$.01--The long regional nightmare in Detroit is over. The Lions won for the first time in almost exactly a calendar year, beating the visiting Vikings 29-27 courtesy of a walk-off touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown on the game’s final play.

That sound you heard around 4:11 p.m. ET on Sunday might have been the collective Lions fandom sighing joyous relief. This was the fourth Lions game this year decided on the very last play of the game. The first three, including the first meeting with the Vikings and last week’s Thanksgiving turkey, ended in Detroit's defeat. Not this time.

To those folks outside of Lions fandom, it might seem crazy to celebrate a win that elevates the record to 1-10-1. But unless you’re from Cleveland or Detroit, you don’t understand the life-sucking malaise that is a winless season. As a Lions fan and Cleveland native who has professionally covered the only two 0-16 teams in NFL history, trust me when I tell you there is nothing lower than the sheer futility of losing every single game. It’s truly devastating to a regional psyche.

Dan Campbell’s undertalented LIons have fought hard and been more competitive than they have any right to be in the last few weeks. In their last four games, they’ve now gone 1-2-1 with a point differential of just minus-3. Learning how to win and showing something tangible for the dedication to player development and positive reinforcement was critical.

Campbell really needed the win. His playcalling and in-game decisions have been major contributing factors to some recent losses, and he nearly blew this one with an astonishingly bad decision to call a rollout pass by Goff on 4th-and-1 from his own 28 while nursing a 23-21 lead late in the fourth quarter. But Campbell learned from a similar situation a week earlier and engineered a great two-minute drive to answer Kirk Cousins’ go-ahead TD strike to Justin Jefferson (for my money the NFL’s best WR this year). Goff was sharp and the Lions smartly, methodically chewed up yardage to get into striking distance. The game-winning TD throw proved not only that Campbell can win, but was also evidence that other teams also have coaches who make terrible decisions in crunch time that directly lead to losing.

To (mis)quote Hans Gruber from Die Hard, the greatest Christmas movie of all-time, “You ask for miracles, I give you Mike Zimmer.”

Zimmer deserves the heat in the Twin Cities for his decisions to go for two. Three times they tried, three times they failed. They lost by 2. The first two attempts were obvious interior runs into stacked boxes, against a defense that ranked 30th in red zone passing efficiency no less. His soft-shell scheme made it a little too easy for Goff, to this point in the season one of the NFL’s worst passers, to carve up an injury-ravaged defense and continue to find receivers who could get out of bounds.

The Lions dedicated the win to the suburban Detroit community of Oxford, where a horrific school shooting this past week left four students dead and several others injured. A lot of times, the NFL players and coaches are only paying lip service to social situations like that. Not these Lions. They proudly sported Oxford HS shirts during the pre-game and donned decals on the helmets. Oxford High’s football coach is Zach Line, a former NFL fullback who played in New Orleans while Campbell coached there. The sentiment was genuine and heartfelt, and it’s something these Lions should be very proud of. It’s terrible that it was needed, but Michigan really needed the positive outcome to help heal some very deep wounds across the state.

$.02--To the surprise of absolutely no one who doesn’t professionally stir the media pot in Pittsburgh, this season will be the last we see of Ben Roethlisberger in a Steelers uniform. Numerous reports shed a brighter light on what has long been suspected: Roethlisberger is done in Pittsburgh after the 2021 season.

It’s probably a year too late. Roethlisberger has not played to his standards, showing a serious loss of arm strength and a complete loss of any movement ability. The Steelers entered Sunday with a 5-10-1 record in their last 16 regular-season games, and Roethlisberger’s progressively losing battle with Father Time was no small reason why.

Yet on Sunday, with archrival Baltimore visiting Heinz Field, Big Ben and the Steelers won a slugfest against the Ravens. Pittsburgh prevailed 20-19 when the Ravens failed on a 2-point conversion after scoring a touchdown with under 30 seconds remaining. Ravens coach John Harbaugh went for the win but took the loss when Lamar Jackson’s floater under duress was just out of TE Mark Andrews’ reach. It was a bold decision and one that made sense considering the Ravens defense was missing top CB Marlon Humphrey (later ruled out for the year with a shoulder injury) and the officiating in the game was, uhh, interesting. Then again, with Justin Tucker on the roster, I might have taken my chances with the greatest kicker in NFL history in overtime.

