Lions fans are approaching this week's game with an incredibly strange mixture of curiosity, hope and wide eyed terror. Dan Orlovsky's thumb has rendered him useless for the next few weeks - well, more than he normally is anyway, leaving the team in the hands of either frat boy asshole Drew Stanton or damaged Ferarri Daunte Culpepper. People are pretty sure that it is going to be Culpepper, which is both scary and hilarious, scary because he has only been in town for a week and has spent most of the season retired, hilarious because, well, this says an awful lot about how terrible Drew Stanton is, doesn't it?
Adding to this pending disaster is the fact that the Lions best offensive lineman, center Dominic Raiola, could miss the game with an injury of his own, something he hasn't done since showing up in Detroit in 2002. So, there is a very good chance that the Lions will go into Sunday's game against Jacksonville with a quarterback who hasn't played all year and has only been practicing with the Lions for a few days taking snaps from a center he has never worked with and who himself hasn't played all year. Yes, Andy McCollum is a veteran, but let's not pretend that this won't result in at least one hilariously botched exchange this week. Oh, and by the way, McCollum also has a finger that's broken in three places. JOY.
So, with all of this, Lions fans are pretty sure that Sunday could be even more apocalyptic than it normally is. But, Culpepper has been a good quarterback before which is something no one else on this team can say, and so Lions fans are hoping that maybe by some miracle, the last few years of his career will just melt away, his knee will finally be right, and his golden cannon of an arm will make Calvin Johnson look like Randy Moss. Images of those explosive Vikings offenses can't help but dance through our heads during these ridiculous and awful times. It's all we have left.
Thankfully, the Lions saving grace might just be the fact that Jacksonville looks like it is descending into chaos and civil war, with rumors that Mike Peterson will be suspended and that the team is only one argument away from Peterson and head coach Jack Del Rio settling things in the Thunderdome. The Jags are only 3-5 this season and it appears that it has finally gotten to them. They are not a team that is used to losing and their implosion might be the one thing that the Lions need to cravenly steal a victory before the season is out. Of course, it won't be because the Lions play particularly well, but we will take what we can get, and if that means Calvin Johnson scampering for a touchdown when the Jacksonville defenders start fighting each other on the field and Jack Del Rio is beaten by everyone on the sideline in a full scale revolt then so be it.
Still, Jacksonville is a much, much better team than the Lions. Sure they lost to the Bengals last week, who up until then had been the Lions only competition for the worst team in the league, but in my opinion that only makes it that much less likely that the Jags lose this week. They may be a huge disappointment, but it is incredibly doubtful that they would lose to the two worst teams in the league back to back. They still have more talent than Detroit and if things calm down just a bit this could be just the game they need to start to right the ship. If they see that and if they understand that then the Lions really don't stand much of a chance. If they are still caught up in petty bickering and civil strife, then there is a chance that the Lions can steal this one. We shall see.
Predicted Final Score: Jacksonville 24, Lions 23
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