NFL Week 18 overreactions: 14-team playoff field is set with endless possibilities
Mackenzie Salmon ‘overreacts’ to the biggest storylines from Week 18 in the NFL.
USA TODAY
Rex Ryan is tired of the arrogance from All-Pro quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
While most of the national football conversation Monday focused on what Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers did wrong in Sunday night’s 20-16 loss to the Detroit Lions, former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan, and others, wanted to focus on, you know, the team that won. (Rodgers in his postgame comments wasn’t exactly effusive in crediting the Lions for the Packers’ struggles — in this meeting or the first one, a 15-9 Detroit win.)
“I’m sick of tired of no respect for the team (the Packers) played. This team was 8-2 in their last 10 games in Detroit… you never gave them any respect, Aaron Rodgers,” Ryan said on ESPN’s “Get Up” program. “You never gave (the Lions) any respect after they beat ya (when they were) 1-6 and started this climb. And you’re still not giving them respect. So I don’t want to show this man the respect until he shows that Lions team respect.”
After saying Rodgers’ play was “drastically different” and has “gone downhill” in 2022, Ryan said the future Hall of Famer might not want to deal with these new, improved Lions moving forward.
“Can we please, for once, give credit to the team that beat the hell (out of the Packers)?” Ryan said. “To me, that’s the problem here… if you’re Aaron Rodgers: your division is not going through Green Bay, it’s going through Detroit for the next five years. … do you really want to face that again?”
“Get Up” host Mike Greenberg was quick to point out the North went through Minnesota this year, though the Lions’ had the division’s best record vs. their rivals. Speaking of Greenberg he was one of many national media members who have stumped for Dan Campbell to be considered as a Coach of the Year candidate, doing so in a tweet after the win.
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On the same show, former Detroit quarterback Dan Orlovsky praised the Lions for dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides and “out-coaching” the Packers.
Peter Schrager, of NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” deflected a Packers-related question so he too could celebrate the Lions. (Schrager prefaced his statement by correctly noting that the future of Rodgers will dominate headlines all spring and summer since No. 12 has until the 2023 regular season to accept his $59 million player option. Exciting discourse, right?)
“These Lions young guns came into Lambeau and they played so free and so fearless,” Schrager said, “and I want to shout out the coaching staff: Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator, and Dan Campbell.”
Schrager cooed about the gutsy fourth-down conversions and the fourth-quarter second-and-17 screen-turned-lateral that set social media ablaze. He really liked Campbell’s message during an in-game sideline report: despite being eliminated from playoff contention, the Lions simply wanted to win.
With “nothing to play for” after Seattle Seahawks ensured the Lions would miss another postseason, they just wanted to beat the Packers. Call it the pride of the pride.
“That was awesome for the Lions. What a launch pad into the offseason and next season… here come the Lions, you better believe it,” Schrager said. “Sorry, Green Bay. You had every opportunity, can’t get the job done. Aaron Rodgers’ conversation will come but today is about the Lions.”
Jason McCourty, a former Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots, loves the Lions’ edge, he said Monday. He singled out, among others, rookie defenders Aidan Hutchison, who notched two sacks in the win, and Kerby Joseph, who picked off Aaron Rodgers for the third time this season.
Ex-Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said Sunday night Campbell has the Lions believing they are winners, which is a foreign idea to most who’ve watched the NFL over the past several decades.
“He’s changed the culture, plain and simple,” Hasselbeck said on Scott Van Pelt’s late-night ESPN show. “He’s changed it in Detroit, when you think about Detroit over the past decade, they’ve been losers.”
Even legendary basketball commentator Dick Vitale took a break from basketball-watching to put in his two cents. In a Twitter video posted Monday morning, he reveled in the “pride and passion” the Lions showed.
“What a fantastic win by the Lions vs the Packers. Credit Coach DAN CAMPBELL-JARED GOFF – JAMAAL WILLIAMS & the Lions defense as they played with intense PRIDE,” his tweet read. “They started 1-6 & finished with a WINNING RECORD. The future is so bright in the MOTOR CITY.”
The teams finished with similar records, but their futures feel very different from one another. The Packers (8-9) end a streak of three straight postseason appearances and will have to be creative with Rodgers’ massive salary commitment and an aging offensive line and defense.
The Lions (9-8) went 5-1 in the division, sweeping the Packers and the Chicago Bears. They will have two top-10 picks to add to a young defense and skillplayer group, plus a bit of cap space to work with as they look to end a seven-year playoff drought next season.