The countdown reaches the middle of the pack, as we explore some Detroit Lions teams with memorable moments, but that nonetheless fell short in the end.
My first two installments featured the Worst of the Worst, and the Underachieving and Underperforming, and now we’re at what I’ll call the Middle of the Pack. For each of these Detroit Lions seasons, there were times of excitement, moments of hope, and memorable performances from some truly transcendent stars.
However, there aren’t any winning seasons or playoff teams yet in this section, as each season was ultimately derailed one way or another.
As a reminder, my four criteria for these rankings are Final W-L Record, Achievements, Star Power, and Entertainment Value (see Part One for full explanations)
Here is the Middle of the Pack, starting with the swan song of the greatest player in franchise history.
15. The 1998 Detroit Lions
Record: 3
- Coming off an emotional 9-7 season with a history making running back, the Lions slumped to a 5-11 finish with a three game winning streak in November providing the only real highlight.
Achievements: 2
- Three game winning streak, including the infamous “Heads-Tails” game against Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving.
Star Power: 5
- RB Barry Sanders, the biggest name in the game, with nearly 1,500 rushing yards in his final season
- DE Robert Porcher, what Ziggy Ansah would have been if he was able to stay healthy
- WR Johnnie Morton, with over 1,000 receiving yards, overtaking Herman Moore as the number one receiver
Entertainment Value: 5.5
- No team with Barry Sanders on it can score under five in entertainment, so this score is almost entirely due to Barry. After starting 2-7, they made a bit of a run to conjure up short-lived hopes of yet another late season playoff push (those were common for Detroit in the 90s). There was also the coin toss mix-up on Thanksgiving, where Jerome Bettis called ‘tails’, the referee heard ‘heads’, and somehow the Lions ended up with the ball and the win in overtime.
Total score: 15.5 out of 40