After experiencing the Lions playoff loss to the Saints, a 45-28 lopsided inevitability, I was overly emotional, irrationally enraged by the absurdity of how it all transpired.

As the scored again and again and again, a progression of thoughts occurred to me.

1. The NFL loves the passing game so much that pretty soon holding penalties will be abolished.  Pretty much like it was in New Orleans.

2. Perhaps the NFL just refused to be denied their inevitable Saints-Packers NFC Championship game...as I watched Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairly get held on play after play after play.  Three Saints held Suh back as Brees completed another deep pass.  A Saint held a fist full of the back of Fairly's jersey holding him back just enough that Brees could launch another deep pass.

3. The NBC announcers, the ESPN announcers, the NFL Network team and the Fox crew want nothing to do with the Detroit Lions.  Chris Collinsworth, while doing color for the game would routinely exalt the greatness of Brees while openly ignoring the blatantly obvious holding penalties happening all around him.  On the play where Brees was sacked and fumbled the ball...only to have fumble picked up and by Justin Durant with a clear path to the endzone...instead of being appalled by the incredibly ignorant officiating, he complained that the refs hadn't screwed up enough to allow the Saints to somehow keep the ball...The NFL Network's Deion Sanders refuses to acknowledge the progression of the young Lions...

4. I'm not saying the Lions would have won the game if it had been called correctly.  I merely say that this game would have been a LOT closer.

5. The Lions could not rebound from three dropped interceptions.

6. They could not find any way to get Brees and his horde of offensive weapons off the field...the Saints never had to punt.  The only times their drives didn't end in touchdowns, they ended with a field goal (at the end of the first half) or in two turnovers the Lions simply were unable to capitalize on.

7. The Saints are an offensive juggernaut.  And their complete dismantling of the Lions defense, they were generous to show Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz the team's most glaring need.  Defensive backs.  Look for the Lions to address the back 7 with as much fervor and single-minded abandon as they  have their front four this offseason.

8. The "Wide 9" may not be designed to forsake rush defense in or to generate more pass rush...but that's exactly what it does and that needs to change.  If that requires the dismissal of Gunther Cunningham, so be it.

9. Matthew Stafford, if he can stay healthy, is going to have the Lions in the playoffs in most years.  He's that good.

10. The Lions simply HAVE TO sign Calvin Johnson to a career length contract as soon as possible.

11. The secondary must be addressed and do not be surprised if the Lions don't make a serious run at Titans CB Courtland Finnegan.  Finnegan has experience with Jim Schwartz...just like Kyle VandenBosch and Stephen Tulloch...

12. I cannot remember, in my whole lifetime, the Detroit Lions having a probowl-worthy ball hawking corner back.  Dre Bly was probably the closest...but he was really just a bit better than adequate.  The Lions haven't had that kind of presence since Dick "Night Train" Lane. 

13.  Just like it was time for the Lions to find a replacement for Bobby Layne (which we've done with the play of Stafford), it is now time to find a replacement for the Night Train...

In the NFL you can only play who the next team that gets put on your schedule.  It's always a great argument whenever somebody puts a team down by saying, "Well, look at who they played!  Of course they're..."  If you take apart the Lions schedule this season and look at their 6 losses (2 losses to Green Bay, 15-1, 1 to New Orleans, 13-3, 1 to San Francisco, 13-3, 1 to Chicago 8-8, and 1 to Atlanta, 10-6), you might feel justified in keeping up with that argument.  Five of those six teams are going to the playoffs and Chicago was a real contender until they lost their starting quarterback for the year.  You might say that the Lions just can't beat the big boys...can't hang with the real contenders...

And you may be right...

But let's look at the Lions 31-17 loss a few weeks ago to this weeks wild card opponent, the New Orleans Saints.

1. 31-17 is only two scores...For the Lions, the way they've consistently come back in games this year, it's practically tied.

2. The first game was the first game Matthew Stafford played without his protective glove...and his hand was still sore...of course he still for over 400 yards in that game...

3. This was the first game of Ndamukong Suh's suspension.  Nick Fairly played extremely well for the first quarter and then was taken out after re-aggravating his previously broken foot. So the pass rush was severely hampered.

4. Kevin Smith, playing for the already IR'd Jahvid Best, went down in the second quarter with a high ankle sprain.

5. S Louis Delmas didn't play.  CB Chris Houston was held out with an injury too.  CB Eric Wright went out with an ankle or knee injury during the game...The secondary was decimated.

