DETROIT – Sunday’s comeback win for the Detroit Lions over the Chicago Bears probably felt very familiar for fans, except this time, they were watching it from the other side.
How many times have we seen the Lions take a two-possession lead deep into the fourth quarter only to give up a touchdown, go three-and-out on offense, and then surrender a game-losing score? For awhile, that felt like a Sunday afternoon tradition in the fall.
But now, the Lions are the heartbreakers, not the heartbroken.
On Sunday, when the Bears ran 8:45 off the clock during a 14-play fourth-quarter drive, nobody felt good about the Lions’ chances. They were down 12 points, Jared Goff had thrown three picks, and only 4:15 remained in the game.
Yet still, they found a way to get the job done.
Goff put the turnovers behind him and orchestrated a pair of epic drives, one that went 75 yards on six plays and another that went 73 yards in 11 plays. Both ended in touchdowns, and the Lions pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.
The beauty of that first scoring drive was that it took just 1:16 off the clock. Right when Detroit needed to move quickly, that’s exactly what it did, picking up chunks of 16, 13, and 32 yards on three of the final four plays.
Then, after the defense forced a three-and-out that drained only 26 seconds off the clock, the offense didn’t just march down the field for the go-ahead score -- it also took the clock all the way down to 29 seconds, so the Bears hardly had a chance to respond.
The execution was masterful. While the first of those two drives was quick and surgical, the second felt like an inevitable slow burn. There was nothing the Bears could do. The Lions were in total control, reaching third down only once en route to the end zone.
Aidan Hutchinson provided the exclamation point by stripping Justin Fields on a sack that ended the game. Simply poetic.
Detroit improved to 8-2 for the first time in over 60 years, and if that alone isn’t proof that this team is different than the Same Old Lions of the past, look at how they won the game, not just that they won.
In the past, it would have been the Lions with a double-digit lead, desperately trying to hold onto any last hope of a playoff run. They would play an excellent game as an underdog and get everyone’s hopes up, just to watch 56 minutes of hard work go down the drain in the final 4.
Now the Bears are the ones licking their wounds after the Lions pillaged a game they had no business winning.
Remember last season when the Lions went into Minnesota and carried a 10-point lead to the midway point of the fourth quarter? The Vikings scored two touchdowns in the final 8 minutes while the Lions turned the ball over on downs, missed a field goal, and threw an interception.
The Vikings went on to win the division. The Lions missed the playoffs by a tiebreaker.
These are the types of games that can push a team over the edge, whether that means getting into the playoffs or improving your seed. Every team has off games, but when you can still manage to win those games, it’s a huge advantage.
Detroit turned the ball over four times, allowed the Bears to possess the ball for over 40 minutes, and gave up four backbreaking first downs on penalties. But it still found a way to win.
We’ve seen this story many times before. But usually, it’s not the Lions celebrating at the final buzzer.