat: The Cowboys, losers of two straight, who got jailsexed by the Bills, are favored by an entire touchdown over a team with a better record that just locked up their division. Gamblers know: a line of SIX equates to an ass kicking.
There’s zero way to square the love Detroit has received, and that betting line (to say nothing of the expert predictions of this game), and not think, ‘I see ya’ll rolling your eyes as you walk away.’
I hope that serves as motivation. There’s work to do. We didn’t come all this way to win the ■■■■■■■ feel good bowl.
I got away from Nate’s original point. Sorry Nate.
It was always going to be hard for people to acknowledge that the Lions are for real this year. I think most started to believe, and then the Green Bay and Chicago games happened. Even die hard fans like some on this forum started to have SOL thoughts creeping in thier heads.
I think we are gonna have to make a good run in the playoffs before we go from a feel good story, to a team people actually believe in.
our team already has dealt with buying into the hype. I’ll say it my way again…. We are learning to win as winners…. MCDC has history to back this up now … until proven otherwise, this team will embrace this challenge vs not knowing how to handle it as in the past few weeks
From what I can tell, lots of people - pundits and other teams’ fans - have genuine respect for what Holmes, Campbell and the Lions have done. And it started last year w/the 8-2 finish, when a lot of folks were saying that no one would want to face the Lions if they got into the playoffs. (Same thing being said about the Rams now.) Larry Fitzgerald’s take is much more the exception than the rule.
And the truth is that, as 11-4 teams go, the Lions haven’t exactly been Conan the Barbarian, crushing their enemies and hearing the lamentations of their women. The Lions are +57 in point differential. By comparison, Dallas is +165; the 49ers are +177; the Ravens are +173. Compared to those teams’ core units the Lions D stands out - and not in a good way.
I certainly think the Lions can win in Dallas on Saturday and think the Lions can beat anybody (or lose to anybody) in the playoffs, but I don’t blame anybody who doesn’t expect the Lions to whoop a$$ against a very motivated Dallas team that’s been absolutely kickass at home all year. Their body of work to date just doesn’t warrant THAT level of respect.
I am with you Nate. SO many in the media and fans are treating the Lions like they are lucky to win the division, but there is no way they can beat the Cowboys. No mention of the fact that the Cowboys have only beaten two teams above 500 this season. No mention of the fact that It looks like the Cowboys starting LT is going to be out of the game and their backup has been playing poorly. All we hear is how the Cowboys are undefeated at home and have averaged over 20 points over their opponents at home, despite the one game against the Seahawks the Cowboys won by 6 and every other team was either below 500 at that time of the season or in a bad streak like the Eagles were.
I would put that on the bulletin board and right next to it I would show the following:
Lions on the road this season 6-2
Lions with starting O-Line 6-0
Lions in Primetime 4-0
We are finally seeing the Lions defense do their bend without breaking every time the last 2 weeks, but listening to some the defense has not looked any better.
In any case if I were the Lions I would be looking at that everyday as they prepare for the game to put that chip on their shoulders.
I would kind of agree except that they already had a game or two where they were all fat and happy with themselves, dc even talked about it. It would really suck but i could see a letdown this week. I hope not but…
Dallas will be a exciting game, no matter what happens it seems to me that The Detroit Lions always seem to find a way to win, even down to the last few seconds of A game. I am very hopeful and not scared at all about Dallas–■■■■ the cowtoys !
W/all the “SOL” talk that hit this board - hard - during a few-game rough patch, funny that some of you can be so critical of non-Lions fans and pundits being skeptical. But… okay.
For the most part, again, I just don’t see much skepticism coming from an “SOL” place. I see it coming from a the-Lions-just-haven’t-been-dominant place. Beating the Vikings was huge. But if Mullins throws a decent pass at the end there’s a very good chance the Vikings win that game. The biggest blowout the Lions were involved in this year, by far, was a game they lost. Of the only-two blowouts they won, one was against the now 2-13 Panthers. How impressed should folks be?
And the whole "fall in love with the headlines things, IMO, is waaaaaaay overstated. In fact, I think it’s nonsense. The Eagles/ Cowboys/Chiefs/Bills/Ravens/etc. have all fallen on their faces this year. I didn’t see folks insisting it was because they had gotten full of themselves.
In a league designed for parity, even good teams can and do have bad days. Period. Especially when the team just isn’t THAT much better than most of the teams they play.
A couple of months ago I predicted this is how we would be treated (after the Baltimore game). We just haven’t had many opportunities to state our case over the season, and many, many banana peels in our way, a couple of which we slipped on. Even if we’d gone undefeated since then, we wouldn’t be getting any respect.
And even if we win, while we’ll get some respect out of it, the larger narrative will be that Dallas is gonna Dallas and we benefitted from it. Not from every corner, but enough that we’ll still be second-class NFC citizens.
And honestly, that’s fine. Hell it’s true, we still have plenty to prove.
But that doesn’t mean we won’t prove it. That’s where there’s a disconnect with the larger narrative. We’re not just a cute story. We’re fully capable of beating anyone.
And as an added bonus, there will be plenty of avenues by which we can find motivation.
2 totally different things IMO. The line is money based, no emotion about what the last 30 years of Lions shit show it has been. Just gets down to who will win and by how much.
As @stephenboyd57 said, the pro gamblers are looking at what Dallas does at home this year on a regular basis adn the fact AG’s defense is prone to give up a lot of yards. Dallas isn’t the Ravens, but to the guys laying money on this game, it’s comparable.
Big question now is…are the Lions up to making another statement in this game that they learned from the Ravens game.
If this team wants that kinda respect, then they need to go to Dallas and take it. To me this is a big game to see who we really are. If this turns into the Baltimore game then we will be the cute little Lions that won there division.
Respect is earned go to Dallas and take it. If they win in Dallas they will be one of the most talked about teams going into the playoffs.
This game will boil down to how well we can run the ball and grind out possessions while limiting Dallas possessions and
When Dallas does have the ball, can our anemic pass rush come to life. Blitzing can cause problems because while Dak is no Jackson or Fields, he certainly is mobile.
