Week Seventeen

Bears @ LIONS

The most disappointing of season's comes to an end today with the visit of divisional foe the Chicago Bears. Pre-season this particular fixture was seen as at worst a likely decider for a playoff position, and for the Bears it may still be, rather than the opportunity to salvage a little pride at the expense of a higher draft pick. The game also has the added bonus of affording the opportunity to Calvin Johnson to gain an unprecedented 2,000 receiving yards for the season. It is unfortunate that such a magnificent individual achievement should be entwined with such a woeful team performance but in many ways the poor form of this years Lions team actually enhances Johnson's achievement. As the season comes to a close there has been much speculation as to the reasons for the failure to meet pre-season expectations. Blame has been cast in the direction of ill-disciplined players as well as to the man that drafted them and the coaches that coached them. Without having knowledge of what has happened within the confines of Allen Park we can only speculate on what has gone wrong with the team and why it has happened. It's also difficult to say that Schwartz's refusal to point fingers or aportion blame other than to say we failed to make key plays is anything more than his attempt to keep his real thoughts within the team. As outsiders we can but look at what we see the team do on the field and now we must wait to see if moves those performances suggest should be made will be during what will be a longer off-season than last year.

Calvin Johnson is 108 receiving yards away from becoming the first player to reach 2,000 while Matthew Stafford is 305 passing yards away from consecutive 5,000 yard seasons. Both milestones seem well within reach even against the highly rated Bears defense. The win loss records of the two teams may well disguise the distinct possibility that the Lions are underrated while the Bears are overrated. If the Lions are to start making the playoffs on a regular basis then they will have to start finding a way to beat their divisional foes. I'm hoping that Linehan has found a way of puncturing the Bears defense with the running game as they have done a good job of containing it in the past. Putting ourselves into obvious passing downs is going to put our O-Line to the test and Matthew Stafford could well suffer as a result. Even in triple coverage Calvin Johnson could well have the beating of the Bears Secondary but with next season in mind it would be nice to see him achieve his record within a balanced offensive performance.

Defensively and offensively it would be nice to see a consistent performance through all four quarters of the game. In recent previous encounters with the Bears the Lions D has done a pretty good job at containing their run game only to allow what has often proved to be game changing gashes of major yards. Much will depend on Suh if the D-Line is to bring the necessary pressure to bare on Cutler and this game offers him the chance to show he is much more than the media image that has been created for him. With so many defensive players about to hit the free agent market we have to hope that these players see this as an opportunity to enhance their value rather than look to avoid damaging their prospects by picking up an injury.

On Special Teams we can all rejoice in the news that Stefan Logan, according to the man himself, is not expected to be returning kicks this week. This may also be the last time we see Jason Hanson take the field on behalf of the Lions and despite the fact he is 'only' a kicker he has done more than enough to put himself among the teams all time greats.

The Bears have everything to play for and the Lions comparatively little but I'm hoping that with the pressure off and a desire to enter the off-season on a high the Lions stick this one in the win column. I don't believe the Bears were ever as good as they thought they were and am expecting the Lions to send them out of the playoffs.

Prediction: Bears 20 LIONS 24