The Lions beat the Buccaneers to end a two-game losing skid, but they’ll likely need to play better in order to have a chance to win out and potentially return to the playoffs.
ALLEN PARK — Some people came away impressed by the Detroit Lions’ ability to win a December road game to stay in the playoff hunt. Others saw them blow a 14-point lead to a 4-8 team despite forcing five turnovers and wondered if they are better at all.
These are the power rankings taking stock of the Lions and the league, and they differ on whether Detroit is headed in the right direction as it enters the final three games with a 7-6 mark and playoff hopes that are still alive but waning in the NFC.
Of the eight power rankings we use in this post each week, two moved the Lions up at least four spots and two didn’t move them at all. On the whole, the 7-6 Lions are still seen as an incredibly average team.
Here’s the full breakdown:
Bleacher Report: 12th (up 2) Washington Post: 15th (up 4) ESPN: 16th (up 5) NFL.com: 16th (up 2) Yahoo! Sports: 16th (no change) USA Today: 16th (no change) CBS Sports: 16th (up 1) SB Nation: 18th (up 1)
This week, Detroit will get a Chicago Bears team that routinely ranks in the bottom 10 of these power rankings with a 4-8 record. They did beat the Cincinnati Bengals 33-7 on Sunday for their most dominant win of the season to date.
The Lions need to be a good step better than an average team in these final three games in order to return to the playoffs for a third time in four years. They currently sit the equivalent of two games back in the wildcard hunt after losing the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Atlanta Falcons.
