This year, Detroit Lions will be playing in the NFL Playoffs for the first time this century.*

Since late in the 2010 season, I’ve been posting here about the development of the team. (One year ago today: “I’ll say it now, and I’ll stand by it next year: The 2011 Detroit Lions are going to be playing in the 2011 post-season.“) My posts have all been about statistics, not opinion. Keeping with the previous format, the chart below shows how the 2011 Detroit Lions compared throughout the regular season to their opponents and to the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Detroit Lions in terms of the eight statistical categories key to winning football games.

If you take the time to read this chart, you’ll see an absolutely amazing four-year turnaround.

Compare the 2008 squad to the 2011 squad. The 2011 Lions were better than the 2008 Lions in literally every aspect of the game. More importantly, the 2011 Lions bested their opponents in seven of the eight key categories. That is how you go from a 0-16 record to a 10-6 record. Welcome to football relevancy. I can’t wait for Saturday, when the Lions take on the New Orleans Saints in their first playoff game since my sophomore year in high school.

*I found this wikipedia entry on the history of the Lions when I was posting this for Perry Mason. And it says Marvin Gaye decided to stop singing and try out for the Lions. What the what? –N

Butterscotch Sundae’s favorite Michigan-specific sports analyst is back with an updated look at the Detroit Lions! -N

In the past two years, I’ve written a few posts about everyone’s favorite team: the Detroit Lions. The first – “The Detroit Lions are improving, and Perry Mason can prove it” — was in the middle of the 2010 season, when the Lions had just two wins. In it, I said that fans shouldn’t be discouraged by the lack of wins because the statistics painted a picture of a team on the rise. The second – “Perry Mason’s final analysis of the Lions’ season” — was at the end of the 2010 season, when the Lions finished strong with four more wins, one of which was against the soon-to-be world champion Green Bay Packers. In that post, I again summarized the statistics and went so far as to predict that the Lions were on a track that would put them in the 2011 playoffs. The third and most recent post – “The status of the Detroit Lions after the draft” – was, as the title suggests, after the 2011 draft, in which the Lions drafted Nick Fairley, Titus Young and Mikel Leshoure in the first three rounds. After such a strong draft, I guaranteed that the Lions would make the 2011 playoffs.

So, how are they doing? Before we look at the record, let’s look at the stats comparing this squad to the squads from the last three seasons. Note that I’ve pro-rated the 2011 statistics to date to 16 games for an apples-to-apples comparison:

Of the eight above statistical categories, which I’ve identified in past posts as the key stats to winning football games, the 2008 squad was better than its opponents at zero of them. And that led to zero victories. The 2009 squad was better than its opponents at exactly one category, which led to two wins. The 2010 squad was better than its opponents in four categories, and it had 6 wins. Your 2011 Detroit Lions are on pace to win seven — 7! — of the eight statistical keys to winning football games. The one stat category they aren’t leading is rushing yards, which isn’t surprising given that they’ve played the majority of the season without the two running backs they expected to carry the load, both of whom were lost to season-ending injuries.

The statistical domination has translated to wins. As of today, the Lions have eight wins and three games left to play. That is as many wins as the 2008, 2009 and 2010 teams combined — and they still have games to play. And what about that playoff prediction-turned-guarantee? The Detroit Lions are currently the sixth seed in the NFC, and they own tie-breakers against the two NFC teams chasing them. With just three games left to play, the Detroit Lions hold in their paws the key to their first playoff appearance since the 1999 season.

The Roar has been Restored.