Allen Park — This was June, but the conversation was about January, and what most of us now realize was the Lions’ last, best hope for ending that insufferable, interminable playoff drought.
That wild-card loss in Dallas — a game that brought Ndamukong Suh to tears and ended, fittingly, with Matthew Stafford getting sacked and fumbling — was the ultimate stomach-churner for the Lions. There was a terrific start and a glaring officiating mistake, yet in the end, this was simply another frustrating failure, one that assistant coach Jeremiah Washburn, whose offensive line had come undone down the stretch, described as “a sick feeling.