Before the biggest game of their season, with a chance to put the NFL on notice in front of the nation, with a chance to win four in a row and roar into the playoff race, with a chance to challenge perceptions of who they are and what they can be, Taylor Decker told his teammates, "These aren't the fu*king Same Old Lions anymore."
"We’re going to go out there and get our respect, and we’re going to earn that respect," Decker said.
A few hours later, Decker stood in front of his locker and said, "It sucks. No other way to say it. It just hurts."
In a twisted way, maybe this is the feeling of progress. Maybe the pain of Thursday's last-second loss to the Bills is proof that the Lions are pushing toward something better. No one gives a damn about moral victories in the NFL, but defeats only sting like this when the stakes are high. After salvaging their season with three straight wins ahead of Thanksgiving, the Lions went blow for blow, snap for snap, with one of the best teams in the league.
Last Thanksgiving, they bumbled their way to a last-second loss to the Bears.
"Winning is the only thing that matters, but we went out there and played confidently against a team that’s regarded as one of the best in the NFL, a Super Bowl contender," said Decker. "And truthfully, I didn’t feel like we were outmatched at all. I felt like we had the advantage in multiple phases. We just needed to put together one more drive."
Decker said he thought the Lions were "the more physical team." He could feel the offensive line "moving people" early in the game, at least until Buffalo started daring Detroit to pass. He said before they even stepped on the field, the Lions "knew we could compete with this team." And compete they did, from start to finish, back and forth, a win within their grasp as they drove toward the end zone with under a minute to play.
On third and 1 from the Bills' 33, Jared Goff missed DJ Chark on a deep ball, and the Lions both tied the game with a field goal and invited Josh Allen to beat them with 23 seconds and three timeouts. And beat them he did with a 39-yard rope to Stefon Diggs, who came alive on Buffalo's final two drives after being muzzled for most of the game, to set up another heartbreaking kick at Ford Field.
"It hurts even more," said Decker, "because we were right there."
Dan Campbell said he doesn't regret the way he managed the clock down the stretch, trying to preserve time for the Lions to score a touchdown without leaving too much for Allen. Nor does he regret going deep on third and short.
Goff said that "it was a great call" by offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, that he threw to the open receiver and just "didn't hit it." Allen hit his open receiver on the first play of the next drive. And there's the difference between a good quarterback and a great one, between a team that approaches the finish and one that crosses it.
Still, in a statement game, it feels like the Lions made one: "We belong," said Campbell.
"Over the last four weeks, we just are such a different team," said Goff. "It’s such a different feel. We know we can beat anybody. We know we can play with anybody. We know we can really dominate anybody. That was a hell of a team out there today ... but there isn’t a team in this league that we can’t compete with and can’t beat.”
The Lions are close to proving this true. They have competed tooth and nail with the best teams on their schedule this season, taking the Eagles (9-1), Vikings (8-2), Dolphins (7-3) and Bills (7-3) down to the wire. At the same time, they have only beaten the Giants (7-3). They remain a play or two and a player or two away from who they are and what they can be. They might not be the Same Old Lions, because this wasn't a same old loss. This team has a backbone.
It has six more games to do something new.
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