Make it six out of seven. Make it three in a row. Make it two for two at MetLife, where the Lions did it again on Sunday in a win over the Jets. Make it make sense, that this football team that couldn't stop losing now won't stop winning. You can't make it up.
"Listen," said Dan Campbell, "it feels great. It does. You can never take away from winning, not in this league. I told our guys, nobody knows that better than we do."
The Lions would have lost this game two months ago. They would have lost it last season, and the season before that and the season before that. Their offense would have caved on 4th and inches at midfield, or their defense would have collapsed moments later. They would have trudged off the field, heads hung, hearts hurting, lamenting another game that got away. They would have told us that they're close. We wouldn't have believed them.
We believe in them now. Because on 4th and inches, Jared Goff dropped back as Detroit held its breath and found a wide open Brock Wright, who found the end zone 51 yards later. And because on the ensuing drive, the defense sacked Zach Wilson twice and eventually forced the Jets into a 58-yard field goal attempt to tie the game. And because it was wide as soon as it left Greg Zuerlein's foot, the break the Lions needed, the break they had earned.
They won this game because they deserved it, because they made the plays that mattered most, because on a cold day, in a hostile environment, against an equally desperate team, the Lions refused to let their season sizzle out. The defense kept getting stops, on a slow-moving day for the offense. And when the defense eventually yielded, there was the offense to pick up the pieces. There was Jared Goff to make a few clutch throws, erasing those he had missed.
"You’d rather win ugly than lose pretty," said Goff, who wasn't always precise but made it six straight games and 219 straight throws without a turnover. "There were times early in the year where we were winning pretty in certain situations and then letting it fall away from us at the end, and that’s totally flipped from where we are now."
The Lions looked like winners against the Vikings in Week 3, only to lose at the death. They piled up 45 points against the Seahawks in Week 4, only to allow 48. They were a threat, sure, but mostly to themselves. They were just good enough for the losses to sting. The plays they needed went the other way, like on Sunday when Wright dropped an easy first down on the opening play of the Lions' final drive. It could have killed them. Instead, Wright made good a few plays later.
"We’ve won some close games that we had to pull out and things had to go our way at the end. And is it going our way or are we making a play? I lean toward, making a play," said Goff. "We’re starting to learn how to win and win consistently in close games and tough environments. It’s a good, mature team now."
The Lions didn't have much of a ground game Sunday, in a game they could have used it. They didn't have much of a pass game despite a healthy cast of weapons. What they had was a stingy defense that produced a pick courtesy of Jerry Jacobs to set up a second-half field goal, an unheralded return man in Kalif Raymond who burst through for a first-quarter touchdown and a roster -- a team -- of players who otherwise did just enough to get this game across the finish line.
"I don’t know if we would have made those plays earlier in the year," Campbell said. "Something would have gone the other way. But that just shows we’re getting more mature and becoming more disciplined in the critical moments, and that’s big."
The Lions are 3-0 to start December for the first time in eight years. They are headed toward high-stakes football in January. A year ago at this time, they were 2-11-1. They were 1-6 last month. Now they're 7-7 and winning in different ways each week, this week on a giant play by one of their littlest-known players. Needing inches, a tight end named Brock Wright gave them 51 yards. This is how teams start to believe.
"I think it’s important to know that you when get in that critical moment and all doesn’t look well, you can make that play, said Campbell. "Even Brock Wright can do that. It’s possible with some blocking from teammates and everything just lines up perfectly and you do it right. It can happen. You can’t hone in on the, 'What if we don’t make this play?' No, you just go make the play. Line up and cut it loose."
The dream is alive. With three games to go, the Lions are hurtling toward one of the most improbable playoff berths in NFL history. They could join the 1970 Bengals as the second team ever to make the postseason after a 1-6 start. There is work to do yet, but a .500 team never seemed so capable. It never looked so good. The Lions aren't "loitering," as some would suggest. They are lurking as they learn how to win, young and yearning for more.
"The guys believe," said Campbell. "They believe. And now here we go."
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