The Lions have got to be everyone’s second favourite team…right?

[KingBoots8]

I have a general rule that I, being the hater that I am, don’t want a team that hasn’t won already winning a Super Bowl before us… the lone exception to that is the Lions. I think their true fans have waited a long time for a team worth cheering for, and the organization seems to be made up of a good group of players and coaches. The one thing I don’t like about the Lions is that Tre White and Vin Miller both got hurt on that turf.

 

Its Bills vs Everyone to me, but I respect the Lions and hope their team sees continued success as long as they aren’t lined up across from us.

Edited December 12 by KingBoots8

[MPL]

After the Bills, I've found myself watching a lottttt of Jets games. I just can't get enough this year. 

[Big Turk]

I am rooting for them in the NFC. 

 

They are Buffalo's kindred spirit in the NFC...overlooked, laughed at and joked about for so long...dysfunctional for decades...one of only 3 teams to lose every game in a season(even we never had it THAT bad!)

 

Had a period where they won 1 playoff game in 57 years...

 

I'm rooting for them, just not this week!

[BillsPride12]

8 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

I’m from Livonia originally and also did the same with all Bills/Lions games basically going back to 1994. 
 

Can’t make this one. Which is a total bummer. I’m happy for my friends who stayed with them or showed some degree of interest in them the last 20+ years. But as I said upthread, I have noticed a whole contingent of people who really couldn’t give a flying F” about them just all over them at this point. Which may or may not be true with Buffalo as well. It’s hard for me to see not being from the area. But my perception is we were always here. Even in the drought era. 

 

So it has a fair weather vibe for me. Also, I like the people in that area a lot and still visit a lot, but it would suck if they beat us to it. It’s a little too close to home for me if they do and I would most certainly be subject to some serious crap talking. We will see. Conflicted on them but I’m not really a two team guy anyway. 

As someone who still lives in WNY this is absolutely true here as well. 

[BillsDiehard]

This team is my full time job 😂 I wouldn't have time to take on a second one! 

[Steve O]

6 hours ago, Matt_In_NH said:

My second favorite team has always been is playing the stankfish. 

You're more consistent than me. During the 70's, 80's, and 90's, yeah, it was whoever was playing the Dolphins. 2000-2019 it was whoever was playing the Patriots. Since 2020 whoever is playing the Chiefs.

[Bills!Win!]

I used to have a soft spot in my heart for the Cleveland Browns, but brownie the elf ruined that for me

[Chicken Boo]

Mine switches.  There are teams that I don't mind.   

 

My late cousin was an Eagles fan from the Randall/Fred Barnett days.  The Lions are in there.  I'm a Marylander, so Bmore as well.  Loved those dominant defenses.  

[oldmanfan]

1 hour ago, DCofNC said:

Same, but only if the Bills aren’t in the SB against them.

Absolutely

[SCBills]

Nah.. I think they’re a low key dirty team 

[akinko_kd]

Yes, so from this time

 

[Bigantall]

15 hours ago, Billsfed1 said:

Am I the only one who thinks this way?  

 

I’m a sucker for any franchise that has dedicated fans and hasen’t won a championship.  Detroit looks great, if we played them in a Super Bowl (and lost) it would be the first time I’ve watched a Bills Super Bowl in a losing effort and I wouldn’t be crushed, because I would be happy to see another fan base like Detroit’s to get theirs.  
 

What’s not to like?  They have good players, a likeable coach and a fanbase that deserves it.

 

All that being said…Bills by 10.  Those sweet uni’s…and James Cook goes off.  Also, McDermott takes pride in his defensive performances and you know that’s not happening twice.  

 

Josh’s best performance of his career was last Sunday on the ROAD, against a quality opponent with no help whatsoever.  

 

I think this is a “come back to earth” game for both teams but we see these guys again.

I'm with you on this about our defense but for me I will never say never the defense is going to have it prove it for me

[stevewin]

Rooted for the feel good story of them being relevent again as most did - have to admit though getting a little tired of them and Dan Campbell being promoted every second by the media now 

[buffalostu2]

14 hours ago, Another Fan said:

I haven't followed them much this year but yeah I rooted for them in the past to an extent.  

 

They were hospitable to the Bills in 2014 and 2022 with letting the team use their stadium after the snowstorms.

