Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell reacts as he talks to reporters after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)AP
By
Benjamin Raven | [email protected]
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif -- No matter what happens against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, the Detroit Lions will have to wait until Week 18 to try and clinch the division title and top seed.
The Lions are in San Francisco for a prime-time NFC title game rematch. They are set to play the 49ers in their last road game of the regular season. But with the Minnesota Vikings and Sam Darnold beating the Green Bay Packers in Week 17, a winner-take-all game awaits next Sunday from Ford Field in Detroit.
The Packers showed some fight, but it was too little, too late. They scored 15 fourth-quarter points, but the Vikings ran out the clock and kept them off the board in the final two minutes.
Minnesota’s 27-25 win also eliminated the Philadelphia Eagles from contention for the No. 1 seed.
For those wondering, watch for that Lions-Vikings game to likely be flexed to Sunday Night Football as the season’s final game. There isn’t much competition around the NFL that week, especially considering the stakes and quality of teams, with the Lions and Vikings each looking like legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
If the Lions take care of business against the 49ers, that winner-take-all affair will feature two 14-win teams.
As we’ve said in the past, there is a hint of cruelty to the fact that the Lions are enjoying their best regular season of all time and still find themselves in a dogfight heading into the final week. Heck, they are 5-0 in the NFC North and undefeated on the road. Still, they have needed every single win to stay ahead in the division.
The Vikings haven’t lost since falling to the Los Angeles Rams way back in Week 8. In fact, their only two losses of the campaign came in back-to-back weeks.
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However, head coach Dan Campbell and the Lions aren’t feeling sorry for themselves and the tightly-contested situation. In fact, they have embraced the surging NFC North, with Campbell saying this is what he expected all along on their quest to repeat as champions inside the league’s best division.
“We’re all in there together,” Campbell said earlier this season. “I’m not shocked one bit. We knew it was going to be a competitive division.
“You don’t want it any other way, really. I think that’s awesome. I think it’s a good thing. You get to duke it out with some teams that are playing really good football ... It’s kind of exciting, honestly.”
That excitement will reach new levels with the NFC North title and the top seed up for grabs in a winner-take-all game at home. Grab the earplugs because Ford Field is going to be rocking for this playoff-like atmosphere. But first, the Lions are playing a prime-time game on the road that can’t move the needle.
“Yeah, I’ll make this easy for everybody. That way, all the critics can jump out and start attacking, but that way, you don’t have to debate them anymore,” Campbell said when asked what he was going to do if the Vikings were to win. “We’re bringing everything that we have to this game, and we are playing, and I don’t care what it looks like, and where it’s at or who’s this, who’s that, we’re going out to play and win this game out on the West Coast.
“So, there you go.”
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