Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said in March that Detroit can go 16-0. Three months later, he’s not backing down.
“Like I said before, we can go 16-0,” Suh told the Detroit News today. “One of the reasons I’m saying this is because we should shoot for the top. And if you don’t want to be a Super Bowl team, what are you playing for? If you are satisfied with winning games and just making the playoffs, I think you should expect more. There is more to just playing and trying to win games. That is my mentality and that is my approach. We should come in with the attitude of the sky is the limit and we want to be the best.”
To Detroit fans, Suh’s prediction may bring back some uncomfortable memories of former Lions quarterback Jon Kitna, who insisted before the 2007 season that the Lions would win at least 10 games. After the Lions went 7-9 that season, Kitna emphatically stated that they’d win more than 10 games in 2008. And then the Lions went 0-16.
Granted, there are more objective reasons for optimism about the Lions now than there were three years ago. And Suh isn’t saying the Lions will go 16-0, just that they can go 16-0.
But on the Lions, who haven’t had a winning record since 2000 (the year before Matt Millen was hired as team president), it sounds a little ridiculous to talk about 16-0, when even 8-8 would represent significant progress.