How did Detroit Lions pull off stunner? They've got the right DNA, and real good players.
Let’s start with the opening.
Every thief needs an opportunity, and here it came: The Chicago Bears had the ball on a third-and-7 from the Detroit Lions' 23, and they went conservative — thank you, thank you, thank you — running the ball to set up a field goal, content to hold onto a 26-14 fourth-quarter lead.
Suckers!
At that moment, Lions quarterback Jared Goff sensed an opening, like a thief peeking through the crack in a door, seeing the diamond jewel left unguarded.
"They kick the field goal, you think, ‘OK, they’re letting us have a chance to win this with two touchdowns. Sounds good,'" Goff said after the Lions’ thrilling, epic, stunning 31-26 win on Sunday. "You see that path to winning there at the end.”
The Lions took that path all right, and they stole this game from the Bears.
I don’t mean that in a negative way. Because this ending was nothing but warm and fuzzy and wild as heck — the Lions made all the plays, got all the stops and racked up 17 points in a 3-minute barrage that felt like a Disney movie come to life.
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But they did steal this win, overcoming four turnovers and pulled a victory out of the jaws of, well, Da Bears.
It was truly amazing and special — and it’s the first time the Lions are 8-2 since 1962.
“That’s a long time,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “It’s a long time, and it’s something that we talked about before the season.”
He cracked a smile — yes, he was joking. “It’s great to be 8-2 and we got a big one in about four days,” he said of the Thanksgiving Day game against the Green Bay Packers. “Or five? I don’t know what it is, but it’s coming up.”
Pieces coming together
Now, here's the great part about this win. It wasn’t one player.
It was a long list of them.
This is what makes a great team, and it starts with the DNA. This was a win of character, resilience, toughness, never getting frazzled and belief. Yes, belief is huge part of it, especially after four turnovers.
But it’s more than DNA. You need dudes who can make plays, and the Lions have a ton of dudes, who made a bunch of plays.
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It was Goff hitting Jameson Williams for a 32-yard touchdown.
“Yeah, I had a pylon route,” Williams said. “I kind of saw the safety before the play, we are running it off of him, so if he was inside of me, I know once I get about 12 or 15 yards if he is not able to run with me to the back pylon then we got him.”
Read between the lines: He’s figuring out this offense, and Goff is trusting him to be in the right place.
“He’s part of the herd,” Campbell said. "He's been accepted."
But then, this wasn’t just an offensive story. The Lions needed a stop, with less than 3 minutes to play, and here it came.
It was Jack Campbell, coming up and turning into a brick wall — he’s growing in the biggest moments.
It was Alim McNeill getting another stop.
And it was a deep shot that fell incomplete, forcing the Bears to punt.
And that crack had turned into a giant hole — one which the Lions were about to jump through with both feet.
It started with David Montgomery, ripping off a 13-yard run and then a 12-yarder.
"He’s steady,” Campbell said. “He’s reliable, he’s explosive, he can help in the pass game, run game, protection, and if there’s anything I would say is, man wish we could’ve gotten him the ball more."
It was Goff going to the youngsters, hitting all Jahmyr Gibbs for 6 and Sam LaPorta for 8 — two rookies who are aging wonderfully.
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"Here’s what we know about Goff," Campbell said. "At the very least he’s going to be mentally tough and physically tough, and you can always count on that. You can bank on that, and today he showed his resiliency, you know? And when we needed those plays when he showed up in no-huddle mode, he was awesome.”
After Montgomery plunged into the end zone, giving the Lions the lead, there was another key moment that happened in the middle of the exciement.
Goff hit LaPorte for the two-point conversion, pushing the lead to three and making sure if the Bears got a late field goal, it would only tie the game.
"Man, I was proud of the guys, the coaches," Campbell said. "Nobody got frazzled, we knew if we could just get the ball back in our court, we get a stop, score, we could get some momentum back, but man that’s what I was proud of. Pressure went up, my heart rate leveled out like we talk about, so it’s a great job by a number of guys. Really the whole team had a part in that."
Belief turns to reality
Finally, it was Campbell’s unwavering belief in this team.
After the Lions took the lead, he met with the defense.
“I actually went down there and I said, ‘It just doesn’t get any better than this,'" he said. "Like, this is the moment — this is what you want to be in right now. Game on the line, you got a chance to make the big stop to win this game and (Lions DL Aidan Hutchinson) goes out and makes the sack-fumble of his life for a safety.
"I mean, that to me, those are the moments we’re built for. Like, that’s how we have to think, and I mean that was how it felt like when they took the field. This is why you play this game at this level, it was for moments just like that. It was awesome.”
Yes, here came Hutchinson charging around the right corner like a freight train, beating right tackle Darnell Wright. And then Hutchinson swatted at the ball, whacking it away from Justin Fields. As the ball was tumbling toward the end zone, he shoved Wright out of the way. And it rolled out — a safety.
It was like putting a cherry on top of the most surreal sundae on Sunday.
Having said that, let me point out something else. The Lions could have lost this game earlier. But you know who kept them in it?
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The rookie defensive back is an absolute joy to watch.
He’s a game-wrecker. Whether it’s in coverage. Or, better yet, flying across the line of scrimmage and making a fantastic tackle for a loss. He had three in the first three quarters on Sunday.
That kept the game close.
But so did Hutchinson.
Everybody focuses on his sacks. But he had a tremendous impact on this game — in the most unusual way. Because of his unrelenting motor. Several times, the Bears would break a tackle or make a big play, and Hutchinson would chase them down from behind, saving an even bigger play.
This wasn’t one player.
This was a pure team win.
Now, was it perfect?
Heck no. They can’t turn the ball over four times against a good team and win.
But the won.
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That’s what really good teams do.
And that’s what the Lions are — a dang good football team.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Belief becomes reality as Detroit Lions win stunner: How it happened