6. The Lions were called for FOUR personal foul calls which greatly helped the Saints sustain drives and score.  They were also called for an incredibly ridiculous face mask call on Nate Burleson when he tried to stiff arm a defender as he was going out of bounds. 

Now let's look at what will be different this game...

1. Stafford is completely healed and on fire after throwing for 520 yards and 5 TD's against the Packers (5,038 yards this season, only the fourth QB in the history of the NFL to accomplish this feat.)

2. Ndamukong Suh will play.  It appears that Nick Fairly will play.

3. The entire starting secondary of the Lions is set to play...and they have a lot to prove after they gave up 480 yards and 6 TD's to Aaron Rodgers' backup.

4. Kevin Smith is healthy.

5. New Orleans RB Mark Ingram, who scored in the first game, will be out this time around.

Now all that stuff is nice and all...but in the end, I really, really think that this game comes down two things...maybe three.

1. How good of a coach is Jim Schwartz...and his assistants?  The Lions have already played the Saints.  They know what they're all about.  What did they learn?  Will the Lions' adjustments prove to be better than New Orleans' coach Sean Payton's?

2. Penalties.  Will the Lions continue their assault on the NFL rulebook?  Will the whistles continue to blow against the Honolulu
Blue?  I'm sorry, but if you've noticed anything over this season...other than everybody and their brother calls the Lions "undisciplined and dirty"...is that they are not ever getting any calls, they are the victims of facemasks and holdings and offsides and pass interferences...and they do not get calls.  The Lions are getting mugged every Sunday and they are the ones being called dirty.

If you watched the Packers game, which was the first time anyone has said anything about the huge discrepancy in calls, you saw a blatant shot to the Kevin Smith's head as he scored a touchdown, no call.  A touchdown not called.  A muffed punt by Jordy Nelson.  A non-muffed bad call on Stefan Logan...

The Lions DO seriously need to stop with all of the dumb penalties and all of the regular penalties too.  They had 11 penalties against the Packers...but the games need to start getting called both ways too.

I'm not saying that's why the Lions lost to the Packers on Sunday...or all of their other losses, but the evidence of unbalanced officiating just keeps piling up.  The Lions lost to the Packers because they wouldn't have been able to cover a tree...but all those penalties and non-called Packer/Saint/etc calls.

3. Ndamukong Suh needs to have a Big 12 Championship type game...and if Nick Fairly and Corey Williams could chip in too that'd be awful nice.  The more pressure on Brees, the better.

Before we get into the must win game against the Packers at Lambeau Field this Sunday, let's discuss how on Earth Eli Manning made the probowl over Matthew Stafford this season.  Aside from the fact that the Detroit Lions have had only one probowl quarterback since Bobby Layne...Greg Landry in 1971...40 years ago...there's another streak I'd hoped the Lions would break this year...a sheer stats comparison between the two should clearly show who was the better signal caller this season.

Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees were givens...they had to make the probowl.  The Packers almost went undefeated behind Rodger's super hot throwing and Brees just broke the passing yardage record which stood for almost 30 years...

Stafford has completed a higher percentage of his passes, with 10 more TD's and 2 fewer interceptions.  Manning managed to throw for 60 more yards over the season, but also has a lower QB rating and, most importantly, fewer wins.

Eli Manning engineered five come from behind victories--supposedly the key to a great quarterback's success is being able to bring a team back from the brink.  Joe Montana was a master at it.  John Elway was incredible.  A team is never out of a game when the guy taking the snaps has ice in his veins in the fourth quarter when everything is on the line and the score board is tilted in favor of the other guys.

Manning did this FIVE times this year.  The Giants were down, on average, 6 points when he had to pull them up and out of certain defeat.  That's pretty impressive....

Of course Stafford only managed to do this four times...but his deficits were different.  The Lions were down, on average almost 17 points in those games.  On two occasions, they were down more than 20 points...that's an entire game of scoring sometimes.  In my opinion, that's a wash, or maybe even a slight edge to Stafford.

Why is Stafford not in the probowl?  Because he doesn't play in New York....where Manning gets millions of extra votes from the hometown fans.

But...about the game...

