Sweet Victory: Detroit Lions Get 19-Game Loser Monkey Off Their Backs

It began the way many Lions games we're accustomed to seeing often begin: a 15-yard face mask penalty, an injured player, the opposition with good field position.

"Here we go again," you may have said. I know I did. It's been the Lions' slogan over the past year and a half: "Here we go again."

Something was different about today, though. You could see it in Jim Schwartz's steely eyes and in the determination on quarterback Matthew Stafford's face.

The Lions took the city upon their shoulders today and didn't just win by accident. They worked for it. They won with hard work and a long field.

After Washington was stopped in the first quarter by an impressive goal line stand, the Lions found themselves on their own one-yard line.

"Here we go again"; 99 yards may as well have been 99 miles if recent history had anything to say about it.

But Stafford, showing the poise of a veteran, used a hard count to draw Albert Haynesworth offsides, like a breath of fresh air for the embattled Lions.

From there, a series of handoffs to Kevin Jones and play-action passes to Dennis Northcutt and Bryant Johnson led the Lions 99 yards to a touchdown.

What?!

Washington would again have to punt after their next series, and again, the Lions were forced to start at their own six-yard line.

No matter. Been there, done that, right?

Against all logic, Detroit would again charge down the field. It wasn't always pretty, and Stafford often overthrew or underthrew his receivers, but the hard running of Kevin Smith kept everything in balance.

The drive would end on a sack on Stafford and a Jason Hanson kick, but the Lions still had a 10-0 lead.

They still weren't done though.

Yet again, Detroit would get the ball back after a Washington punt, and again, the Lions would have a long field, starting from their own six-yard line.

There would be nearly seven minutes still on the clock at this point, and the Lions masterfully would use every second of it.

I can't explain how this happened, because I've watched a lot of football games, and I've never even seen the greatest teams accomplish what the Lions did in this half.

For a third straight time, starting in the shadow of their own end zone, the Lions marched downfield, using every second on the clock, and as time expired, Hanson booted another field goal.

13-0 Lions at the half.

But even then, I still had that feeling that we were witnessing a mirage, an anomaly. I was waiting for something to go wrong, as it had 19 times every game before.

Sure enough, on Washington's third play after halftime, Santana Moss would sprint downfield, 57 yards for a touchdown.

"Here we go again."

Right? Wrong.

The Lions defense would not let such a monumental first half offensive performance go to waste. Get this—they actually preserved a lead!

I cannot stress this enough: The Lions dominated on both sides of the ball. Washington's rushing attack was continuously stuffed; the Lions stopped Washington on fourth down twice. They sacked Jason Campbell twice and intercepted him at a key point in the game.

Still, you got the feeling that a tenuous 13-7 Lions lead would not hold—that they would blow it somehow.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Lions forced another Washington punt. They returned the punt nearly to midfield, but a penalty put them back on their own 15-yard line.

Faced with yet another 85-plus-yard field, Stafford and the Lions went to work again, and the Lions would pull out all the stops.

Smith had suffered a shoulder injury in the third quarter, but the Lions' other backs, Aaron Brown and Maurice Morris, saved their best for this drive. Stafford had an impressive 22-yard run of his own on a critical third down. A little used tight end named Will Heller made a couple nice catches.

Then Stafford let loose and hailed a bomb downfield to Bryant Johnson. It wasn't caught, and there was a flag. "Here we go again." But wait, it was pass interference in favor of the Lions! That would give Detroit the ball on Washington's one-yard line.

It culminated in a short touchdown run by Morris, the backup running back. It put Detroit up 19-7 after a failed two-point conversion.

There were six minutes left on the clock at this point, and it was here that Lions fans may have truly felt, for the first time in 19 games, that Detroit had a legitimate chance to win this game.

Still, a Lions fan's nerves are never calm until victory is completely assured, as evidenced by four zeroes on the clock at the end of the fourth quarter.

Washington reminded us of that.

Schwartz would go to the prevent defense, taking away the deep threat, knowing full well that the Redskins needed to score twice in six minutes, and they would have to dink and dunk their way to doing it.

Campbell racked up most of his 340 passing yards in these final minutes, and he was able to get his team downfield in a hurry with a flurry of short passes. He would find Rock Cartwright in the end zone to narrow the Lions' lead to 19-14.

With two-and-a-half minutes left on the clock, and all of their timeouts remaining, Washington would forego the onside kick and kick off to the Lions.

It proved to be the right decision. Detroit was able to get a first down out of the drive and forced Washington to use all of their timeouts, but the Lions couldn't run out the clock.

Nick Harris punted to Antwaan Randle El, and with just over one minute remaining, Washington would get the ball at their own 25-yard line.

From there, Campbell promptly shot laser beams down the field, his receivers running out of bounds with ease, down to the Lions' 23-yard line. Twenty seconds remaining on the clock. "Here we go again."

This was it. Campbell was going to take the dagger already lodged firmly in the back of every Lions fan and give yet another twist for good measure.

The first attempt was overthrown. Time for one final play. The Lions sideline was pandemonium. Coaches and players alike were jumping up and down. The 40,000 fans in attendance was the smallest crowd to ever see a game at Ford Field, but at this moment, you couldn't tell. The roar of the crowd drowned everything else out.

Stafford couldn't bear to watch, his head buried in his hands, his eyes lasered in on the ground.

Pulling out every stop he had, Schwartz sent in Calvin Johnson on defense to protect the end zone.

Campbell dropped back, the crowd giving him every ounce of vitriol they had left in them. The ball was thrown, the collective gasp from the crowd sucking the remaining air from the stadium, and..."Here we go again."

But not this time.

The pass fell incomplete. The clock ticked zero. The fat lady sung. The Lions won a game.

The tears that fell from the players said it all. We often derided "those overpaid jerks," but in the midst of a 19-game losing streak, we forgot about the weight that they carried.

They celebrated as if they had just won the Super Bowl. Maybe this win was just as important.

The streak is over. That streak now belongs to the St. Louis Rams, losers of 13 straight. They can have it, and all that comes with it.

After the game, the Lions came back onto the field to personally thank the few fans who remained for their loyalty. A class act.

This doesn't mean an automatic return to mediocrity. This does give the Lions room to breathe though. A win!

We've gone 19 straight games, over a year and a half, without being able to say that! There will be more to come. Not many more, but more nonetheless.

To hell with 0-19. Now we're 1-2. Respectfully mediocre—just the way we remember it.