1. Kevin SeifertThe Detroit Lions take their turn in the examination room after losing to the Packers.
   Professional athletes and coaches often take great pleasure in pointing out the "critics" who "didn't think we had a chance" to win a given game, league or championship. So I predict the Lions will have an absolute field day Saturday night if they beat the New Orleans Saints. There appear to be very few people, critics or otherwise, who are giving the Lions a realistic chance in this game. For one, they're the biggest underdogs of wild-card weekend, according to the early lines. Meanwhile, our friends at AccuScore ran 10,000 of their patented digital simulations. The Saints won nearly 80 percent of those games by an average score of 36.9-25.6. And finally, the Lions' own Twitter feed suggested a hashtag of #shocktheworld. You get the picture. It's a ready-made, no-assembly-required motivational tool for coach Jim Schwartz.
2. There are scores of moments we could discuss out of Sunday's wild game. I'll share one that caught my eye, along with a bit of a follow-up. Receiver Calvin Johnson uncharacteristically went bonkers after Kevin Smith's five-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter. Johnson is the gentlest giant you will ever meet, but he ran directly toward Packers cornerback Jarrett Bush and demonstrably got in his face. What set him off? When you watch the replay, you see Bush deliver a tough shoulder-to-helmet hit on Smith after he crossed the goal line. The hit was hard enough that it cracked Smith's helmet, according to Tim Twentyman of the Lions' web site, who posted a photograph of it on Twitter. If the Lions and Packers somehow meet in the playoffs, I'm guessing Johnson will remember the episode.
3. It was fair for Schwartz to point out the officiating calls and the replay issues that went against the Lions because he never, to my knowledge, blamed the loss on them. The Lions lost because their previously stingy pass defense allowed a historic day to their opponents' backup quarterback Schwartz continued that mantra Monday, noting that the Lions' secondary was "poor." With that said, I thought Schwartz brought up an important side effect of the new rule this season that requires a review of every scoring play. Officials have seemed more likely to rule a touchdown when encountering a potential scoring play, knowing they can always rescind it via replay. If they rule the play anything other than a touchdown, it is not automatically reviewed. At the very least, you would have thought that to be the case with Titus Young's apparent score in the second quarter. The "its-a-touchdown-if-it's-close" trend didn't extend to the Lions on that play, and that was unfortunate.

A number of you lit me up Sunday and Monday for not paying the proper respects to quarterback Matthew Stafford's historic 520-yard day, one that made him one of four NFL quarterbacks ever to throw for more than 5,000 yards in a season. I'll admit the milestone caught me off-guard. When a quarterback enters Week 17 with 4,518 yards, as Stafford did, I'm generally not charting his push to 5,000. On the other hand, I'm not sure what else you want me to say about him. I know there is some frustration among fans that Stafford didn't make the Pro Bowl. But in training camp, we agreed that he was ready to break out as a top-tier quarterback. In December, we noted that he was on the brink of breaking most of the Lions' franchise passing records. And a few weeks ago, we broke down Stafford's calm in pressure situations. I think Stafford's breakout season has been appropriately covered around here but appreciate the feedback nonetheless.