3. Matthew Stafford: The MVP slayer?
By sneaking past Cam Newton and the Panthers, that makes three wins for Stafford head-to-head this year against previous league MVP quarterbacks.
I’ve been much more critical of Stafford this year than I usually am, only because despite being an all-time favorite of mine, I feel like he’s having a poor season. I have to hand it to him though, wins over Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Cam Newton aren’t exactly easy to come by.
The degree of difficulty on that feat has to be about a 9.5 out of 10 (made slightly easier by all three wins coming at home). Another win at Lambeau over Rodgers would make for an ultra rare 4-0 record against NFL MVPs.
4. Get your Bills tickets while you can
A side project of mine this season has been periodically checking in on the ticket prices for the Week 15 Lions-Bills game in Buffalo. They are currently going for as low as $6 on vividseats.com. I couldn’t buy a sandwich for that cheap where I live.
Prices were even down to $5 at one point a few weeks back, but I guess now that the Lions are getting hot, the market has responded in turn. My consumer advice: If you want to watch a Lions game in under ten bucks (and probably under ten degrees as well), better act fast and buy now.
5. The Lions aren’t fully out of it, and the Bears aren’t fully in it
At 7-3, the Bears are clearly in the driver’s seat in the NFC North, but it may not be a good idea to remind them of that. Some of Chicago’s better teams in recent memory have gotten to seven wins quickly, only to be undone by massive late-season collapses.
In 2011, they also started 7-3 (and also eviscerated the Lions at Soldier Field in Week 10), but finished 8-8 and missed out on the playoffs. The same thing happened the following season, as the Bears missed the playoffs after starting off 7-1.
Not that I’d trade places in the standings with them, but there’s still a lot of ball left.