A dream season for the Lions ended in excruciating fashion Sunday, with Detroit self-destructing after taking a 17-point lead into halftime and eventually losing 34-31 to the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
It was a true horror show, a smorgasbord of gaffes ranging from key dropped passes, to an untimely turnover, to questionable coaching decisions to plain bad luck.
It was hard to divide the blame, as there was plenty to go around -- though Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse gave most of it to Lions head coach Dan Campbell on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast for not sending out his field goal unit while leading 24-10 in the second half.
Campbell has been aggressive all season, often times with the data backing up those decisions. But sometimes the game flow should dictate game decisions. Having a chance to settle your team down and restore a three-score lead sure seems like one of them.
Instead, a dropped pass on fourth down completely changed the momentum and outcome of the game. The Curse of the Lions, which looked like it was melting away with a Super Bowl in sight, instead remained in full force.
The force as strong enough, in fact, to override another lesser-known and more curious curse: The Curse of Kirk Cousins.
Did you know that before Sunday, no team had reached the Super Bowl in a season in which it lost a game to a team quarterbacked by Cousins?
It’s a strange thing, period, and perhaps even a stranger thing to know. I hadn’t heard about it until late last week when I came across this piece, which lays it out in great detail.
