ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions had a chance to catch up to the Green Bay Packers and to put the Minnesota Vikings in a brutal spot last weekend.
But they lost, and now find themselves in the thick of a heated NFC North race, not to mention a crowded conference playoff picture. That loss gave the Vikings life, allowed the Chicago Bears to keep pace, and kept the Packers in undisputed first place.
Jared Goff was asked if he thought the loss to the Vikings was a wasted opportunity to make up ground in the division and the NFC. The Lions quarterback said, “It’s just another loss,” and he’s focused on what they can do and taking each game one at a time.
“It’s unfortunate, we’re 5-and-3, it sucks, it’s hard for me to speak without being upset,” Goff said after the game on Sunday. “It sucks. We’ll move on, we’ll move on to Washington and try to win that one. And hopefully, we do, and we’ll be ready to go. We’ll respond, it’s what we do best, and I think Dan (Campbell) said it in there, I don’t know if he said it to you guys, but a little adversity at this point in the season isn’t always the worst thing for you.
“I can say that if you use it correctly and move forward correctly, but who knows, maybe we look back on this moment as a turning point for us. It’ll only be that if we make it that, though.”
Campbell echoed Goff 24 hours later, saying, “As bad as it tastes right now,” they hope to look back at this loss and say, “That may have been the best thing that happened to us.”
The Lions currently hold the final spot as the seventh seed in the NFC playoff picture. They own the tiebreaker over the 5-3 Bears, and while they remain one game up on the Vikings, Minnesota owns the current tiebreaker heading into the Christmas Day matchup.
Inside the NFC North, they trail the Packers by 0.5 games, but also don’t own the tiebreaker in that matchup. The next time the Lions face the Packers will be back at Ford Field later this month on Thanksgiving.
The Lions head to Washington to face the banged-up Commanders this weekend. It’s a rematch from last year’s divisional-round loss, but it lost a little luster with quarterback Jayden Daniels’ nasty-looking elbow injury suffered on Sunday night.
Also, Campbell’s Lions have been the masters of bouncing back, not losing consecutive regular-season games since October 2022.
Still, it’s a chance to bury another NFC opponent much like last week, and another opportunity to gain ground in the divisional race. The Commanders are 3-6, already facing an uphill climb, so a win over them would put them as far back against the wall as possible.
The biggest matchup in the NFC this weekend is one the Lions should be paying close attention to, as well. Green Bay (5-2-1) hosts the top-seeded Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) on Sunday Night Football.
Minnesota hosts the 3-5 Ravens, who have won two straight and saw the return of quarterback Lamar Jackson last week. While the Bears have a chance to keep pace, as they host the short-handed and struggling New York Giants in Week 10 action.
After heading to the nation’s capital this weekend, the Lions are back on the road in Week 11 to face those top-seeded Eagles. There could be a lot riding on the line in that one, no matter what happens this weekend, for each team.
Either way, as crowded as it is in the NFC and division, every game carries a ton of weight from here on out. The Lions didn’t add anything at the trade deadline, so they are banking on their offensive line depth to save the day. They are also hoping the edge defender depth and returning injured pieces are enough to make it to January.
“ ... every team’s going to get hit with adversity at some point in the season,” Campbell. “You don’t know when it’s going to happen, you don’t know how long it’s going to be for. Some maybe a week, maybe a game, some two weeks, maybe three, maybe a month, I don’t know. And it’s really about how you handle it. It’s always been about how you handle it.
“When things aren’t going your way or it feels a little rocky, man, just focus on what we need to correct and what cost us the game, and just keep your focus there. Not like, ‘Oh man, what are we going to do? It’s all utter panic, and they’re going to start running twist games and gunning, we can’t pick this up and what about third down?’ There’s a reason why everything happened the way it happened. It’s all encompassing. It really took all of us. Man, it’s about calm down. Let’s make the corrections, let’s go back to work this week, and let’s get better.”
NFC North standings
Packers -- 5-2-1
Lions -- 5-3
Bears -- 5-3
Vikings -- 4-4
Current NFC playoff picture
1. Eagles (6-2)
2. Buccaneers (6-2)
3. Seahawks (6-2)
4. Packers (5-2-1)
5. Rams (6-2)
6. 49ers (6-3)
7. Lions (5-3)
Next out: 8. Bears (5-3) 9. Panthers (5-4) 10. Vikings (4-4) 11. Cowboys (3-5-1) 12. Cardinals (3-5)
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