Only the Lions, right? Only the Lions could build a 99.9 percent chance of winning -- and still lose. Only the Lions could erase a 99.9 percent chance of losing -- and still not win. Only the Lions could pull this off two weeks apart.
Detroit played its best two quarters of the season in the second half against the Ravens in Week 3. Its defense bottled up Lamar Jackson and its offense scored on all three of its drives. It controlled the ball, controlled the clock and eventually controlled the game. When the Lions, leading by one, sacked Jackson on Baltimore's 16-yard line to set up fourth and 19 with 26 seconds to play, they had a 99.9 percent chance of winning, according to ESPN's Football Power Index.
Four plays later, they lost on a 66-yard field goal.
Against Minnesota on Sunday, Detroit flipped the script. This time they Ravens'd the Vikings, only to repeat the script in the end. When the Lions, trailing by 10, turned the ball over on downs on their own 34 with 3:39 to play, they had a 0.1 percent chance of winning, according to Pro Football Reference. After a D'Andre Swift touchdown and a string of unlikely events put them up by one with 37 seconds to play, they had an 82.3 percent chance of winning.
Five plays later, they lost on a 54-yard field goal.
Which makes the Lions the first team in NFL history to lose twice in a season on 50-plus yard field goals on the final play of regulation, according to ESPN/Elias Sports Bureau. And it only took them five weeks to do it.
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In both cases, Dan Campbell was burned by the same decision. Instead of pressuring the opposing quarterback on the final drive, his defense sat back to prevent big plays through the air -- and still gave up big plays through the air. (Only the Lions, right?) Both Jackson and Kirk Cousins clearly benefited from Detroit's decision to rush three instead of four on game-altering plays.
"You expose your outside, you expose your secondary more when you rush four," Campbell said Sunday. "And so if you rush four and then they get a shot play, well, maybe we should have been a little more conservative. Man, there's a give and take there. There's a risk-reward to both. ... You have to weigh the options of what they're going to do and then who you feel like you need to take care of."
The Lions failed to take care of Sammy Watkins against the Ravens, and Jackson found him for a 36-yard gain that set the stage for Justin Tucker. They failed to take care of Adam Thielen against the Vikings, and Cousins found him for 21 yards, and then 19 more, to set the stage for Greg Joseph.
Asked if Week 5 felt like déjà vu of Week 3, safety Tracy Walker said, "To me personally, it sucks even worse. We are 0-5 and we were 0-3."
Lions football -- where 0.1 percent is likely, until it's not.