How can you not get wrapped up in what the Lions have accomplished this season? Detroit hasn’t had a winning season since 2000 and hasn’t made the playoffs since 1999. The last time the Lions won a playoff game was 1991. Only three years removed from becoming the first team in NFL history to go 0-16, Jim Schwartz has his team sitting at 5-0 and looking like a lock for the postseason.
On Monday night, the Lions won their first Monday Night Football game of the 21st century. No more brown paper bags and mid-season walkouts. Detroit fans can now focus on forcing false start penalties and supporting their team. In fact, they did such a good job of that against the Bears that Schwartz has decided to award them the game ball.
“I’m all for [fans having a presence that’s] intimidating,” Schwartz told the Detroit Free Press. “They, obviously, did have an impact. It’s not just a notion. It’s not just an idea. Proof is in the pudding. It’s one thing to be loud. It’s another thing to affect the game, and I think that was obvious to anybody that was in that stadium. I don’t know about people that watched it on TV, but if you were there, you felt it, and we need a lot more days like that.”
The Lions set a Ford Field record Monday with 67,681 fans in attendance. The ball will be inscribed and placed somewhere within the stadium as a tribute to an energetic crowd that helped cause nine false start penalties. Simply put: Detroit has swag. Their head coach isn’t afraid to call out the opposition and the players are giving 110 percent every Sunday. The Lions have gone from the laughing stock of the NFL to the most exciting team in the league in the span of a few seasons.
