ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Detroit Lions star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson has tried to shy away from the outside noise following Sunday’s 16-9 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles but is feeling the aftereffects as they try to regain control of their season.
“We’re 6-4 right now. I think people have written us off a little bit and I think it’s a good spot to be in,” said Hutchinson. “I’m excited and I think these next three home games, we’ve got to be 3-0 and it starts with New York on Sunday.”
Detroit will host the Giants at Ford Field at 1 p.m. Nov. 23, following a tough NFC showdown on the primetime Sunday night stage.
The Lions went 0-5 on 4th down against the Eagles, becoming the 2nd team in the last 30 seasons to go 0-5 or worse on 4th down, per ESPN Research. The other team was 2022 Lions on the road against the New England Patriots, where they went 0-6 on 4th down, which were both under Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
Campbell thought they “were a little off” in Philadelphia as the offense was held to their fewest points since 2023, but the team is fueled by the doubt as they attempt to bounce back.
Entering this week’s Giants contest, the Lions are currently on the bubble to reach the postseason after being projected among the early favorites to win the NFC North and possibly reach the Super Bowl.
“I just know that looking at the rest of our schedule, we’re at a point where we’ve gotta win,” Hutchinson said. “You’ve gotta find a way to win even if you get in a close game, we’ve gotta win all those close games if we want to do what we want to do this year.
“We all understand that, regardless of what people say about us and I think we’ve got a great shot to do it, we’ve just got to put all the pieces together every single game,” he said. “And even in the close games, pull them out.”
The Lions lost their last home game in a Week 9 upset against the Minnesota Vikings but haven’t lost two straight at home since October 2022.
Detroit still has a 34 percent chance to win the NFC North behind the Packers (44 percent) and Bears (22 percent), according to ESPN Analytics. With a win over the Giants, Detroit’s chances improve to 39 percent, but a loss drops those numbers to 20 percent independent of other results, so every game is meaningful, but Campbell is trying not to make a bigger deal out of the scenario than it already is.
“We’ve had urgency. We’re an urgent team. Things haven’t gone our way that we would like,” Campbell said. “I mean we would love to be sitting here undefeated right now and that’s not the reality, we’re not undefeated. But there’s an urgency that’s there.”
“And I know this, if you say, ‘Well let’s ramp up more urgency,’ that’s when you start making mistakes, that’s when you start panicking, that’s when guys start doing things they shouldn’t do.”