After last season, when the Detroit Lions earned their first division title in 30 years and their first playoff victory since 1991, some fans, analysts and Michigan sportsbooks customers might have wondered if coach Dan Campbell's squad could maintain that level of success in the 2024-25 season.
The answer is a resounding yes, despite mounting injuries.
The Lions have won 14 games in a regular season for the first time in franchise history and have set up a winner-take-all showdown with NFC North rival Minnesota on Sunday (8:15 p.m. Eastern) in the final game of this NFL season.
Both teams are 14-2 and the winner will not only claim the division title but the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs and the rewards – a first-round bye and homefield advantage throughout the postseason – that come with it.
At BetMichigan.com, the home of the best Michigan sports betting promos, we used the Champs or Chumps website to see how teams ended up since the 2019 NFL season when they were 14-2. The two teams in the chart below finished 14-2 – one in 2019 and one in 2020, the last two 16-game seasons. Since the league expanded to 17 regular-season games in 2021, no team had started 14-2 until this season.
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
Making The Playoffs | 2 | 100% |
Advanced Past Wild Card Round | 2 | 100% |
Winning Divisional Round | 1 | 50% |
Winning Conference Championship | 1 | 50% |
Winning Super Bowl | 0 | 0% |
*Rounded to nearest whole number
In 2019, the Baltimore Ravens finished 14-2 but lost in the Division Round of the AFC playoffs. The Kansas City Chiefs had the same record in 2020 but lost Super Bowl 55 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
After three seasons in the 17-game era with no team starting 14-2, there are three this year. The Chiefs have the best record at 15-1 going into the final week of the 2024 NFL season, joining the Lions and Vikings on a historically high plateau.
Digging deeper into ChampsorChumps.us data, we find 33 teams in NFL history that have won at least 14 games in a season since 1978, when the regular-season slate increased from 14 to 16 games. Eleven of those teams won the Super Bowl and nine others reached the Big Game but lost.
According to BetMGM Michigan Sportsbook, Detroit has +400 odds to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy, second to the two-time defending champions Chiefs (+375) as of Dec. 31. The Buffalo Bills (+550) are third, having defeated both Detroit and Kansas City this season. The Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens round out the top five, both at +700.
The Lions are trying to reach the Super Bowl for the first time. They have not been among the final two teams left standing since 1957, when they defeated the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game, nine years before the Super Bowl existed.
Sunday's rivalry clash against the Vikings will have an interesting distinction: It's the most wins for two teams combined (28) in NFL history for a regular-season game. Whoever loses will have the best record ever for a wild-card team.
The Lions, who defeated the San Francisco 49ers 40-34 on Monday night, are a 2.5-point favorite favorite at Caesars Michigan Sportsbook over the Vikings for the Week 18 game at Ford Field.
Detroit once again increased its league-best scoring average to 33.3 points per game with Monday's victory. According to StatMuse, Detroit's 533 points in 2024-25 are the 11th most ever in a season. The Lions are maintaining their strong pace despite several injuries, most notably to star defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson.
If Sunday's game ends in a tie, Detroit holds the tiebreaking edge over Minnesota for the division title because the Lions defeated the Vikings 31-29 on Oct. 20.
Keep track of the Detroit Lions Super Bowl odds all season with us at BetMichigan.com.
USA Today photo by Kimberly P. Mitchell
Author
Jim Tomlin writes and edits for BetMichigan.com. In 30 years as a journalist he has worked for publications such as the Tampa Bay Times, Saturday Tradition, Saturday Down South and FanRag. He now lends his sports and gambling expertise to BetMichigan among other websites.
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