The Detroit Lions came into week 10 riding off a refreshing win against the Packers to face a Bears team that is in the midst of an emergence by second year quarterback Justin Fields. He had been having a very encouraging past few weeks, and Sunday was no different for the young QB. Fortunately the Lions were able to pull through in the end, earning their first road win in the Campbell era and their third win of the year. With them being able to pull forward to being only 1.5 games out of the final playoff spot with 8 weeks to go while also retaining a top 10 pick. For this to happen the Lions got a little bit of help from around the league from the Cardinals, Steelers, and Panthers.
The Steelers were able to pull off a less than impressive win against the Steelers, led by rookie QB Kenny Pickett. The win had the Saints fall to 3-7, with their momentum being completely broken and confusion on what to do at the quarterback position arising. The Lions are now half a game above the saints after the loss, and the Saints have too many injuries to be serious playoff contenders this year. Not to mention they have a pretty rough schedule coming up.
Colt McCoy led the Arizona Cardinals to a win over the John Wolford led Rams on Sunday. With both teams QB1 being out due to injury, Colt seemed to be the more composed of the two, and ultimately nicked the Rams to 3-6 and below the Lions in the standings. With the team also losing star receiver Cooper Kupp to a high ankle sprain, the already struggling Rams offense may regress even more, leaving them on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff aspirations.
The Panthers were able to take down the struggling Falcons on Sunday on the back of a dominant rushing performance. Both teams look decidedly bad, and with nobody knowing who the true QB1 is for either team, they could be in for a rough second half of the season. The Panthers win kept them below Detroit in the standings, while also bringing Atlanta down to within striking distance for Detroit, being at 4-6. Despite not individually pushing Detroit forward in the standings, this was the favorable outcome.
The Lions, despite a very rough start to the season, are somehow within striking distance of a playoff berth. The Packers losing would have definitely helped, but since the Lions hold that tiebreaker, the only thing separating the two right now is a bye week. Now, I know that there are fans that have been advocating for the Lions to lose out and draft high. Besides the team morale and momentum that is also very important, I feel that tanking may not be a heavy need for us, as our friends over in L.A. are already doing it for us. That’s what we call a true win-win scenario.
