• As usual with Lions blackouts, check out Pride of Detroit on gameday for live updates and for links to online streams of the game.  There is usually at least one good stream out there; it's just a matter of tracking it down.  With that being said, if you happen to find an online stream of the Lions' game on Sunday, please post a link to it in the comments section of the game thread.
• Sports Illustrated's Don Banks believes the Lions should try to hire Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli.  I doubt he would want to leave New England, especially for the Lions, but it's definitely worth a try.  He has a great track record and would be someone that could turn things around.
  
• Dwight Smith practiced for the first time in a long time earlier this week and should be back for Sunday's game.
• The Lions signed safety Stuart Schweigert, who is from Saginaw and played for Purdue in college.
• Rod Marinelli thinks the Lions should have signed Daunte Culpepper sooner than they did.
• Pacman Jones was reinstated by the NFL earlier this week.

Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham was placed on the injured reserve earlier this week after spraining his right ankle against the Vikings last Sunday.  Graham lit up the Lions' defense last year and combined for almost 200 rushing and receiving yards.  Not having to face Graham will make things a bit easier for the Lions, but it's not like the Buccaneers have no one to fill in for him.

With leading rusher Earnest Graham out for the season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will lean more on Warrick Dunn.

"I expect to play a lot more. But at the same time, we have other guys who can come in and make plays," Dunn said. "I'm just going to do my part to help us move the chains, score touchdowns and win games."

Graham's injury also could mean more playing time for (Cadillac) Williams, who hasn't played in a game since September 2007 because of a serious knee injury.

Tampa Bay will likely use a stable of running backs against the Lions, and I really don't expect them to have a whole lot of trouble on the ground.  The Lions' defense has struggled against the run all season long, and it doesn't exactly seem like it matters who the running back is. 

Just look at Carolina last week.  Both DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart lit up the Lions thanks mainly to poor tackling.  If the Lions can tackle the RB on first contact more times than not, than they hopefully will be able to contain the run game.  Based on what I have seen earlier this season, though, I would be surprised if that was the case.

• Safety LaMarcus Hicks, who was released from the active roster, was signed to the practice squad yet again.  The Lions also signed wide receiver Joel Filani, who played for Seattle earlier this season, to the practice squad.  Former Grand Valley State receiver Eric Fowler, tight end Jake Nordin, and cornerback Antonio Smith were released from the practice squad.
• I expect to find out how many tickets are left for Sunday's game sometime today.  My estimate is somewhere around nine or ten thousand.  The last home game had around seven thousand tickets left on the Thursday before the game, so chances are there will be even more available since the Lions have lost twice since then.
• MLive's Philip Zaroo rounded up some different reactions to the Lions' 2-point conversion attempt against Carolina that resulted in no penalties even though Daunte Culpepper got his face mask pulled.  I personally like the headline of the post, as it shows how the referees must have been thinking during the play: "Lions QB Culpepper's facemask attacks hand of Panthers LB Beason." 
• Peter King suggests that a team like the Lions or 49ers take a look at hiring Scott Pioli, the Patriots' VP of Player Personnel.  My belief is that if the Lions can't hire a proven general manager, then they should go after someone that works for a proven winner.  The Falcons hired Thomas Dimitroff from the Patriots earlier this year, and that move looks like it was a pretty good one already.
  

• Calvin Johnson hurt his thigh against Carolina and "will be limited in practice this week."
  
• Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham may be out for the season and will likely miss this coming Sunday's game against the Lions.  Graham rushed for 92 yards and caught 13 passes for 99 yards in last year's game between the Lions and Buccaneers.  Detroit won 23-16 to improve to 4-2.
• All of the charges filed against Kalvin Pearson as a result of an incident in April have been dropped.
• This is probably the only time I will agree with Rob Parker, but yes, Jason Hanson deserves better.  His 56-yard field goal in the Panthers game was awesome.
• Drew Sharp is completely wrong in saying that going 0-16 is impossible.  Although there is always the chance that the Lions could pull off an upset and finally get a win, there is no guarantee that they will.  They are that bad, and going 0-16 is definitely possible.  The fact that Sharp thinks it isn't make me think the Lions will for sure go winless.
• Dwight Smith is going to run at full speed today.  He has missed the last four games with a midfoot sprain.
• Daunte Culpepper was scheduled to be a captain for this past Sunday's game.
• Tom Kowalski doesn't think there is any credence behind the talk of Brian Billick coming to Detroit to coach the Lions.  That makes sense since no credible rumors will come about until it is determined who the general manager is going into 2009.
• When Drew Stanton threw a touchdown pass to John Owens against the Jaguars two weeks ago, it was the first time either of the players had scored.  Both obviously want the football they scored their first TD with, but right now it doesn't appear that it has been determined who will get it.
• Speaking of Stanton, Jim Colletto said he "did good" against Jacksonville.
• The Eagles and Bengals played to a tie on Sunday, and Donovan McNabb didn't even know that was possible.  Wow.

