By Mark Wilson
December 21, 2014

The clock in Chicago’s Soldier Field hadn’t hit 0:00 yet when talk centered on the stadium 206 miles to the north.

Lambeau Field, Green Bay Wisconsin.

A 20-14 victory by the Detroit Lions over the Bears gave the Lions their 11th win of the 2014 season. Jim Caldwell became the first Detroit head coach to register 11 in his first season.

Call it a… season of “firsts” for Caldwell.

Only one game remains on the slate; Week 17 of the NFL season happens this coming Sunday at Lambeau.

In order to match the 1991 Lions record of 12-and-4 as the best in franchise history, Caldwell has to knock off the Packers at the Mecca of pro football.

Here we go again.

23 games have come and gone in the state of Wisconsin and the Lions have lost ALL OF THEM.

Brett Favre is well into retirement and he never lost to the Lions in his home arena.

A couple of those times, it included County Stadium in Milwaukee.

Hell, the Packers haven’t played in Milwaukee… in years.

County Stadium itself is long gone too.

Miller Park stands where County used to be and it’s the singular home of baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers.

Yet, we keep talking about THE STREAK because the Lions have failed miserably in each trip to cheese heaven since beating the Packers in 1991.

It was part of the Wayne Fontes-led breakout season for Detroit.

Until ’91, the Lions hadn’t won double digits in any one season since Joe Schmidt led them to 10-and-4 in 1970.

Back then, the Lions won with regularity in Green Bay.

That’s why it was really no big deal when Fontes took his group to Lambeau and beat the Pack 21-17 on what was indeed the frozen tundra.

It was minus-6 degrees wind chill that December 15th.

Barry Sanders rushed for 85 yards and Erik Kramer threw two touchdown passes to little Robert Clark.

Ray Crockett had a huge interception of Mike Tomczak.

Looking at those names, you’d think I was describing a community from the ancient Inca’s.

It was 23 years ago.

No one would have believed that motoring into 2015, the Lions would be seeking another win in Wisconsin.

Favre took over in 1992 and won every time the Packers hosted the Lions.

Aaron Rodgers took over for Favre a few years ago and he TOO has won every home game vs. Detroit.

Oh, the Lions have dumped the Packers quite a few times in Michigan; 12 in all. Between Ford Field and the old Silverdome, the Lions have done a credible job against the Pack even in their worst times.

Well, except for 2008 when they beat NOBODY.

0-and-16 stands on its own merits.

Bill Clinton wasn’t even president yet the last time the Lions celebrated a victory at Lambeau.

We had no internet, no cell phones to speak of and gas prices were… where they are at NOW!

The only difference is, we didn’t praise gas prices because we were used too it.

Think about it.

The last time the Lions scored more points in a game against the Packers in “America’s Dairyland,” the pager and pay phone were our best friends in the media.

Football beat writers penned their columns and articles on a typewriter.

If your car broke down on the highway you either waited for a Good Samaritan or… you hoofed it to the nearest exit.

But, enough about me and my early 90’s problems.

Sure, some people had those big-ass newfangled “bag phones” but the idea that every teenager would have a phone on their person 24/7 was still a few years away.

It was 1991 for God sakes.

A kid born in ‘91 is most likely done with COLLEGE and has never seen the Lions beat the Packers on the road.

They probably think it’s some kind of mandate.

Oh, there have been a handful of close calls.

In 1994, an offensive shootout left the Lions 38-30 losers.

That was the last of the meetings in Milwaukee.

In the ’94 playoff game, a frigid Sanders rushed the ball 13 times for a personal low minus-1 yard and Detroit fell 16-12.

Steve Mariucci’s 2004 unit dropped a 16-13 poop thanks to a last-second Ryan Longwell field goal.

Dick Jauron, who replaced Mooch during the 2005 season, saw the exact same 16-13 result but in overtime.

January 1, 2012, Matt Flynn replaced Rodgers at quarterback for Green Bay and incredibly threw six TD passes in a 45-41 Packers’ victory.

Detroit had already secured its first playoff spot since 1999 but went into the post-season on the heels of that Flynn performance.

What made it worse was that Matthew Stafford threw for 520 yards and FIVE touchdowns of his own.

Even THAT couldn’t prevent another Lions loss in Lambeau.

Last year, on October 6th, Green Bay won 22-9.

Including the last five seasons of the Fontes era, EIGHT Lions’ coaches have come and gone without tasting sweet victory in the building named after Packers’ legend Curly Lambeau.

Eight of them!

No one could figure out the curse or whatever you want to use as a reason why 23 trips to lovely Green Bay have resulted in defeat.

Honestly, the Lions haven’t been as good as the Packers in that time.

Well… they are now.

