It’s not often that you can say a Week 3 game is a “must-win” but that is exactly what the Detroit Lions will be facing when they take the field in the desert against the Arizona Cardinals.
http://gty.im/1274173052
With high hopes heading into the 2020 season, the Lions have managed to lose their first two games, despite having a double-digit lead in each contest.
Since the NFL broke up into 8 divisions, only 1 team has started out the season 0-3 and ended up making the NFL Playoffs in that same season. So, if the Lions do lose to the Cardinals on Sunday, there season, at least according to the odds, is essentially over.
One person who agrees with that is Lions running back Adrian Peterson, who was asked on Thursday if the Week 3 game against the Cardinals is a must-win.
“I would say it’s a must-win, taking that it was two divisional games,” Peterson said Thursday. “That really sucks and put us in a hole.”
“It’s a long season, there’s 14 more games out there. Who’s to say we won’t go 14-2? Who’s to say we won’t go 12-4?” Peterson said. “There’s a lot of football left. Only thing we can focus on right now is correcting the things we did bad, eliminating those mistakes and becoming a better team overall and that’s been the focus this week — getting ready and preparing for Arizona.”
“At the end of the day, we have a good team here, offensively and defensively, special teams,” Peterson said, echoing many of his teammates this week. “We just gotta go out there and execute a full game for four quarters and play football, not riding the wave of the game, being able to respond.
“It’s all about responding. How do you respond when you’re down 14 or they break you for 75 yards? How do you respond as a defense when you go back out there, how do you respond as an offense? This week we have another opportunity to get it right.”
Peterson is right, the Lions are in a hole, and if they lose to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, you may as well start shoveling the dirt onto them.
