The Detroit Lions have been one of the hottest teams in football down the stretch, and the NFL wants the entire country to take notice.
Detroit's game Sunday against Green Bay has been flexed into the NBC Sunday Night Football slot. The league wants to highlight a monster NFC North matchup at Lambeau Field between the Lions and Packers with the playoffs potentially on the line for both clubs.
The Lions have won seven of their last nine games following Sunday's 41-10 victory over Chicago in Detroit's home finale. They improved to 8-8 on the year after a 1-6 start. The Packers have won four straight to improve their record to 8-8 as well.
Detroit is currently tied with Seattle for the final playoff spot, but the Seahawks own the tie breaker because of their Week 4 win over Detroit. The Lions would get into the playoffs if they beat Green Bay and Seattle loses at home to the Los Angeles Rams. So the Lions will know if they are playing for a chance to get into the playoffs or are just playing the role of spoiler by the time they kick off Sunday night.
"Yeah, I mean I can't worry about that," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Monday. "We can't worry about it. For us, it's got to be a win, win either way. Either we're playing to get in or we're playing to be spoiler and that's it. So, either way we win."
The Packers on the other hand control their own destiny. A win Sunday against Detroit and they are in no matter what happens with Seattle because Green Bay owns the tie breaker over the Seahawks by having a better conference record.
Detroit was originally scheduled to have just one nationally broadcasted game this year, their annual Thanksgiving Day Game, a 28-25 loss to the Buffalo Bills at Ford Field.
The Lions beat the Packers in the teams' first matchup Week 9, 15-9, in Detroit thanks to three Aaron Rodgers interceptions.
