The Detroit Lions kept their playoff hopes alive by beating the Dallas Cowboys last Thursday, and they hope to put those postseason aspirations into overdrive with a win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
They also hope to get some help around the league.
Here’s a peek at the conference’s current standings, as well as a look at each relevant game in Week 15, and who Lions fans should be rooting for in them.
NFC North standingsGreen Bay Packers (9-3-1)Chicago Bears (9-4)Detroit Lions (8-5)Minnesota Vikings (5-8)NFC standings (non-eliminated teams)Los Angeles Rams (10-3)Green Bay Packers (9-3-1)Philadelphia Eagles (8-5)Carolina Panthers (7-6)Seattle Seahawks (10-3) — wild cardSan Francisco 49ers (9-4) — wild cardChicago Bears (9-4) — wild cardDetroit Lions (8-5)Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-7)Dallas Cowboys (6-6-1)Minnesota Vikings (5-8)Relevant games
â–¶Browns at Bears (1 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest: Browns
Detroit’s most likely path to the playoffs remains usurping the Bears, who are coming off a loss to the Packers but now have the opportunity to play a Browns team that’s lost five of its last six games, including one to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. If the Browns pull off the upset, it’d give the Lions a larger margin of error before a Week 18 matchup in Chicago; as long as the Lions enter that week one game back or less of the Bears, they can jump Chicago in the standings with a head-to-head win.
â–¶Packers at Broncos (4:25 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest: Broncos
Winning the NFC North for a third consecutive season isn’t likely at this point, but it’s not totally out of the question. The Lions would likely need to win their last four contests in a row, and they’d need the Packers to take some losses. That could start this weekend, when Green Bay has to travel across the country to play one of the NFL’s best defenses.
â–¶Titans at 49ers (4:25 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest: Titans
The Lions and 49ers have not and will not play each other in the regular season, meaning the tiebreaker between the two teams, if they finish with the same record, will come down to their overall records in the NFC. The 49ers are 8-2 in the conference, and the Lions are 5-4, making Detroit winning the tiebreaker with San Francisco unlikely. The Lions will need to have more overall wins than the 49ers to jump them, as opposed to the Bears, who the Lions could have the tiebreaker over.
â–¶Colts at Seahawks (4:25 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest: Colts
Tied with the Rams for the best record in the NFC, it’s not realistic for the Seahawks to fall all the way outside of the playoff picture. But you’re almost always going to root for an AFC team against an NFC one, especially when the conference counterpart is one of three teams ahead of you in the wild-card race.
â–¶Vikings at Cowboys (8:20 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest: Vikings
The Lions need to worry more about catching the teams in front of them than warding off the ones behind them, but if you had to pick a more favorable winner in this game, it’s the Vikings, who are three games back of Detroit. The Cowboys, meanwhile, are 1½ games back.
â–¶ Panthers at Saints (4:25 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest:Â Panthers
It may seem counterintuitive to root for a team still in the playoff race (Panthers) versus a team that’s mathematically eliminated (Saints), but the Lions should prefer for Carolina to win the NFC South. The Buccaneers (7-7) are sliding, but they could still win 10 games and flirt with a wild-card spot. If that were to happen, the Lions have a head-to-head tiebreaker over Tampa Bay. They don’t over the Panthers.
â–¶ Raiders at Eagles (1 p.m. Sunday)
Rooting interest:Â Coin flip
There are benefits to either result in this one. If the Raiders win: That could help the Lions for seeding purposes, should they come back and win the NFC North. If the Eagles win: The thinking here is similar to that in the Panthers-Saints matchup, in that the Lions would rather be in a wild-card race with the Cowboys, who they’ve beaten, than the Eagles, who they lost to in Week 11.
rsilva@detroitnews.com
@rich_silva18