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In the little-seen made-for-TV movie Bleacher Bums, one character states to another, “Nobody ever went broke betting against the Cubs after Labor Day.”
Meaning, as soon as the games got important and the cream of the National League rose to the top, the Cubs would inevitably falter and nosedive to the bottom of the standings.
Sad as it is, the above dialogue could be rearranged a bit, with “Cubs” replacing “Lions,” and it wouldn’t lose an ounce of truth.
Like clockwork, when autumn turns into winter and the second half of the NFL schedule hits the home stretch, the Detroit Lions start losing games at an alarming pace.
Whether that year’s Lions got off to a horrendous start, or if they somehow managed to rip off a slew of early wins, the swoon to follow is unstoppable.
2014 is proving to be no different.
A team that was full of promise and teeming with momentum at 7-2 is now bumbling, stumbling, and close to drowning at 7-4.
Consecutive road losses to the best the NFL has to offer is not necessarily something to scoff at. But when said losses involve countless mistakes, a perceived lack of passion, and a complete inability to cross the opposition’s goal line, city-wide panic is fully justified.
It wouldn’t be as tough to take if this show hadn’t played out so many times before.
It begins just as it has. Losses to very good teams, maybe even by a blowout margin.
But we take solace knowing that the next several games come against inferior competition. Like last year, with a huge opportunity falling right into the Lions’ paws, needing just a simple home victory against the hapless New York Giants.
But then came the crucial Stafford interception, an overtime loss, and another season finishing with the meekest of whimpers.
The final weeks of this campaign are setting up much the same.
The schedule is very friendly. Three consecutive home dates with the worst the NFC has to offer: Bears, Bucs, and Vikings. The final kick, at Chicago and at Green Bay, is daunting, but can be softened a great deal if business is handled appropriately in the next 20 days.
Logic based strictly on 2014 standings would suggest a trio of Ford Field victories from the Leos.
Only, we know better.
You get blindsided so many times, year after year, and eventually you start to duck, knowing that the blow is coming.
It’s no fun expecting the worst, having little to no faith that things will turn out right.
But with this team, you’re almost left with no other choice.
The Lions took center stage in the NFL the last two Sundays and emerged with a pair of black eyes, a swollen jaw, and a goose egg in the touchdown department.
The competition gets considerably easier beginning this Thursday, but how much that really matters is unclear; this is not a franchise well-versed in overcoming adversity.
Maybe this year will be different. Maybe the gentlemen in Honolulu blue will get up off the mat and actually reverse the course of not only their slipping season, but their pockmarked history.
Or they’ll go out and drop the next five, finish 7-9, miss the playoffs, and come January 1, it’s another not-so-delightful round of “Which college superstar will become the next Lions’ first-round bust?”
The tumbling boulder can be slowed just a tad with a Thanksgiving win over the Bears.
It wouldn’t mean this team is a contender again or that playoff tickets can commence being printed.
But it would mean that the turkey consumed later that night need not to be doused in our own tears.
There’s enough salt on the plate as it is.