The Packers have nothing to play for in this game.  They are 15-1 and wrapped up home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  The only thing the Packers truly have to be concerned about is keeping Aaron Rodgers healthy.  The fourth game of the preseason has just about as much value as this game for the Packers.

The Lions, on the other hand, NEED this game.  If the Lions can manage to win this game they will clinch the #5 seed in the playoffs.  The #5 seed will be playing the winner of the Cowboys/Giants game in the opening round of the playoffs...a game much more winnable than a trip to New Orleans or San Francisco--although I'd feel better about the Lions playing anybody but the Saints right now.

The Saints are on a tear.  They are a buzzsaw ripping through opponents right now.  Drew Brees has appeared virtually unstoppable in his last six games--one of those already being a blowout of the Lions.

I'd really like to see the Lions head to New York or Dallas, I think those games would probably have a much higher percentage chance of being won--and as everybody knows, the Lions have won only one playoff game since 1957 (1991)...Of course that was also the year of the last time the Lions won at Lambeau...

Packers Offense vs Lions Defense

 Truthfully, this is all about how much the Packers decide to play Aaron Rodgers.  Do they want to keep him safe on the shelf in order to have him perfectly healthy for what looks to be a long playoff run.  Or do they want to try and keep momentum going into the playoffs.

The last time Rodgers was hurt, a concussion sustained at the hands of our beloved Honolulu Blue, the Lions managed a 7-3 victory over the Packers and their second string QB Matt Flynn.  That victory was more than a year ago now and the Lions are a much, much different team now.

If the Packers sit Rodgers or only play him for a half or less....

Advantage: Lions

Packers Defense vs Lions Offense

Personally, I don't really understand why the Pacers D is ranked so low in so many categories.  BJ Raji is a monster, Clay Matthews is a ffierce and scary pass rusher and Charles Woodson is still the best corner back in the NFC...and his cornerback partner Tramon Williams might must be the second best...

But, for some reason, the Packers D IS at the bottom of the barrel.  I like Stafford's chances...especially after the huge slight he received from the NFL in not getting named to the probowl.  He's really got something to prove. 

The Lions offense and Stafford is really, really hot right now...

Advantage: Lions

Prediction: Detroit 28, Packers 17...an end to the curse of Lambeau Field...please, please don't let me have jinxed them...

Ndamukong Suh and the boys....sorry, Suh wasn't there...couldn't get any kind of consistent pressure on Drew Brees all day long. 

Once again, the Lions tried to make an incredible comeback after being down 24-7...this time, for the second time this season, they didn't really even come close.

The Lions have almost finished their transformation from upstart young team that nobody wants to play to "Same Old Lions."

On Sunday, every team the Lions are truly fighting with for a playoff spot lost.  The clouds opened up, the sun shone down and the path was clear to everyone who wanted to see.  If the Lions wanted to take the reigns of their own destiny and put a stranglehold on a playoff seed all they had to do was win.

And instead, the entire team tried as hard as they could to emulate the poorest of Ndamukong Suh's play--the penalties.  Four personal foul penalties? Four egregiously stupid plays.

The Lions are a young team that completely lacks composure...and it all trickles down from the head coach.  Schwartz needs to keep more control of his own emotions and he definitely needs to find a way to stop his players from completely losing control of their emotions.

Because, right now, the Lions are playing losing football.

Not that there isn't a lot to get frustrated about...I mean, I can understand...the Lions seem to have an open war going on with the entirety of "offialdom."  Seriously.  I am shocked at all of the non-calls that the Lions are smacked down with...or the ticky tack calls that they get called for.

 On Mark Ingram's 14 yard TD run...watch the replay...Robert Meacham gets a big hold of Eric Wright's jersey and gives him a yank back, clearing the way for Ingram to get the corner and score...call?  No call. Touchdown.  Saints 7-0.

Patrick Buchanon gets an incredible jump on the field goal and blocks it...why?  Because he jumped early.  He was offsides!  Call? No call...no points...half time.

I really don't want to sound like a whiner...but COME ON!  The disparity in calls is outrageous and I'm completely shocked every week by how much more outrageous it becomes.

Nate Burleson got a 15 yard personal foul call for a facemask...he was the ball carrier!  How many times in all of your years of watching football have you ever seen that called?  It's called a "stiff arm" go back and watch Red Grange do it...because they've been doing it since the frickin' 1920's!  Technically, yes, it IS a facemask...but it is never, ever called...unless you wear Honolulu Blue.

