In preparation for the Thanksgiving day game in Detroit, I’ve been reading up on some of the Detroit papers to take the pulse of those fans, the team and their expectations.

They’re flatlining.

On the cover of the Detroit News sports section on Monday morning, in 230-point font, are the words “Giant Letdown.”  Reading through the articles you get the sense that the Detroit faithful are beginning to settle into that comfortable place they always expect to be around this time of year; realizing they don’t measure up on the NFL playoff team yardstick, and watching their team’s record disintegrate to meet those expectations.  Like the hero who’s been caught in a bad spot and given a mickey before he’s taken someplace terrible, the Lions are throwing flailing, half-hearted girl-punches just before their eyes close and their vision fades to black. 

And in this story, the hero dies.

Their religious quarterback is throwing around blame like a priest with communion wafers, their coach is starting to make goofball play selections (like not using their first-round pick Calvin Johnson much at all, one of the most electrifying players of this year’s draft), and their running game is now worse than the Packers was at the beginning of the season.

About 500 miles away the Packers couldn’t be going in a more different direction.  This team is now believing the hype, and why shouldn’t they?  They’ve beaten almost everyone placed in front of them and the margin of victory is growing with each passing week.  Even Brett Favre is getting spooked by how loose and confident this team is playing.  He’s programming Vinny Testaverde’s number into his cell phone so he can tap him for the secrets to his longevity; playing for a team this good is so damn fun he’d like to hang around another couple years.

After the Lions dismantled the Denver Broncos right after we were barely beat them I was looking at tomorrow’s game as an important ramp-up to the match between the NFC leaders the following week.  But as it turns out, it’s going to be just what I said it’d be when I was interviewed by USA Today:  It’s the Lions.  You can’t spell late season collapse without the Lions.*

I look for Favre to be eating pie or mutant turkey or something tomorrow afternoon after beating the Lions by two touchdowns.

*The last part of that quote was edited out by the staff at USA Today for fear of being truthful.  Or something.

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