Are the Lions cursed? Detroit has horrible luck but season isn't over yet
Torch the sage. Light the incense. Tackle the ground crew at Ford Field the next time it tries to paint the Lions logo black.
Somebody, please, call Jeff Daniels and Peyton Manning and give 'em a bottle of Scotch. Their work isn’t done. Something’s got to be done.
So, cross your fingers, hop over sidewalk cracks and run like hell next time a black cat imperiously saunters past.
Cursed?
That ain’t the half of it. The Lions need another exorcism.
Not that Dan Campbell was in the mood to talk about the obvious demonic plague settling over this city’s football team Monday. He wanted to recap Sunday’s loss to Buffalo as he recaps every loss during his next-day news conference.
Focus on the little things. Talk about turnovers. Decry the lack of urgency? Focus? Intensity? And then blame himself. Good for him for providing cover. He’s savvy that way. Besides, he’s a coach, and coaches want to sound like coaches when things look bleak. Also, they never want to speak that bleakness into existence.
So, no, he wasn’t going to begin his news conference with lament. Or talk of curses. Or angry Football Gods.
He wasn’t going to say all these injuries might be the price of winning 11 games in a row and all this Super Bowl talk, right?
Then again, I’m not going to say that either. It’s tempting, absolutely, to explain the inexplicable with the unknowable. But, unfortunately, injuries are the price of playing football. Some teams lose their quarterbacks. Some teams lose their entire defense. Or what seems like it. And then they lose their starting running back.
Wait, the injuries are hitting the offense now, too?
It’s comical. Yet no one is laughing. How can you laugh when you’re crying? Or drinking? (Something’s got to dull that pain.)
Season has changed
Here we are three weeks away from the postseason this region has been waiting on for decades and all anyone can do is sigh. And those are the optimists. The realists? They know the Detroit Lions’ Super Bowl odds just fell off the Ambassador Bridge.
Two more critical defensive pieces went down Sunday against Buffalo. Star lineman Alim McNeill tore his ACL. Critical cover man Carlton Davis III broke his jaw. Now news that David Montgomery — one half of the dynamic Sonic and Knuckles running attack — tore his knee up too?
That’s just too much to bear.
And so, I offer hope. A sliver. A narrow path in this season that looked like it was headed for New Orleans but could now just as easily end in Tampa ... or Minnesota ... or gasp, Los Angeles, home of the Lions' former quarterback, Matthew Stafford.
Slip in Chicago on Sunday and everything is on the table. Stumble in San Francisco the following week and the playoffs could begin on the road, in a wild-card game, after leading the division for much of the season, after holding the No. 1 seed just as long.
Home-field advantage?
Yeah, it’s still a possibility. Try worrying about the run game instead. And hope the Lions can fix theirs. That’s key to the path.
Losing Montgomery makes the fix harder. But it’s possible. The offensive line remains healthy and talented, and Campbell remains convinced it can find its way out of its slump. History tells us this, too.
Run the ball a little better and three-and-outs turn into productive drives, and productive drives eat clock and turn into points. Also, running the ball shortens the game. And keeps the depleted defense off the field, which gives the defense a better chance to make a play when it’s on the field.
Luck, obviously, will need to be part of any remaining path. The opposing quarterback throws an interception. A running back fumbles, or stumbles before the first-down marker. A receiver drops a pass. Any number of things that didn’t happen Sunday against the Bills.
Campbell actually did talk about this Monday. He didn’t use the word luck. He didn’t need to. Mostly, he did his best to keep it the same as ever, strolling to the podium with notes, stats, eager to recap the game as he always does on the day after.
“Really,” said Campbell, “what we talked about yesterday. Had a turnover. ... Got none on defense. So, lost the turnover battle in a tight, close game.”
Possibly, maybe
He arrived at his weekly news conference with cheeks a touch redder than usual and without his normal ebullience. But the words coming out of his mouth were the same, as if he thought the cover for the deluge of injuries that are submarining this would-be Super Bowl season was coach-speak.
Losing the turnover battle? Not playing complimentary football?
Check. And check.
“We couldn’t get out of our own way,” he said. “Just had a number of errors that had been uncharacteristic, and that tape speaks for itself and we’re going to learn from it, then we’re going to burn it and then we’re moving on because that’s what we do.”
Keep it positive, eh?
Talk about things that are theoretically correctable. No amount of film study or reps will bring McNeill back. Or Davis back sooner — there is a chance he could play in the NFC title game if the Lions make it that far.
No amount of practice or strategizing will heal Alex Anzalone more quickly or Aidan Hutchinson or Ifeatu Melinfonwu, who they could use and who could possibly be ready for Sunday against the Bears. Campbell doesn’t know.
All he knows is that he wasn’t going to spend time complaining or bemoaning or howling to the football heavens because more of his players went down. He’s going to try to help his staff get the running game back, and shuffle some pieces defensively, and then help his team keep balling as best it can.
Will it be enough?
Likely not. There is next man up. And there is next team up, and this is the only team the Lions have got at the moment.
But … while the margin for error has nearly disappeared and the expectations have rightly changed, there is still a chance. Minimal, of course, but a chance, because the offense is good enough to keep the Lions hanging around.
All they need is a bit of luck. A ball bouncing the right way. A trip. A slip. Anything, really, that can swing a close game. They didn’t get that luck in San Francisco in January. Maybe they’ll get some now.
Just don’t talk to Campbell about why they’ll need it.
“Nobody cares,” he said. “I mean, nobody cares and nobody’s going to give us a pass. ... We’ll do what we have to do to win a game, and that’s all that matters. ... From here on out. You just need to have one more point than the opponent — period.”
If that means helping them along by burning a little sage or filling a tub with whiskey? It can't hurt.
The Paste BN app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.