Back to Roethlisberger. On this blustery day in Pittsburgh, he was the better quarterback over Jackson, who made some poor choices mixed in with some great throws and savvy runs. The INT Jackson threw on the Ravens’ first drive is as terrible of a decision as wearing a meat suit into the tiger exhibit at the zoo. The Steelers defense, notably T.J. Watt, made Jackson’s life very difficult. And that’s how Pittsburgh has to thrive to win with what’s left of Roethlisberger at quarterback. Having said that, Big Ben did make a couple of very nice throws, notably the first TD to Diontae Johnson. When the supporting cast is good, and they were today, Roethlisberger can still get it done.

$.03--I don’t know who Taysom Hill’s agent is, but I suspect he has a contract with a demon someone and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on an endless loop in his mansion. That mansion was paid for by Hill’s ridiculous contract from the Saints, who have been duped into paying a 31-year-old H-back up to $94 million to masquerade as a quarterback.

Hill didn’t carry out the masquerade very well in Thursday night’s loss to the Cowboys. In his first legitimate start at quarterback this season, Hill looked very much like a fullback playing quarterback more than a quarterback built like a fullback. The Cowboys picked off Hill four times and held the highly-compensated gadget player to just 46 percent completions. Hill also suffered an injured finger, adding to the litany of Saints wounds and not helping his erratic throwing.

Hill did run for 101 yards and engineered a couple of nice drives without much help from an injury-ravaged supporting cast, but he never looked like he was comfortable playing quarterback. Over a quarter of his passing yards came on one garbage-time play, one that exposed the Cowboys' lack of end-of-win effort more than it aggrandized Hill.

The grateful Cowboys won’t apologize for exposing the Saints’ weird obsession with Hill. Dallas had lost three of four and fallen from the conversation of the top NFC teams. Thursday night’s 27-17 win wasn’t pretty. The Cowboys were terrible on third downs and failed to capitalize well on Hill’s frequent mistakes. The NFL doesn’t count style points, however, and securing the important win over the free-falling Saints could be the catalyst for a Cowboys resurgence.

$.04--The Carolina Panthers managed to work their way into this week’s cents despite being on a bye week. That’s generally not a good thing, and the Panthers definitely picked up an “L” despite not playing.

Carolina fired offensive coordinator Joe Brady on Sunday. Head coach Matt Rhule pulled the plug on what was anointed one of the best assistant coaching hires of the century when the Panthers plucked Brady from LSU less than two years ago.

Life in the NFL came at Brady fast. The architect of one of the greatest collegiate offenses of all time flopped miserably in Carolina. Some of Brady’s issues came from not having a great quarterback, first Teddy Bridgewater in 2020 and then Sam Darnold to start this season. Relying heavily on oft-injured RB Christian McCaffrey didn’t help either. But the Panthers offense just flat-out did not work, and despite going back to Cam Newton for one messianic Sunday, it wasn’t getting better.

One of the big issues was a philosophical difference between Rhule and Brady. Rhule is a run-first coach, a smashmouth advocate who targets running the ball over 30 times a game. Brady loves to use RPOs and high-risk/reward passing, which neuters any benefit from an efficient running game.

It’s a good reminder that fit matters. Just because a coach has been successful in one place doesn’t mean it will automatically translate. It’s especially true of coaches making the jump from college, though Brady did have two seasons of NFL experience with the Saints before jumping to LSU.

Brady’s dismissal is also an indication that all is not well for Rhule in Carolina. His Panthers have fallen from 3-0 to 5-7, and that comes on the heels of a 5-11 first year where the team also played worse the deeper into the season they progressed. The move this late during a bye smacks of a fall guy, or at least the perception that Rhule might need a fall guy. Rhule was wildly successful at building winners in tough places at the college level, but the pro game has proved trickier. If the move to pin blame on Brady doesn’t turn out well, don’t be surprised if Rhule and the Panthers come to the mutual conclusion that he should go back to college.