As they make another migration to the hinterland this Sunday, they can claim to be on an even keel with Mike McCarthy and his green and gold troops.

Both teams are 11-and-4 and the winner takes it all in the NFC North.

Rodgers goes for a perfect home season on Sunday.

The Pack is 7-and-0 at Lambeau and have ZERO intentions of allowing the newest member of the “Try and Beat Us Club,” Jim Caldwell, to break the streak.

On the Lions side, they have not lost a game to a divisional opponent. They are 5-and-0 vs. the NFCN.

Detroit is the superior defensive team while Green Bay rules on offense. The Packers have scored 155 more points than the Lions in 2014. The Lions have allowed 76 less.

Taking care of business in Chicago proved tougher than imagined since the Bears were starting Jimmy Clausen at QB over the maligned Jay Cutler.

If you asked, “who was the quarterback that threw the two touchdown passes on Sunday,” you would have figured it was Stafford.

Nope. It was Clausen.

The better QB rating?

That was Clausen too.

Who got sacked less?

Yep, Clausen.

The Notre Dame alum took the starting nod for the first time in nearly four years and with a 1-and-9 record as an NFL starting QB.

He could have been worse.

Detroit needed a fourth quarter touchdown run from Joique Bell, a Matt Prater field goal and Glover Quin interception to overcome a 14-10 deficit and dump the frazzled Bears of Marc Trestman.

It may have been Trestman’s farewell to Chicago.

All Caldwell cared about was the “W.”

“Our team hung in there; I think did a nice job,” Caldwell told the assembled media in the bowels of Soldier Field.

“I know one thing, we’re playing for a division championship.”

Even though NFL teams fly to their destinations, I like thinking of more remedial traveling.

So, technically… the Lions were going to take the bus back on I-94 to downtown Motown, practice this week and then hop back on the bus and take I-94 up to I-43 and into Green Bay.

Isn’t that more fun?

As mentioned before, “The GB” is 206 miles from Chicago. Add the 283 from Detroit to Chi-town and you’re talking 489 miles by car or bus.

Probably better to fly.

Caldwell’s going to need all the time he can take to get ready for this season finale.

It’s been over two decades since a division title and possible home playoff game were on the table.

The ONLY home post-season tilt the Lions have hosted since what seems to be— the beginning of time— is the game versus Dallas in January of 1992.

With 80,000 going crazy at the Silverdome and waving those white pom pons, Captain Wayne-O led the rout of Jimmy Johnson’s Cowboys, 38-6.

I can still see Fontes with his arm extended at the end signaling a terrific playoff win for a franchise that hadn’t won ANY post season games since 1957.

Fontes was taking the Lions to the NFC Championship game.

Detroit had never experienced such a thing in the Super Bowl era.

I’ve written and said this before.

The reason we don’t look more fondly on the 1991 season is because of the Washington Redskins.

A 45-0 drubbing in D.C. is how the season opened and a 41-10 drubbing in D.C. is how the season ended.

86-10 aggregate score in the two games vs. the Skins.

Sandwiched in between? 13 victories of big fun.

The only perfect home slate, 9-and-0, and packed Silverdome houses made 1991 a joy to be around when it comes to pro football in our area.

We thought Fontes was the second coming.

In just his third full season, Darryl Rogers’ former defensive coordinator seemed to be the right man for the job when Russ Thomas gave Wayne the gig upon firing Rogers.

The NFC Championship Game? National stage?

The Lions?

Unheard of.

But those damn blowouts.

Joe Gibbs had Fontes’ number and the Redskins domination of the Lions in D.C. stretched as long as the current domination of the Packers in Green Bay.

If Caldwell REALLY wants to be held to a higher standard, the Lambeau flops have to stop.

Ooh… I like that; a new slogan for Sunday.

THE FLOP… MUST STOP!

We all know about the Lambeau “leap.” It’s when a Packer player scores a TD and then leaps into the waiting, adoring arms of the Green Bay faithful in the stands.

The Lions’ flops are all these stupid losses in Wisconsin.

The Lambeau FLOPS.

Two scenarios.

Detroit goes in and beats Rodgers and company and wins the division for the first time since 1993. A home playoff game looms large.

At that moment, and I hesitate to say this, you can start dreaming of a trip to Glendale, Arizona February 1st, 2015.

Super Bowl XLIX.

I REPEAT… this is not a drill.

You can begin to DREAM IT.

I said, dream.

Tom Izzo once said, “You can’t do it… until you dream it.”

Since the Lions have never done it, it’s ok to dream it when it has some merit. Beating the Packers at Lambeau and finishing 12-and-4 allows you the luxury of DREAMING about actual participation in Super Bowl XLIX.