I don't know how that stuff changes.  It is said that you could throw a flag for holding on every play of every game, but it's a judgement call.  Well, apparently, the refs have judged that if the Lions have a positive play, they must have been holding.

What changes that?  What does a young team have to do to start getting the benefit of the doubt?

Green Bay gets the benefit of the doubt.  The refs "missed" so many holding calls against the Lions it made Suh "stomping mad."

What person down at the league office has to write the memo and send it out? 

An NFL game is controlled--on so many levels--by the refs.  Maybe the Lions should quit shoving them.  Maybe they should quit whining at them and try to get on their good sides.  Maybe, that might change some things.

These are the Lions.  They may be getting better, but they can't beat an elite team, their own injuries, their own stupid mistakes AND the refs.

And there's too much at stake now.  The Lions are in the thick of a playoff race...whether they want to grow up and see it or not.

There are two spots open and the Lions can certainly get one...They have four games remaining--three overtly winnable games and a rematch with the Packers.  The Lions simply have to do better than a quarterback-less Bears team, a Jeckyl and Hyde Falcons team, and a faltering Giants team...all doable...but not if they're going to keep negating everything positive they do with stupid penalties.

Ndamukong Suh stomped and was given a two game suspension...so he appealed and because he really did stomp on the Green Bay offensive lineman, really did lie about whether or not he really meant to do it, and made himself sound like a thug and a moron later...even though he apologized via...Facebook...he is still suspended for two games.  Suh's play has been encouraging and team strengthening and nobody ever complained about it (except the other team) unless he got called for a penalty and hurt the team...but now he has REALLY hurt his team.  The Lions need these next two wins really bad...and he will not be able to help them.

So the Lions will be without their best defensive player on a week they are scheduled to travel down to New Orleans to fight the number one passing offense--which is pretty hard to believe after seeing how well the Packers throw it.  Not only will Suh be absent...but there's a pretty good chance that the Lions will also be without starting safety Louis Delmas and starting corner Chris Houston...that bodes well for them as they'll watch Drew Brees drop back fifty times and tear them apart.

Which is even worse as the Lions have almost fallen out of the playoff race and desperately need this win.  The Lions are currently 7-4 and behind a boat load of tie breakers held by Atlanta and Chicago. 

To further add to the Lions woes.  This past week they had to place RB Jahvid Best on the IR.  Kevin Smith, Best's temp stand in, had a high ankle sprain and could only practice for about twenty minutes this week...so they Lions went out and hot another old Lions castoff...which is a unique idea in and of it's own right...and signed Aaron Brown to take the reigns for the time being.

Now, it is really interesting that the Lions brought back another guy who couldn't make their team out of training camp...but it's even more disturbing that the Lions decided to go in that direction...None of the castoffs from the other 31 teams was worth a try?  Nobody on a practice squad anywhere?

Is the Lions offense so incredibly hard to learn that they thought only one of their old castoffs would be able to pick it up quick enough to contribute this week?  That must be a really complicated offense...

New Orleans Offense vs Detroit Defense

How much more do I have to say? The Lions' secondary was never exactly the Lions big strength to begin with, but without the pressure and attitude that Suh brings...it's even less of a strength.  Add to that the loss of two of their four starters...against Drew Brees...

Here's hoping that Nick Fairly can come through and apply some massive attitude and pressure of his own.  Otherwise...

Advantage: Saints (By an awful lot...)

New Orleans Defense vs Detroit Offense

This will be the first week that Matthew Stafford will stop wearing his glove.  He's been wearing the glove for the last month and the Lions have gone from 5-1 to 7-4...but the broken finger and protective glove had absolutely nothing to do with that...

New Orleans has the 24th ranked defense in the NFL...not all that impressive...but the Lions are playing with only a ghost of a running game and they will definitely be playing from behind all day...ie the Saints will be coming after our QB a ton on Sunday night.

I don't think they have anybody that can cover Calvin Johnson and as long as Stafford can regain his accuracy and occasionally remember that he has two other receivers and two tight ends beside Calvin, the Lions offense can move the ball on the Saints.

Advantage: Lions

Prediction

I'm sorry, but the Lions do not have enough on the defensive side of the ball this week to cope with Drew Brees and his pinball scoring offense.

New Orleans 41 Detroit 24