As for Brady, his name still has some buzz to it in NFL circles. Yet he can land whatever college coordinator job he wants, and with the carousel still spinning, you can bet a lot of programs would love to have him take over their offenses. Without insinuating anything here, I’ll just say that his history working with Lions coach Dan Campbell in New Orleans is very interesting for a Detroit team that is very likely to need a new offensive coordinator in 2022…

$.05--It’s a cliche that football is a game of inches, but sometimes cliches are valid for a reason. That’s certainly true for Oklahoma State, which came up less than a foot away from being in the College Football Playoff.

Oklahoma State RB Dezmon Jackson was stopped just inches short of the game-winning touchdown by Baylor’s Jairon McVea on 4th-and-goal to wrap up the Big 12 Championship for the Bears. Had Jackson scored, the Cowboys almost certainly would have leapt into the CFP based on their strength of schedule and quality wins. It was that close to making the CFP announcement on Sunday afternoon full of drama and intrigue.

The Cowboys' faithful will lament this one for a long time. They were clearly the better team than Baylor but made far too many mistakes even before Jackson came up just short of salvaging the debacle. Quarterback Spencer Sanders threw four interceptions, a bad combination with a slow start from their typically stout defense. Baylor, guided by backup QB Balke Shapen, completed 17 straight passes to open the game and raced out to a 21-3 lead. Mike Gundy’s Cowboys were flat on both sides of the ball early on, and it cost them dearly in the end.

Cincinnati, the team that benefitted from the game of inches, had no such problem against a good Houston team. The Bearcats scored 14 points and gained over 160 yards on their first 6 offensive plays en route to a 35-20 win in the AAC Championship. The Cougars recovered and made it a game before Cincinnati ripped off 21 quick points in the third quarter to ice their foe and emphatically state the Bearcats case to be in the final four. But an Oklahoma State win over Baylor would have trumped the magical season from Cincinnati and coach Luke Fickell, no matter the close margin of victory for the Cowboys.

It was that close for Oklahoma State. Game of inches indeed.

$.06--This week’s giant college coaching domino fell in Baton Rouge and South Bend. Brian Kelly stunned the football world by hastily leaving Notre Dame to take over for Ed Orgeron at LSU.

Kelly’s move brought a lot of sentiments to the surface at both ends of the spectrum. For LSU, they landed an experienced, proven winner at the college level, one accustomed to dealing with a demanding fan base. For Notre Dame, it’s a shot between the eyes that, until the program joins a major conference, they don’t have a chance to truly compete for a national title.

Of course, the Irish were still alive for a College Football Playoff berth at the time. And it wouldn’t be their first trip under Kelly. But the gap between getting it done in the world of the independents and the higher admission and university standards at Notre Dame and the looser restrictions in the talent-laden Southeast is very real. Kelly’s use of Notre Dame as a stepping stone to get to a “bigger” program is a stunner for the Irish faithful. But it’s not an incorrect assessment on Kelly’s part.

Kelly figures to be a massive fish-out-of-water in the bayou country. His first appearance in LSU, at a basketball game against Ohio University (go Bobcats!), saw Kelly try and pull off a brutal accent to make him look more at home. It’s not the first time he’s been a stranger in a strange land, however. His New England roots made for an interesting bedfellow as he built Grand Valley State into a D-II powerhouse. GVSU is in the heart of the conservative part of West Michigan, where there is no greater character flaw than being from the “liberal” northeast. Kelly quickly figured out what buttons to push, bolstered by facilities that blow away the MAC schools in the region. The Lakers are still a perennial D-II powerhouse almost 20 years after he left for bigger and better things.

Kelly made it work at GVSU, and then Central Michigan, and then Cincinnati, and then again Notre Dame. He did it with a successful but motley blend of blind narcissism and exceptional salesmanship, not to mention being a damn good between-the-lines head coach. What worked recruiting in the Great Lakes might not translate immediately to the Gulf Coast, but don’t bet against Kelly making it work--no matter how awkward it might look right now. After all, Nick Saban wasn’t exactly a Southern gentleman when LSU bought him from Michigan State.

