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Bacon: Lions' Caldwell could get axed, and why Harbaugh's second season was a success

Since the Lions lost to the Packers 31-24 on Sunday night, Green Bay will host a playoff game at Lambeau Field in front of their cheeseheaded fans.
Phil Roeder
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Flickr - http://j.mp/1SPGCl0
Since the Lions lost to the Packers 31-24 on Sunday night, Green Bay will host a playoff game at Lambeau Field in front of their cheeseheaded fans.

Our conversation with John U. Bacon, Michigan Radio's sports commentator.

It was a good news/bad news situation for the Detroit Lions on New Year's Day. The good news was before their regular season finale at Ford Field against the Packers, the New York Giants did Detroit a favor by beating the Washington Redskins. With the Giants win, that clinched a playoff spot for the Lions. 

The bad news is that the Lions let a halftime lead slip away and they lost to the Packers, 31-24. That defeat cost Detroit their first division title (and first home playoff game) since 1993. Their consolation prize? The No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs and a Saturday night matchup in Seattle against the Seahawks, who haven't lost a home playoff game since 2004.

John U. Bacon joined Stateside for his first sports roundup of 2017 and he gives a lot of credit to the season quarterback Matthew Stafford has had this year. Bacon expects him to get a contract extension. However, despite finishing 9-7 and making the playoffs, Bacon thinks the team's three-game losing streak and a likely early exit from the playoffs could lead Lions' head coach Jim Caldwell to get fired.

Listen to the full interview above to hear more about the Lions' loss to the Packers, what went wrong in Michigan's Orange Bowl loss to Florida State, and whether Wolverine fans should consider Jim Harbaugh's second season a success.

(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunesGoogle Play, or with this RSS link)

Copyright 2021 Michigan Radio. To see more, visit Michigan Radio.

Josh Hakala, a lifelong Michigander (East Lansing & Edwardsburg), comes to Michigan Radio after nearly two decades of working in a variety of fields within broadcasting and digital media. Most recently, he worked for Advance Digital where he managed newspaper websites from across the country, including MLive.com. While his resume is filled with sports broadcasting experience (Big Ten Network, 97.1FM The Ticket, 610AM WIP etc.), radio reporting (90.1FM WRTI) and odd jobs (Editor for the FIFA video game series for EA Sports), he brings a passion for news and storytelling to the Stateside staff.