Over the next two weeks, the Detroit Lions will head out to the desert to take on the best in the NFC (Arizona at 8-1) and then fly to the East coast to take on one of the best in the AFC (the Patriots at 7-2).
There's no sense in talking postseason until after those two games. No one will be able to argue with a road win against the league's best in November -- even the lifelong Lions fans who are currently holding back their excitement until there's enough success to actually soak through the dense layers of scar tissue they've stockpiled to protect themselves.
But following a fourth-straight win, their third straight of the thrilling comeback type, the Detroit Lions are starting to change minds.
"The Lions don't make the dumb mistakes anymore," Peter King wrote in his weekly column on The MMQB. "Detroit has been winning the games they lost a year ago, and Sunday against Miami was a perfect example."
Losing those types of games dates back way before "a year ago," but Kings' point is still spot on. The elimination of dumb mistakes is helping Detroit win.
And the origin of that evolution starts at the top.
"For the third straight game, the Lions won a game they'd trailed late in the fourth quarter. And that, players and staff say, is a direct result of some of the mid games new coach Jim Caldwell is playing," King wrote. "Caldwell might be one of those rarities in the NFL--a coach who is better-suited to be a head coach than a coordinator. He worked to mixed reviews as Baltimore's offensive coordinator last year (the Ravens were 25th in the NFL in scoring at a paltry 20 points per game), but the Lions saw him as the perfect remedy to the up-and-down, discipline-challenged team that he would inherit. Caldwell can be an impassioned speaker, but much like one of his career mentors, Tony Dungy, he's a flat-liner who doesn't threaten loudly. If you don't do things his way, you'll be gone--but it will be done civilly."
It's hard to argue with the Caldwell effect. But it's also hard to ignore the cool customer he's got leading his huddles.
"When the pressure is on, it's almost as if the pressure is off for Stafford. His free-throwing ways -- having a good time, so to speak -- go from a weakness to a strength," wrote Bob Wojnowski in the Detroit News, who says "Stafford's cool" is rubbing off on teammates much like Caldwell's calm is trickling down the ranks.
"Boldness is growing, in the coach, in the quarterback and certainly in that terrific defense. Until the offense smooths out the rough spots and gets healthier, it will have to rely on moments of instinct and improvisation. It's not ideal, and perhaps not sustainable. But the more it works, the more you think it'll work."
And the more minds they will change.
Here's what else they're saying rolling the Detroit Lions' 20-16 win over the Miami Dolphins.
LOCAL Jeff Seidel (Detroit Free Press): Lions play best when best needed
Mitch Albom: The sidearm giveth and the sidearm...giveth
Wojo (Detroit News): Stafford's cool rubs off on Lions teammates
Dave Birkett (Detroit Free Press): Megatron makes difference in 1st game back
Josh Katzenstein (Detroit News): Lions becoming enamored with thrill of comeback win
Pat Caputo (Oakland Press): Comebacks by Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions not a coincidence
NATIONAL SI.com: Same old Lions? Not under the steady Caldwell
ESPN: Matthew Stafford is developing into a player with a great late-game reputation
MMBQ.com: Lions have turned things around because of Jim Caldwell (and a look at the Cardinals team Detroit will face next Sunday)
ProFootballFocus: Ezekiel Ansah and Ndamukong Suh grade out really well, but it's not a pretty review for center Dominic Raiola.
MIAMI VIEW ESPN: Mike Wallace on Dolphins' inconsistent offense: 'We can't keep doing this'
Miami Herald: Cornerback Brent Grimes kept Miami Dolphins in game with pick of Detroit Lions' Matthew Stafford
Miami Herald: Miami Dolphins need to step up when games are on the line to be elite
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Source: http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/2014/11/what_theyre_saying_what_theyre.html
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