Marcus Freeman takes over for Kelly at Notre Dame, which stayed in-house to hire a wildly popular young assistant and perceived rising star in the coaching community. The Fighting Irish kept every assistant coach they wanted to as well, a good sign that Freeman is instantly respected and should be able to sustain the Notre Dame program to the level Kelly has rebuilt it. It’s a much better situation than what’s developing, or rather devolving at Oklahoma in the wake of Lincoln Riley fleeing for USC. But Kelly left in part because he knows there’s a ceiling with the independent Fighting Irish that will eventually frustrate Freeman too.

$.07--CFP playoff

For the past few weeks, I have strongly encouraged everyone to ignore the CFP weekly drama and press conferences, the relentless talk-radio speculation and yearly two weeks of Paul Finebaum being relevant to anyone breathing outside of the state of Alabama. Sunday’s revelation proved that all the talk, all the arguing, was completely pointless.

The games played out in a manner that made it very easy for the committee to determine the final four teams. When Oklahoma State lost and Cincinnati, Michigan and Alabama won, it was academic. All the consternation over what would happen with a two-loss Alabama team, a two-loss Big Ten champion, Cincinnati losing to Houston, Oregon winning the PAC-12, it was all proven absolutely pointless by the games that were yet to be played. It’s like worrying about burning your pie before you’ve even made the crust.

Remember this next year before you get drawn into the ridiculous “if/then” statement and scenarios that predominate sports talk around college football. None of them mattered one iota. The games took care of themselves, as they should. No sane person without two hours to kill on a podcast believes the CFP didn’t get the four best teams this year.

Instead, it’s time to spin the argument forward. The playoff committee keeps you sucked into the status quo by fighting over irrelevant hypotheticals. Demand better from them. Don’t let them keep being successful and powerful by hoodwinking you when everyone knows the system is a mockery. Stop watching the weekly shows. Stop fanning the flames on the four-team logs. Make them throw some gasoline on expanding the playoff to at least eight teams. If the committee sees the dollar signs from expansion, it’ll end this ridiculous system that everyone loves to hate.

One of the side benefits would be keeping more of the prominent players from sitting out postseason bowl games if there is something other than school pride. That’s a definite win for the college game. It’s impossible to blame a young man with an NFL future for not risking injury in a game that doesn’t really matter, and the playoff has rendered all non-CFP bowls effectively meaningless.

$.08--NFL quickies

--RIP Claude Humphrey, who passed away this week at age 77. Humphrey was one of the preeminent pass rushers of the 1970s, a Hall of Fame enshrinee. Sacks were not an official statistic until after he retired, but Humphrey was credited with 130 career sacks in 172 games. He had 89 sacks in his first 108 games. Arguably the greatest Atlanta Falcon of all time, yet sadly he’s not well-known.

--Don’t look now, but the Washington Football Team has won four games in a row and leveled their record at 6-6. They haven’t lost since their bye week. Sunday’s win over Las Vegas was the second game in a row the WFT have prevailed by a 17-15 score.

--In one of the most hilariously ironic twists, Mike Glennon started at QB for the New York Giants because regular starter Daniel Jones was out with a neck injury. Glennon isn’t called “The Giraffe” for nothing, folks. It’s just too bad they weren’t playing Houston, as my good friend Doug Farrar pointed out:

--Speaking of Houston, the Texans are not good:

They lost 30-0 to the Colts, dropping to 2-10 and now within a half-game of overtaking Detroit for the worst record. For the record, I’m a Lions fan and everyone else in my house are Texans fans. And we all agree the Lions would smoke the Texans if they played right now.

--Miles Sanders is not a bad running back, but the Eagles RB is having an alarming time trying to score:

Before leaving with an ankle injury that did not look good, Sanders ran for 120 yards on 24 carries in Philadelphia’s tougher-than-it-needed-to-be win over the Jets. The Eagles scored on their first 7 possessions but needed to withstand the Jets scoring TDs on their first three drives to win 33-18.

$.09--College/draft quickies

--There’s been a bit of a changing of the guard at the top of the draft. Most analysts now see Michigan EDGE Aidan Hutchinson as the likely No. 1 overall pick. For several weeks it had been Oregon EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux. Dominating Ohio State and then winning MVP of the B1G Championship will do that for a guy. It’s still too early to know, of course, and I’ll throw another potential name into the ring: Texas A&M DL DeMarvin Leal.

