Week Eighteen - Wild Card Playoff

LIONS @ Saints

In the words of The Pointer Sisters "I'm so excited!" and I suspect I am not alone among Lions fans in not being able to hide it too as the Lions first playoff appearance since 1999 nears ever closer. Hopefully the players will be a little less excited and able to focus on the task at hand, namely beating the formidable New Orleans Saints. Having finished the Regular Season with a 10-6 win/loss record I am prepared to forgive the team for falling one victory short of my predicted 11 wins as the Packers game would surely have ended in victory had a perfectly legitimate TD catch by Titus Young not been ruled incomplete. The 'reward', had the Lions beaten the Packers, was a playoff trip to New York to face the Giants which media and fans alike regarded as much the more attractive prospect to travelling to the Big Easy to face the Saints. Personally I think the Giants would have proved to be the tougher game but, in truth, when you get into the playoffs as a Wild Card it's unlikely you play a game that isn't tough. So here we are in unfamiliar territory, it's January and we're watching the Lions play meaningful football. So, whatever the result, after the last decade that can only be reason to celebrate.

Week Seventeen

LIONS @ Packers

With victory over the San Diego Chargers ensuring a playoff berth for the first time since 1999 the Lions head into the final regular season game knowing that beating the Pack will not only give them the fifth seed heading into the post season but that they will have finished with their best regular season record since the 12-4 team of 1991. The contrast in fortunes with the Packers over the last two decades could not be more stark as the Packers will be completing their 9th 11+ win season during that same period and that doesn't include last years 10-win Super Bowl winning season. With the Packers already having secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs and, thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs, with them no longer playing for an unbeaten season it is quite possible that as well as sit Aaron Rodgers they will rest other key starters for this game. A weakened Packers team may not be the pushover that many observers believe however and securing the fifth seed with it's trip to Dallas or New York may not be the reward many to believe it to be either.