Detroit Lions Playoff Picture After Week 12: Lions still out of the playoff picture after 49ers win

The Lions are still out of the playoff picture after the 49ers win

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions did what they had to do in Week 12. It wasn’t pretty, but they won, and that’s all you can do. But they didn’t get much help from anyone else around the league.

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Chicago Bears, and the Minnesota Vikings lost to the Green Bay Packers.

Unfortunately, the Carolina Panthers couldn’t get it done against the San Francisco 49ers, and the Lions now remain out of the playoff picture after Week 12.

NFC Playoff Picture after Week 12

  1. Los Angeles Rams (9-2)
  2. Philadelphia Eagles (8-3)
  3. Chicago Bears (8-3)
  4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-5)
  5. Seattle Seahawks (8-3)
  6. Green Bay Packers (7-3-1)
  7. San Francisco 49ers (8-4

So there you go. If the season ended today, the Lions would be just on the outside. Now they go into an extremely important Week 13. If they can beat the Packers on Thursday and the Eagles beat the Bears on Black Friday, the Lions will go into the weekend in first place in the NFC North and with the third seed in the NFC, and the Panthers’ loss won’t even matter.

From there, the Bears and Packers have a hard road, in which they have to play each other twice. The Packers also have to take on the red-hot Broncos and the red-hot Ravens. The Bears have to face the Lions and the 49ers, too. So, there’s still plenty of season left.

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