When the Lions beat Denver in dominating fashion to improve to 6-2 way back at the start of November, Jon Kitna's prediction that Detroit would win 10 or more games was in great shape. With 8 games left, all the Lions had to do was go .500 in the second half of the year to reach that prediction. I knew it wasn't likely to happen just because the schedule got a lot harder, but the fact that there was such a solid chance of 4 more wins gave me hope.
I think I said something like I would spend a week basically bowing down before Kitna if the Lions won 10 games, but unfortunately I no longer have to worry about that possibility. Now that there are only 3 games remaining in the season, there is no chance of Kitna's prediction coming true as the Lions would need 4 wins. Had they beaten Dallas then they still would have had to win out, but since they choked that game away the prediction fell apart now rather than later.
Going back and looking at what Kitna said, I wouldn't call it crazy at all. Kitna truly believed that this team had 10 wins in them, and if you go back and look at four out of the last five losses, all of those games presented Detroit with a chance to win. I'm not saying that one play could have changed the outcome or something like that, although that was the case against Dallas, but in four out of the last five losses a win was in reach.
As I said, the comments weren't crazy at all when you think about it considering they were likely just for motivation anyways. But when you think about the actual comments, 10 wins was a possibility for much of the season, which is a great accomplishment by itself.
I don't remember if there were any parameters for when 10 wins could happen, so by chance if the Lions win the final three games of the season, make the playoffs, and win in the first round, they would end up with 10 wins for the season. Like I said, I don't remember if Kitna meant that they would win 10+ in the regular season only, but regardless, if he can lead this team to three wins to finish the season and a playoff win, I'll dedicate this site to him for more than just a week, and that's a promise.