Poor Detroit Lions - I really thought they had it this time
Anyone who follows the NFL knows that the Detroit Lions are one of those teams that just seems cursed. They have never won a Super Bowl and they are one of the teams that has been in the NFL the longest with their inclusion starting nearly 100 years ago. The NFL is only 10 years older than the Detroit Lions and not only have the Lions never won a Super Bowl, they have never actually even been to a Super Bowl.
There are 2 expansion teams that share this dishonor in the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans but these teams have only been in the in the NFL around 1/5 the amount of time the Lions have been. The only other long-standing team that has never been in the Super Bowl (least of all won it) is the Cleveland Browns but they have been in the NFL 14 years less than Detroit.
It is because of this curse or just extremely bad luck that makes me root for the Lions every year unless they are playing against one of my teams. I just feel so bad for them and especially for their fans that have stuck by them throughout the years.
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Throughout this season I don't think many people gave the Lions a chance at making it as far as they did because, well because they are the Lions. The fact that they won their first playoff game and ended up against Tampa Bay (who honestly didn't belong there at all) was kind of a blessing but then needing to face off against San Francisco, who is arguably the best team in the NFL despite some season missteps didn't bode well for the Lions and they were heavy underdogs going into the NFC final.
I don't think anyone actually expected the Lions to win this thing but for anyone that watched the first half it looked like we all might have been in for a real treat that was going to make history.
Very early on in the game something magical happened when Jameson Williams, a rookie, made a 41-yard touchdown.
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When he first got this touchdown my first reaction was "who?" and I had to look him up. He has only played in 3 games the entire season and he isn't exactly a "go to" guy for Detroit.
Still, this being Detroit, I fully expected the Lions to immediately slip up and San Fran to respond and blow the game out of the water. Only that is not what happened at all. The Lions went up 14-0 in the first quarter and by halftime they were up and amazing 24-7. I was elated... I wanted to witness history.... but still deep down there was this animosity inside of me that kind of knew the Lions were going to somehow blow this...
and that is exactly what they did
The 2nd half saw a change of pace that looked like there were 2 different teams on the field than were on in the first half and the 49ers absolutely exploded in the 3rd scoring 17 unanswered points. 2 of them happened within 2 and a half minutes of one another.
The real-time win predictor, which normally doesn't show blue for the Lions very often took a sudden shift right at that point
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You can see by the graph above that it's not just me that has very little faith in Detroit's ability to play an entire game well because even the statisticians that handle the billions of dollars that are put on sports betting still didn't have faith in the Lions even after a dominating first quarter. In fact, when the graph started to go back into predicting San Fran for the win the Lions were still leading by 7 but it was apparent that things were just completely falling apart.
How do you blow a 17 point lead? Well, I suppose you should probably talk to the Detroit defensive coordinator and his team of assistants.
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Lions fans and Lions sympathizers like me absolutely hated that 2nd half and it was just facepalm after facepalm seeing the team just get worse and worse as the clock continued to tick. The Lions basically managed to accomplish NOTHING in the 2nd half and the consolation TD they got with one minute left to play wasn't really something to celebrate because the game was already over 2 minutes (or 45 minutes in NFL time) earlier in the 4th.
Despite not being a Lions fan this was still kind of crushing for me because no matter what the sport is, I tend to have sympathy for underdogs and especially underdog teams that seem to be plagued with nearly a century of bad luck.
I suppose if anything good can be taken away from this weekend's games it would be that Baltimore also lost and I absolutely hate Baltimore. Also, ex-Panther Christian McCaffrey is a 49er now, and a very good one at that.
The Super Bowl will be electric this year just like it always is but I just think it is a damn shame that the Detroit Lions didn't get a shot at it. Just like they always say in Detroit: "We'll get 'em next year."
It has to be something else besides bad luck because I know teams in other sports spend serious money to get the best squad possible at some point because they want silverware. It could be down to the ownership if they have been there too long and need to move on.
I don't see the Lions ever moving from Detroit... there's too much history there and despite the fact that they rarely do anything of note they have a very dedicated fanbase. But they need to work on their defense, that is for sure.
It's a tricky game picking how you are going to spread the talent on your squad: Put a lot into offense and the defense has to suffer and vice/versa. The only real solution is to get good contracts with underrated college players or players that are underutilized by other teams. This is a very tricky process and sometimes you get lucky, but most of the time you don't.