Leal is 6-foot-4, 290ish pounds and can play anywhere from the 2T (DT heads up over the guard) to 9T (outside shoulder of a TE). He can win with power or speed and he’s poised to test incredibly well at the combine and pro days. I know one AFC team scout who thinks Leal is the best all-around player in this draft. Think J.J. Watt-style of play and potential impact. No. 1 overall is probably a stretch but if Leal is not in the top 10 of your mock draft, your mock draft is very likely to be wrong.

--The Lions still hold that No. 1 pick even after their win. My early guess, and it’s nothing more than a guess, is that they would prefer Hutchinson to Thibodeaux. That’s for a couple of reasons. First, Hutchinson embodies everything Dan Campbell wants in his players--physical, athletic, tough, smart. Second, he’s a local product for a team that had as many empty seats as occupied ones inside Ford Field on Sunday. Don’t think that doesn’t matter as a tie-breaker…

--Kenny Pickett is going to be the No. 1 QB for a lot of teams and a lot of analysts. Easy to sell somewhat skeptical fans with highlights like this fantastic fake slide that led to a touchdown:

--It slid under the radar with the plethora of other changes, but Bronco Mendenhall leaving Virginia after six seasons is an interesting move. Mendenhall guided the Cavaliers to a 36-38 record, one that includes a 2-10 debut season. His Hoos got to one ACC Championship game (2019), where they were blown out 62-17 by Clemson. He’s a good coach but couldn’t elevate the perenially middling Virginia program over the hump of mediocrity. It’s a rough job and the next Virginia coach will likely learn that the hard way, too.

--It feels like Adrian Martinez has been the starting quarterback at Nebraska since the George W. Bush administration. Technically it’s only been four years, but it sure seems like a lot longer. That time has finally come to an end. Martinez put his name into the transfer portal and will whoosh away to another school for his fifth year of eligibility. I don’t see the NFL in Martinez’s future, but he could be the difference-maker for a mid-major team (think MAC, CUSA, MWC or Sun Belt) in need of a one-year boost at QB.

--Something I hope to do more of with this space as we progress forward is the recommended reading list. This week’s offering is from Kevin Clark of The Ringer, and it’s a fantastically written, insightful but slightly off-center (in a good way) breakdown of the mythos of college football and the men who coach it.

The opening paragraph,

Here’s an exercise: Explain college football to someone who has no concept of it. Just give it a shot. Explain the basics, sure, but then explain why you know the names of high schools in Broward County, Florida, even though you don’t live anywhere near there. Why a former U.S. defense secretary used to post on a Texas A&M message board under the name “Ranger65.” Why, after a pastor called in to eulogize the late Alabama sportswriter Cecil Hurt with a touching prayer, Paul Finebaum threw it to a caller named “Squirrel” on his radio show and it all seemed normal and sort of beautiful. Explain Lane Kiffin’s career. Explain the University of Tennessee. Explain Lane Kiffin’s career at the University of Tennessee. The person you’re talking to will most likely not understand, and there’s a good chance that you’ll confuse even yourself until you don’t understand. If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back and wants to know why “Horns Down” is a penalty.

$.10--It’s not an easy time in our crazy world right now. Between the pandemic, school shootings, extremist political media, deep racial divides and a general lack of empathy prevalent in America, it’s enough to make us all just want to curl up in bed and stay there until it’s safe, never really knowing when that might be.

This is the time of year where you can do something to make our current world a better place. Try smiling. Try caring about how what you do and say will impact others. Try listening without judgment.

Try random acts of kindness. Lend a helping hand, not a backhanded slap to keep someone else down. Remember to thank those who help you more than you criticize those who have not. Let a kid laugh at something you find stupid. Heck, laugh with them. Enjoy life and being alive instead of trying to make life less enjoyable for those around you. Appreciate that someone care enough to say “happy holidays” instead of getting furious that they didn’t wish you a Happy Hanukah or a Merry Christmas. We’re better than that as a people, I know we are. It’s time to prove it.

It’s a little early for the New Year’s resolutions, but I’m thinking about them early this year. Think about ways you want to improve both yourself and the world around you, and figure out ways you can make them happen. That way when January rolls in, you’re ready to make the changes you know you want to make and support the changes those you care about are trying, too. We’re in this together, and we’re better together than apart.