Biggest game ever at Ford Field? Lions-Vikings has a case

ALLEN PARK — It doesn’t get much bigger than two 14-win teams meeting in the regular season’s finale with the division title and No. 1 seed up for grabs.

Ford Field is fresh off hosting its first two playoff games in stadium history from last season. And while those are hard to top, especially considering the outcomes, it still might not get any better than the Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football in a winner-take-all finale.

The NFL didn’t even wait until after Week 17 to announce Lions-Vikings as Game No. 272 to end the campaign from Detroit. That’s how easy of a decision this was.

Lions-Vikings features the most combined wins in a regular-season game in NFL history. And for those ready to point to the extra game added, the previous record was 25 victories, while these two NFC North foes clear that with a combined 28 wins.

In addition, this Week 18 game is just the fourth in NFL history to feature two teams that are 10-plus games over .500. It’s happened three times before: the Seahawks-Colts in 2005, Washington-Cowboys in 1983, and the Bears-Yellow Jackets in 1926. It’s been 20 years since the last, and nearly 100 since the first.

That’s rarified air.

“This is what you’re in it for. You couldn’t write a better scenario. You couldn’t come up with this,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after winning in Week 17. “The fact that both teams are sitting at 14-2, and it’s for the division and the top seed, it just doesn’t get any better than this.

“This is fairy-tale stuff. It speaks for itself. Our guys are excited … Now that it’s here, I’m going to spend the next six hours on the plane like, ‘This is as good as it gets.’”

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Heck, it’s hard to find more than a couple of regular-season comparisons that hold a candle to this matchup from around the NFL in recent history, let alone just from Ford Field.

From an NFL-wide perspective, the 1990 matchup between the Giants and 49ers, two 10-1 teams, deserves mention in this category. New York eventually won the Super Bowl that year, and this game was a preview of the NFC title game. But it happened in early December after both had lost, and not in the finale with all the marbles up for grabs like Lions vs. Vikings.

There is also the Rams-Chiefs game from 2018, with Lions quarterback Jared Goff going toe-to-toe against Patrick Mahomes and Co in a wild prime-time shootout. And sure, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning’s Colts/Broncos-Patriots had some big matchups, too, but none in a winner-take-all finale like this.

In fact, the No. 1 seed and division title has not been up for grabs in a winner-take-all game to end the regular season since 1993, when the Cowboys beat the Giants in overtime.

The list of contenders from just Ford Field’s perspective is even shorter. There were those two playoff games last year, which might be hard to top for some, with the Lions winning in the wild-card and divisional round to snap the NFL’s longest playoff-win drought.

If there were one true contender to top this Lions-Vikings game from Ford Field, it would be the win over Matthew Stafford and the Rams in the wild-card round. There were so many historical and emotional factors adding juice to every storyline. It was Stafford’s first return to Detroit since the trade between those two teams, not to mention the first playoff win in 32 years for the Lions.

And while many might mention the 2016 finale between the Lions-Packers to decide the NFC North from Ford Field. Those were two nine-win teams, and it wasn’t for the No. 1 seed or home-field advantage. And let’s be real, the expectations for the Lions were nowhere near where they are right now.

They are a legit Super Bowl contender, and this game is the difference between getting a bye and home-field advantage or hitting the road as the No. 5 seed in the wild-card round. For the first time in NFL history, there will be a 14-win wild-card team, and the Lions and Vikings would like to avoid that dubious distinction.

The Lions want home-field advantage because Ford Field has turned into one of the loudest and most helpful environments in the league. They clinched the division in Minnesota last year, so this would also be something that the home fans haven’t experienced since early 1994 from the Pontiac Silverdome.

“I told the guys, I’d rather win it at home anyway,” Lions edge rusher Za’Darius Smith said after beating the 49ers. “It’ll feel more special.”

But remember all of those injuries on the banged-up defense and with Lions running back David Montgomery? An extra week off and not having to hit the road and fly until a hypothetical Super Bowl trip would do those injured players and this team that has been put through the wringer a lot of good.

There is so much on the line in this weekend’s Lions-Vikings game that it just might be the biggest game in Ford Field’s 22-year history.

That No. 1 seed would be a big boost for two teams who are still looking for their first Super Bowl title, too. The fact remains — in terms of combined wins, this is as good as an NFL regular-season game gets.

It’s also the perfect cherry to go on top of the NFC North’s historic season. The NFC North heads into Week 18 with 43 combined wins, tied for the most since the 2002 realignment. The winner of Lions-Vikings also gets to call themselves division champs of what might be considered the best of all time.

“What more could you want? (Two)14-win teams can’t even win the division yet,” Taylor Decker, the team’s longest-tenured player, said. “It’s going to be really fun. I know that.

“So it is going to be really, really fun. It is going to be a rocking crowd at home and that crowd is going to be amazing. It is going to be pretty cool.”

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