Detroit Lions go the distance with the Chiefs, but bow out in the final round

Any of that look sort of look familiar?

So I picked up a retro record player a couple weeks ago and have been listening to a lot of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album lately (I swear this is relevant, just give me another sentence and a half to bring it around).

The Lads from Liverpool were in full experimentation mode on that record, including a haunting special effect on the final track of the first side, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. To get a trippy carnival atmosphere, Beatles producer George Martin had the recording engineer slice a tape of recorded carnival music into pieces, throw them onto the floor, and then reassemble them at random.

Watching the second half of what was possibly the NFL’s best game so far this year, it felt at times like I was watching little film clips of all the Lions most haunting losses of the decade, chopped up with scissors and blindly pieced back together.

For example:

• The ‘why is he still running??’ surrealism of the Chiefs’ barely believable 100 yard fumble return. Echoes of the infamous Justin Forsett phantom touchdown on Thanksgiving 2012.
• The process of the catch. Nearly ten years since that term entered the football lexicon with Calvin Johnson in the 2010 season opener, Kenny Golladay gets a go ahead touchdown wiped off the board after not completing the process.
•  Matthew Stafford turning into a fullback. Treating defenders life bowling pins before dropping his shoulder for more tough yardage, Stafford’s gutty but risky run (2:30 of the clip) looked quite a bit like against the Titans in 2016.
•  Hurdles and Helicopters. The leaping hurdle in the open field has gone out of vogue in the NFL somewhat in the last few years. Joique Bell is the last Lions player that I remember going for it. This one happened to be another game at Ford Field that ended with a Hail Mary into the end zone on the Brush Street side. On Sunday, it was Logan Thomas with his “that was cool, but you can really hurt yourself doing that” hurdle attempt after a catch; then Hockenson trying the same thing on the next drive, getting helicoptered by a defender a la Kerryon Johnson a week ago, and yes, hurting himself.
• Game of Inches. Anyone else remember two years ago, when the Lions were also a few inches away from knocking off a team with legit Super Bowl ambitions and getting out of September undefeated?
• Patrick Mahomes. If even the way Patrick Mahomes drove the length of the field in the final two minutes looked a little too familiar, consider which NFL quarterback the Texan was compared to in his pre-draft scouting report.