It is never good to lose a divisional game, especially late in the season, but that is exactly what I did in Week 11.  Underdogs beat me to move into a tie for second-place in our division.  Just go away Favre is now 8-3 and appears to be running away with the Charlie Sanders Division, so now the teams behind him (myself, Underdogs, and Maize 'n' Blue Jays) are battling it out for a wild card spot. 

Maize 'n' Blue Jays is 5-6 after a loss to the division leader, and Underdogs' victory over me made us both 6-5.  Detroit's Few Good Men is also 6-5, and since the tiebreaker for the wild card is points scored, I believe he and I would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

One of the biggest stories from Week 11 was the controversial finish to the Steelers-Chargers game.  The Chargers were trailing 11-10 with only a few seconds left, and they tried to lateral the ball around in hopes a miracle would happen.  Troy Polamalu broke up one of the laterals and returned the fumble for a touchdown.  Not only did Pittsburgh suddenly cover the spread, but fantasy football players with the Steelers D/ST got somewhere around 8 points (2 for a fumble recovery and 6 for a TD).

The referees took some time to talk about the last play and eventually determined that an illegal forward pass had occurred.  Therefore, no fumble happened and no touchdown happened.  The call turned out to be completely wrong, and the impact the miscue had was huge on both the gambling and fantasy football worlds.  It is estimated that a $64 million swing happened in the gambling world due to the incorrect call, and for fantasy football the call lost or won games in many cases.

In the official POD league, Calvin and the Chipmunks lost by just over 6 points.  He had the Steelers D/ST in his starting lineup, and a correct call would have meant that he had beat Detroit's Few Good Men, which would have changed the entire playoff picture. 

In the Pride of Detroit overflow league, I played somebody that had the Steelers D/ST, and I only won by a score of 76.24-74.32.  When the Steelers scored that touchdown at the end, I was beyond pissed off as I thought I had lost.  Then, as the call was changed, I was ecstatic since I won thanks to the referee's mistake.  I shouldn't have let it be that close in the first place, as I had a terrible coach rating of 66%.  I made the mistake of benching Leon Washington, Jerricho Cotchery, and the Packers D/ST.  Had I started even one of them, the Steelers-Chargers finish wouldn't have made a difference.

There was no controversy in the SBN/AOL league since the owner of the Steelers D/ST had them on the bench in favor of the Panthers.  If the Steelers D/ST had been in the starting lineup, another fantasy football player would have been screwed over since the margin he lost by was around 4 points.  The controversy was moot, though, since the Steelers didn't start.  Thankfully I wasn't involved in that game anyways, as I won 101.85-63.05 and had a perfect coach rating to improve to 9-2 on the season.

A full look at all of the results from the official POD league can be found after the jump.

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Bears - 3 :: Packers - 37

There's not really much to say about this game.  The Packers destroyed the Bears in all areas of this game and were dominant for all four quarters.  Although Kyle Orton did start for the Bears, he was not very effective, passing for only 133 yards and no touchdowns.  On a positive note, he didn't throw any interceptions, but he did fumble the ball without even being hit, and it was returned for a touchdown.  The defensive TD for Green Bay really just added insult to injury, as it happened when the score was 27-3.

Acme Packing Company was surprised about the big win:

Where did this Packer team come from? This was not the same team that was outplayed last week in Minnesota. Unfortunately this game looks like a fluke. The Packers are better then their record would indicate, but they don't stomp their opponent 37-3 every week (obviously). The real shock is that this is a complete turn around from last week's loss at Minnesota.

Windy City Gridiron had this to say after the loss:

Maybe it is just me, but doesn't it seem that every game in which it is power against power, we lose the battle?  Everytime a team comes not being able to stop the pass rush, they stuff us.  Everytime a team comes in and can't stop the run, they stop us.  Everytime a team comes in not able to run the ball, they run up and down us?  And that isn't just this year, this is like a reoccurring trend for us.

Vikings - 13 :: Buccaneers - 19

Minnesota actually led 13-6 after one half of this game.  The second half wasn't quite as nice to the Vikings, though, as they were shutout.  Tampa Bay scored a touchdown thanks to a 1-yard run by former Michigan Wolverine B.J. Askew, and Matt Bryant kicked two more field goals to give the Bucs the lead and the eventual win.

The Daily Norseman wasn't happy with Brad Childress after the game, as you can imagine:

Really, there's not a whole lot else that needs to be said about today's game.  It was pretty much the same as most of the games we've seen in the Brad Childress era.  It was the 8th of Minnesota's 10 games this year that was decided by 7 points or less.  In addition, the Vikings entered the fourth quarter still very much in the football game.  As Pacifist Viking pointed out, these are the Brad Childress era Vikings.  Be conservative, play it close to the vest, get down to the end of the game, and hope that either a) your team makes a big play or b) the other team screws up.  Neither of those things happened today, and as a result the Vikings are part of a three-way tie atop the NFC North instead of sitting in sole possession of first place.

As the quote above states, there is now a three-way tie for first-place in the NFC North.  The Bears, Packers, and Vikings will look to break that tie in Week 12.  Chicago heads to St. Louis to play the Rams, Green Bay goes on the road to play the Saints, and Minnesota will go to Jacksonville to battle the Jaguars.