Lions and bookies

The Detroit Lions must drive the bookies absolutely crazy. It's nigh impossible to get a read on those guys. Just when one thinks the Lions will do one thing -- BAM -- they do just the opposite.

Though most pundits ranked them in the bottom ten -- even five -- of the NFL before the season started, the Detroit faithful had little doubt their team was much better than that.

It started well. A road win over Indianapolis. Then back home, but oops, they lost to the lowly Tennessee Titans. That wasn't supposed to happen.

On to Green Bay. They pretty much got blown out in the first half, but rallied (or the Packers got bored) to keep the score respectable. Still, a loss. Now 1-2.

Up next was Chicago. Surely the Lions would right the ship. Nope, Da God awful Bears handed them another L. 1-3. Rumors began to circulate that head coach Jim Caldwell was on the hot seat.

It didn't look good in Game 5. The undefeated Philadelphia Eagles were coming to town. They had recently blasted the always tough Pittsburgh Steelers by 30 points. Even at home, the Lions were rightfully underdogs.

So what did the Lions do? Up and defeat the Eagles. Who saw that coming?

At that, they caught a huge break to pull off the upset. The Eagles had the game all but in the bag. Possession of the ball, time winding down, Detroit out of time-outs, and a two point lead. What could go wrong?

Turned out, a bone-head play by one of their running backs. He fumbled and the Lions fell on it. Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was likely beside himself. How in the hell could THAT happen?
Sure enough, Detroit managed to kick a game winning field goal. It wasn't supposed to.

But that's the Lions. Just when even their hard core fans are ready to give up on them and admit still another year is about to go down the drain, the team will pull off -- or stumble into -- a ray of hope. That's all the kool-aiders need to get them amped up again. Their heroes are now 2-3 and anything's possible. Sort of.

Will they finish above .500? Maybe. They couldn't ask for a softer schedule. Make the playoffs? Highly doubtful but ya never know.

Super Bowl worthy? Please. Halley's comet could make a U-turn and come back next week. The Donald and the Hill could ditch Mel and Bill respectively, both drop their Presidential aspirations, and run off to Bangladesh to enjoy the pleasures of each other's flesh. How'd you like to see the video of THAT? Eww. In a stunning turn of events, it could even be that all the peoples of the Middle East will lay down their arms and get along as one big happy family forever after. All theoretically possible.

But the Lions getting to, much less winning the Super Bowl any year/decade soon? Get outta here. Nobody's crazy enough to buy into that. Are they?

Nonetheless, the wise guys in Vegas have to get back to work figuring out point spreads. They must shudder when having to face yet another Lions game. Up is down, left is right, and nothing ever makes sense with the Honolulu blue and silver bunch. Poor devils.

In that respect, it's just another year indeed in the magical kingdom of the Lions. Nobody ever knows what the hell is going on....