The Detroit Lions took care of business on Sunday, December 22, and towered over the Chicago Bears on the road with a 34-17 victory. Not only did Detroit win their Sunday game, but some other key matchups in the NFL went the Lions way, which brought even more good news to Detroit.
For one, one of the Lions’ chief competitors in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles, lost to the Washington Commanders in a surprising turn of events. That’s a good thing for the Honolulu blue.
Lions’ Road to the Super Bowl Just Got Easier
The Detroit Lions will now be able to clinch the No. 1 seed with a win over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday, December 30, and a loss from the Minnesota Vikings either Sunday against the Seahawks or next week against the Green Bay Packers, per Pride of Detroit.
The 49ers, along with the Cowboys, were actually mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, December 22, per Adam Schefter. So, the Lions’ road to the Big Game just got easier, or at least their road to getting a No. 1 seed.
Looking at the rest of the Eagles’ season, Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit noted in a December 22 feature, the Commanders game was “essentially the Eagles’ last game where they have a realistic chance of losing, as they face the 6-8 Cowboys and 2-12 Giants in the final two weeks (both at home).” He added that, “the Lions essentially hold all the relevant tiebreakers, so if Detroit wins and Philly loses this week, the Lions would hold a commanding one-game lead + the tiebreaker with only two games remaining.” That, of course, is exactly what happened: Detroit won, and Philly lost.
Lions Snag More Records With Bears Win
The Lions keep making history. Despite losing last week against the Bills, they returned to top form against the Bears and notched more records.
In a December 22 article from Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, the NFL analyst and expert notes that “Along with the franchise record for victories, the Lions became just the sixth team in NFL history to win at least 13 games three or fewer seasons after they had 13 or more losses.”
Birkett adds, “Four of the five previous teams to accomplish the feat – the 1984 San Francisco 49ers, the 2019 49ers, the 1992 Dallas Cowboys and the 1998 Atlanta Falcons – reached the Super Bowl. Only the 1999 Indianapolis Colts, in Peyton Manning’s second season, failed to win their conference.”
In a separate article, also published in the Detroit Free Press on December 22, Jared Ramsey recalls how the Detroit Lions went more than 30 years without snagging the division title or winning a playoff game, but that all changed with the “breakthrough by Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes’ squad in 2023. The Lions got off to an 8-2 start and overcame a slight lull midseason to win three of the final four games to reach 12 wins.”
Ramsey added that, “The Lions can still end up with as many as 15 wins this season, as well as the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, but the 2024 team has already reached a spot as the best regular-season team in franchise history.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Detroit Lions Get Good News Following Bears Win appeared first on Heavy Sports.