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The Detroit Lions won their first division title in three decades and had their hopes of possibly earning home-field advantage dashed in a seven-day stretch that brought the franchise joy and pain.
Detroit beat the Minnesota Vikings, its opponent Sunday at home, to win the NFC North two weeks ago and then lost a shot to be the conference’s No. 1 seed with a setback at Dallas that ended when a successful 2-point conversion try was negated by a much-criticized penalty.
The Lions (11-5) say they’re moving on and focusing on earning a momentum-building win against Minnesota (7-9) to close the regular season. Next week, the Lions will end a six-season playoff drought with their first postseason game at home since 1993.
The loss to the Cowboys on a negated 2-point pass to offensive tackle Taylor Decker helped San Francisco secure the top seed, leaving Detroit with a slim chance to earn the No. 2 seed.
If the Lions beat the Vikings as expected and the unexpected happens twice — Dallas loses at Washington and Philadelphia gets beat by the New York Giants on the road — they will bump up to the No. 2 spot, giving them a better chance of hosting two playoff games this month.
Detroit coach Dan Campbell plans to play his starters, resting only truly banged-up players, and wants to find out later in the day that the Cowboys and Eagles both lost.
“That’s why you need to win, so that you’re going to be excited to watch the games and see what happens,” Campbell said. “We’ve got to go finish out strong. We need to go out, play good clean, solid, competitive football against an opponent that is going to give us everything they’ve got.”
The Vikings’ season was stunted in late October when Kirk Cousins tore an Achilles tendon, and it didn’t help that star receiver Justin Jefferson was forced to miss seven-plus games with injuries, leading to three straight losses and five in a six-game stretch.
And yet, they’re one of 20 teams that went into the final week in playoff contention.
Minnesota would clinch a playoff spot with a win at Detroit and losses by Green Bay and Seattle, along with a loss by Tampa Bay or New Orleans.
“We know that we have the talent on this team,” said Jefferson, who has 882 yards receiving in nine games. “It’s just not our time, and there’s just things occurring that we can’t control.”