The Detroit Lions' Koolaid is back

It's incredible. Not only that, it's stupefying and mind-boggling. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it. Yet after the Detroit Lions beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, the kool-aided local sports media is revved up higher than a red-lined Indy car motor.

Yes, the Lions thumped the Jaguars, no doubt about it. Yet the Jaguars are a very, very, VERY bad football team, at least by NFL standards. The bottom of the barrel. The Jags are terrible on offense, defense -- you name it. Defeating such a team, even handily, is certainly nothing to crow about.

And what do we hear? If the Lions can only beat Minnesota next week, they'll move all the way up to third place in their division -- out of 4 teams. Well, good gawd a-mighty, why didn't  they say such an historic accomplishment might be on the horizon? Sound the trumpets, stop the presses, and start printing the playoff tickets. They're rolling now, say the kool-aiders as they're zooming through the stratosphere on their Honolulu blue and silver starships.

Please.

Reality check. The Lions are 4-4, with 8 games to go. Out of those 4 wins, they've yet to beat a really good team. In fact, they've lost to some teams that weren't so good during the first half of their schedule.

But wait a second, say the hyperglycemic folks -- the last half of their schedule favors the Lions because they play 5 of their remaining 8 games at home.

Really? Looking at their schedule, the first half was the easy part. Now it's going to get a lot tougher. Out of the last 8 games they've got the Packers twice, the Houston Texans, arguably the best team in the AFC, coming to town on Thanksgiving day, and the current 8-0 Atlanta Falcons. Throw in a road trip to Arizona, the resurgent Indy Colts under rookie QB phenom Andrew Luck, and Da Bears, who last time I looked had already beaten the Lions and are currently 7-1.

Yours truly thinks the Lions will be lucky to finish at 8-8, hopefully without half their team on the disabled list after they've run the gauntlet of the "big boys" as the season starts winding down and the games pick up in intensity.

So no, there will be no Super Bowl this year. Forget about that. The kool-aiders can wish I may, wish I might, and feed you terabytes of print and spoken words all they want, aka propaganda -- but it still ain't gonna happen. Because the Lions aren't good enough to be considered an elite team by anybody except those folks currently zooming around overhead on a misguided sugar rush. Not even close.

Credit where credit is due, though. Hats off to the folks piloting those starships, because if nothing else -- they're a persistent bunch. Once the Lions have finally succumbed to the laws of physics, more specifically the reality of the NFL, the sugarnauts will likely quickly refuel with a different flavor and start telling you about how great the Detroit Pistons are going to be this year.

Please.