Make no mistake about it: The Detroit Lions earned a stunning Week 15 win against the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in what came by a convincing 30-12 verdict.
For a Lions team that entered Week 15 with just one win on the season, which came two weeks prior against the Minnesota Vikings, it was undoubtedly their best result of the campaign. The Cardinals, after all, were the top seed in the NFC before a Week 14 loss on "Monday Night Football" against the Los Angeles Rams.
It did seem a bit of a stretch, though, that Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked whether the victory was a "statement win" for Detroit. Again, the 2-11-1 Lions are much closer to the top selection in the 2022 NFL Draft than they are to sniffing a playoff spot in the NFC.
Campbell agreed as he refuted the claim.
"No, I mean look, I don't see statement win. Here's what I see: We knew we could win this game. We feel like that every week. But we knew we could. But we knew we had to play a certain type of game," Campbell said after the victory, per the team. "But I don't see it as a statement. This league, anybody can win and anybody can lose, but I know this: Our guys were prepared, we were ready to go and that was a good win."
Despite out-gaining the Lions in total yards (398-338), the Cardinals went 0-for-4 in the red zone with seven penalties for 83 yards.
"They were playing our game, we weren't playing theirs. And that's what we needed to be able to do," Campbell said.
If the season were to end Sunday, the Lions would have the second overall pick in the NFL draft behind only the Jacksonville Jaguars, who lost to the Houston Texans on Sunday.
