Linus has his security blanket, and the Detroit Lions have the Silverdome. Trouble is, the Lions can`t take the Dome on the road. It won`t fit on the plane.
If it did, the Lions might be thinking about the Super Bowl. They are almost invincible in the Silverdome, where the Bears play them Sunday. The Lions, the National Football League`s ultimate homebody, are 6-1 this year in Pontiac, Mich. The fallen include Miami, San Francisco, Dallas and the New York Jets.
But take the Lions (7-8) away from home, and they act like a 10-year-old spending his first night at summer camp. Detroit`s homesickness has given it a sickening 1-7 road mark, including losses to Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Green Bay. During the last 10 years, the Lions are 46-26-1 at home, 16-59 on the road.
The Bears had little trouble defeating Detroit 24-3 Nov. 10 in Soldier Field. But in the Silverdome, Bears` coach Mike Ditka expects to see a completely different Lions team.
Ditka isn`t paying much attention to Green Bay`s 26-23 victory in the Silverdome last Sunday. It came on a last-second field goal in a game that drew only 49,379. Sunday`s game will be a sellout with more than 80,000 on hand, which means the noise will be deafening.
”The Lions are more used to the Dome,” Ditka said. ”It lets them operate the offense the way they want to. They get great fan support. It`s very hard for the other team to hear in there. Nobody goes in the spread against them because it`s impossible to hear the signals.”
The Lions are at a loss to explain why they are so great at home and so terrible on the road.
”Everybody is a good home team,” said Lions` coach Darryl Rogers, ”and everybody is a lousy road team.”
”I doubt if there is a rational explanation,” said quarterback Eric Hipple. ”I guess the crowd participation is a plus.”
Hipple swears that the Lions don`t fool around when they are on the road. Curfew is at 11 p.m. ”We`re strictly business,” he said.
If Rogers does have a theory, it stems from his experience as a college coach. He left Arizona State to coach the Lions this year.
”The variance between the first-place team and the last-place team in college is very great,” Rogers said. ”I`ve found in the pros that the difference is very small. The home-field advantage might be enough to put the other team over the top. It might make that difference.”
Rogers doesn`t enjoy discussing the subject because the Lions were only a few road victories away from a big season. Though he was able to turn Detroit around from a disastrous 4-11-1 season in 1984, Rogers realizes it could have been better.
”It depends on your perspective,” he said. ”We lost three games on last-second field goals. That could have given us 10 wins. That would have been unbelievable progress.
”We still had more wins than anyone ever anticipated for us. We also beat some teams that nobody gave us a chance against. But from my standpoint, I wanted to be looking forward to the playoffs.”
Rogers thinks the key next year will be avoiding injuries. The Lions have had 30 players, including 15 starters, miss a combined 269 games this season. The most notable absentee is running back Billy Sims, who injured his knee in 1984 and missed all of this season. His career is in jeopardy.
But the Lions will be able to forget about the injuries and look forward to 1986 if they can beat the 14-1 Bears. In the first meeting, the Bears dominated on the ground, with Walter Payton and Matt Suhey each rushing for more than 100 yards. Rogers believes that the wind and cold limited the Lions` attack.
”It wasn`t a good situation for us,” he said. ”We`re fortunate. The Bears have played 15 games, and only one guy has booted them. We get another shot at them. A win would be a nice way to finish the season.”