That was NOT easy to type.

In 2011, when Jim Schwartz battled all the odds and got the Lions into the playoffs, it was not as simple to be optimistic.

The loss to Green Bay was the reason why.

Sure enough, after allowing 45 to the Packers, the Lions allowed another 45 to Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

90 points in two weeks was a far piece from dreaming about a Super Bowl.

Ditto 2014.

Should the Lions LOSE this Sunday at Lambeau and the steak hits 24 consecutive years of losing in Wisconsin, it might be a repeat of ’11.

Caldwell may be the difference maker.

I trust this Jim more than I trusted the other Jim.

THIS JIM has taken a team to the Promised Land. Granted, he had Peyton Manning but he got to the Super Bowl nonetheless.

In Lions history only Bobby Ross and Don McCafferty have taken teams to a Super Bowl prior to arriving in the Motor City.

Ross lost his as coach in San Diego.

McCafferty won his with the old Baltimore Colts.

Caldwell did it in Indianapolis.

Maybe he knows how to do it?

That would be refreshing.

First things first. It all begins with a win in Green Bay. For general psyche purposes, the Lions need to get this monkey off their backs. No one knows that better than longtime center Dominic Raiola.

When Matt Millen drafted Dom in his first draft back in 2001, I doubt he envisioned the Nebraska center to still be wearing Honolulu Blue and Silver into 2015.

Raiola has seen all the losing he can stand.

Now, is one of the rare GOOD times for him.

On Sunday, he stomped on the ankle of Bears’ DT Ego Ferguson. It was blatant and obvious even though he says it was NOT intentional.

“Sizable fine coming for Dominic Raiola,” tweeted former NFL referee and rules expert Mike Periera.

Dom already got nailed for $10,000 after the loss in New England.

This one could be a lot worse.

Any attempt to injure is not met with flowers, chocolates and Christmas cards from the NFL office.

The FedEx package is on its way.

It shows Raiola’s frustration through nearly 15 full seasons of bad football.

It also might be a minor distraction in a week where the Lions need no distractions.

Beating the Packers has to be the end all, be all.

Caldwell knows it and he’ll make the appropriate moves to keep all 53 guys in check; including Raiola.

There is no grey area here.

Every Lions’ fan knows what is on the line now. We’re not just fooling around anymore. 57 years have gone by and, with the exception of a very few, most of those years the Lions played for absolutely nothing.

Think how bad it was just six short seasons ago.

0-and-16.

The 2011 run to the playoffs didn’t have the same feel as 2014. Caldwell is the reason why.

To be honest with you, as magical as 1991 could have been, the Redskins quashed that on opening day. We all knew if they faced Washington again, the result wouldn’t be much different.

Caldwell’s Lions don’t have that in their way.

Unless you look at Green Bay.

Technically, Detroit has WON two straight against the Packers.

Since they played the second of the two games vs. the Pack at Ford Field in 2013 and the first of the two in 2014 earlier this year, BOTH were home games.

When the Lions last won in that sequence was back in 1998 and ’99.

You have to go back to 1990-91 for the last time the Lions won three in a row over Green Bay.

Sunday, they can end all talk of the last 23 years.

It won’t be easy at all.

The Packers want the division as badly as Detroit does.

Weather wise, it is expected to be bitterly cold with temps in the teens and wind chills in the single digits. Any Christmas hangover will be wiped out quickly with some of the coldest air in a while.

We’re talking like 20 degrees colder than it was in Chicago.

Projected high temp right now is 16 degrees.

Yes, I know it seems stupid that the Lions play outdoor games in Illinois and Wisconsin to END the season rather than schedule those games for Ford Field. December seems like a fantastic time to be playing… INSIDE!

Ya know that whole… 72 degree thing with no precipitation.

But, nah. Let’s play outside in Northern Wisconsin three days before New Year’s Eve.

I had an NFL official familiar with schedule-making once tell me that the reason it happens that way is to basically punish teams with domed stadiums.

More often than not, the Lions play the Bears and Packers outside in December.

Ford Field sits quietly awaiting the next Kenny Chesney concert.

Football is a game for real men so let’s strap it on and get tough.

You think Caldwell cares that it’ll be cold out?

Hell no!

His Lions are a win away from a division title and the opportunity to dream big.

They’re already in the playoffs no matter what.

End the streak in Wisconsin and you have my permission to do a preliminary check on plane flights to Arizona at the end of January.

Just preliminary now… let’s not get silly.

Focus all week on the Packers ONLY. Turn that cheese from Limburger to Gouda. Beating Green Bay would be a very “Gouda” thing.

Sure it’s corny but man, could we use some corny when it comes to the Lions around here.

We’ve had enough losing to last a few lifetimes.