Different Year, Same Old Lions

In 40 years of watching our gridiron heroes, the Detroit Lions, I have seen some incredible losses in my time.  You can start with Thanksgiving Day, 1980 (I was five years old).  That was when the Chicago Bears scored on the final play of regulation to force overtime.  And then, after winning the coin flip, the Bears got a 95 yard kickoff return for a touchdown from return man Dave Williams.

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There's too many other losses to mention, but Sunday's loss to the Baltimore Ravens 19-17 at Ford Field is right up there with the worst (or best, if you want to look at it that way) of them.

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The Lions did rally from a 13-0 3rd quarter deficit to take the lead late in the fourth.  But when they had the Ravens in a 4th and 19 in the final 30 seconds, they were unable to get the stop that would've won the game.  And then, the officials got involved.  Or they didn't when they should have.

After reviewing the video myself multiple times, it is clear that the officials missed an obvious delay of game call against the Ravens on the last play before the field goal attempt.  It would have taken Baltimore completely out of field goal range.

But even after that screwup, it still took an NFL-record 66 yard field goal attempt by Ravens kicker Justin Tucker (pictured above after his historic kick) to get Baltimore the win.  Well, you know what happened, Tucker's hit the crossbar and bounced over to give the Ravens the win.

As Tim Staudt likes to say, the Lions have had some great losses over the years.  But Sunday's loss is right at the top of the list.  And get ready folks, more losses are coming this year.  In other words:  Different year, SOL - Same Old Lions.