 

That and I still recall after the game in 2018 a good number of Bills fans here posted positive stuff about Lions fans in the stadium.  

Don't forget they are where our first uniforms came from as well

[without a drought]

F them

[CookieG]

I like what the Lions did in building their team.  Many of the moves and draft choices were off beat, and were criticized, but also solid for what they were looking to do.  

 

And it worked for them.

 

While some teams brought in coaches for their teams who look like they were dragged out of the analytic dept. somewhere, McDaniel, Sayleh, and Nathaniel Hackett, (who really is an analytic nerd, and not very good at it.) 

 

The Lions went with a coach with very little coaching/coordinator experience, but looked like a player, (ofc, he was) who really promised very little besides biting kneecaps and giving blood, sweat and tears.  So Churchillian.  But he also surrounded himself with a couple of very gifted coordinators.

 

In drafting...they have been outstanding, again, being offbeat but solid in their picks.  

 

In 2021, they traded away their franchise QB for some high draft picks and the Rams castoff QB.  IT almost looked like they were conceding defeat and wanted to give Stafford a chance at a SB.  

 

They used the 7th pick on a guy who was looked at as a right tackle for them.  "you don't take a right tackle that high".  It worked.

That year they also nabbed a WR in the 4th, who was like  the 15th WR taken, who has become one of the best in the league.

 

In 2022, they used one of the draft picks in the Stafford trade to move UP to take a WR who wasn't going to play that year.  But they wanted a deep threat in the future and to a large extent, it worked. 

 

They also nabbed Kerby Joseph in the 3rd who has become one of the best safeties in the league.

Hutch wasn't really an offbeat pick, he was pretty much a consensus. 

 

In 2023, they def. went offbeat.  They had the 6th pick from the Rams, traded down to 12 and got an early 2nd in the deal.  

And they used the 12th pick on...a RB.   Yeah, that got some howls from the draft people, and the "you don't draft a RB in the 1st round" calls from many of those people.  But their reasoning made sense. 

 

They knew they were going to be a running team. 

They had already built one of the best OL in the league.

They signed David Montgomery, a very good back who will grind out yards for them. 

But they wanted a dual threat back who gave the opportunity to turn a 4 yard gain into a 40 yard gain. 

 

So with Gibbs, they got a guy who, in splitting carries, has 1300 yards from scrimmage, 12 tds, and is averaging 5.7 ypc.

 

It worked, for them, because they knew what they wanted to do and how to get there.

 

At 18, they drafted a MLB, another pick that many called a reach, or something you don't don't do in the 1st.  But again, their reasoning was solid. In 2022, they were 29th against the run.  They have been top  5 in the past 2 years.  

 

With their 34th pick that they got from trading down ,they picked up Sam LaPorta, a reasonably athletic TE who had the ability to become a better blocker.  He's fit in well in what they wanted to do. 

 

And they used their own 2nd round pick on S Brian Branch, they have one of the better Safety combos in the league now.

 

They used their 1st 2 picks in 2024 on CB's who will remain to be seen.

 

They definitely went against convention in a number of ways.  But it worked...for them.  

 

 

 

 

[dpberr]

Have always had a soft spot for the Cardinals and Vikings.  Cardinals are one of the NFL's worst teams all-time.  Vikings are better.

 

Bills are almost to .500 as a franchise.  

 

[BADOLBILZ]

 

To paraphrase John Madden............if you have 2 teams you have none.

 

Football, in particular,  is a sport where you gotta' own one team because every game is largely about physically beating the opponent into submission.    There are always a few deliberate attempts to injure, regardless of rhetoric to the contrary.   If there aren't your team is soft.    

 

 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

100% love the Lions. It's Buffalo 2.0. 

[BADOLBILZ]

7 minutes ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

100% love the Lions. It's Buffalo 2.0. 

 

 

The teams couldn't be much more different.   Bills are QB driven offensively and schemed up on D.    Lions schemed up on O and all about violence on D.  And Detroit the city is like Beirut compared to Buffalo.   Every time I go there I am still shocked by how bad it is.   Not just run down or dated.......scary.   I have empathy for their economic and civic problems and the Lions organization has been gracious letting the Bills play there during snowpocalypses......but we are not that alike.    It's also a true 4 pro sport town with big college allegiances.   Very different than Buffalo.   Buffalo has more in common with Cleveland or even Pittsburgh.