Lions-Vikings Week 14 Song of the Game: ‘777’ by Silk Sonic

The Detroit Lions are 5-1 in their last six games, and I’m feeling reckless. Maybe it’s being starved from real, good Lions football for so long, or maybe there are legitimate reasons to believe everything that’s happening is not only real, but sustainable.

Either way, I’m enjoying the ride, throwing all my damn belief in to this regime, and yes, I’m declaring that the Detroit Lions have arrived.

Time to stop walking the fence. Time to stop protecting your future feelings by pulling back your belief and expectations. Time to stop being afraid for the other shoe to drop.

It’s time to strut with your chest wide and your neck high.

Detroit Lions Week 14 Song of the Game: “777” by Silk Sonic

Hot hand, they not gon’ believe me
But check the recordin’

The Lions have one of the hottest hands in the NFL right now, and I don’t blame some other fanbases for not believing it yet. Vikings fans were in a stupor when they found out they were 2.5-point dogs to the 5-7 Lions. Jets fans are going through the same thing right now, trying to play the disrespect card, and pointing to meaningless season-long stats. Yes, the Lions defense is 31st in points and yards allowed. But check the recordin’ of the last six weeks:

You gotta trust your gut (you gotta trust your gut, uh)
Can you feel it? (I can feel it)
Ooh (ooh), this the big one (big money)
You gotta trust your gut (you gotta trust your gut now, now)
Can you feel it? (I can feel it)

On Sunday, Lions coach Dan Campbell answered a lingering question I’ve had about him for quite some time. We’ve seen him get aggressive and risky out of necessity. We’ve seen fake punts before and aggressive fourth down calls when the Lions were overmatched and Campbell knew they had to pull out stops. But would that same Campbell show up when the Lions were the better team?

Asked and answered. The Lions are a better team than the Vikings. They had a seven-point lead at the time. THEY WERE AT THEIR OWN 26-YARD LINE AND IT WAS FOURTH-AND-7. Campbell put his nuts on the table and said, “Put it all on black.” (and it wasn’t red).

Ayy, now we makin’ money, now we makin’ money
Now we makin’ money

Now everything is in front of the Lions. They don’t quite mathematically hold their playoff destiny in their hands, but win out—and the schedule is favorable—and they’re almost certainly in. Believing they can do it is no longer an opinion reserved for the delusional. The odds are stacked against them—as it would be for literally any team to finish the season with a 9-1 run—but why not let it ride?

Pretty motherfucker with some money to blow
I’m ‘bout to buy Las Vegas after this roll

This is all house money. The majority of this fan base did not expect playoffs in 2022, and we certainly didn’t have any expectations of meaningful December football back when Detroit was 1-6.

Could there be Vegas-style hangover as soon as this Sunday when a tough Jets team is standing in Detroit’s way? Yeah, of course. But live in the moment. Get a little tipsy off the Kool-Aid. If the Lions stumble down the stretch and go 3-1 or 2-2 or even worse, it doesn’t matter. The headache will go away because we know what’s beyond the next four weeks. We’ve seen the vision of this regime, and we’ve seen the proven results.

Next year, with a roster that is almost certainly going to look a lot like the one we’re looking at today, this team will not start 0-10-1 or 1-6. They are going to hit the ground running, and with a full season of this level of play, who knows where this team is headed in 2023.

Stop being afraid of high expectations because this team is starting to finally meet them.

Give me the chips, give me the chips
because I’m about to go all in (why?)
I can see the champagne fallin’
I got bills to pay, but bills can wait
Ah, fuck it, we ballin’

Each week, we’ll be providing a Song of the Game to create a full-season playlist. You can listen to previous year’s soundtracks right here: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

You can find the 2022 playlist here (or below):