A win is a win, and in the Lions case, it's the first of the season. Now, they're 1-5.
The Lions beat the Chicago Bears in overtime, 37-34.
Ok, still nothing to brag about. Nothing to brag about.
Mike O'Hara, a who formerly covered the Lions for the Detroit News, is a columnist for Lions.com, and he offers up his opinion on the significance of the win.
In his own Q & A, he writes:
Question: Did winning get the monkey off the Lions’ back?
Answer: No.
Q.No? A 57-yard bomb to Calvin Johnson sets up the game-winning field goal by Matt Prater in overtime, and the monkey isn’t off the Lions’ backs?
A.That’s right, because what they had on their back was bigger than the world’s biggest animal. They had the weight of an entire season on their backs, and no matter how they did it – with the help of calls, penalties against the Bears, overcoming their own bad plays – they had to find a way to win for the first time this year.
And they did.
Finally, they can exhale – a little. Being 1-5 isn’t great, but it’s better than 0-6, and that’s what it looked like until Prater made the winning kick.
Q. Did the Lions almost give the game away?
A. They did everything in their power to give it away, and the Bears gladly tried to take it. The offense played well in the first half making plays and protecting the ball, but the second half was another flood of misplays and turnovers.
Once they flipped the switch on the turnover machine, the Lions couldn’t turn it off. The way they lost the ball was like watching bonus points ring up on a penny slot machine at one of the downtown casinos.
Q. Rating game: Which turnover hurt the most?
A. All of them. They lost two fumbles on punt returns, and Stafford had an interception that set up the Bears’ go-ahead touchdown with 7:50 left in regulation time. There was no excuse for any of them, including Stafford’s underhanded flip that was deflected and caught by the Bears to set up the go-ahead score.
Steve Rosenbloom writes in the The RosenBlog for the Chicago Tribune:
The Lions came into Sunday’s game 0-5 and had to play without their top two tight ends, their top safety, their best defensive tackle and No. 2 running back.
And the Bears lost to that raggedy bunch, giving up 155 yards on the ground to a team that can’t run the ball.
The Lions were coming off a game in which quarterback Matthew Stafford was benched while some of his teammates quit.
And the Bears lost to that team of stiffs, letting Stafford throw for more than 400 yards and four TDs.
