Lions vs. Bears Song of the Game: “Look On Down From The Bridge” by Mazzy Star

It’s still raining, up here.

Around this time a year ago, Detroit Lions fans were celebrating a victory after Thanksgiving. Not, like, a victory in the win column or anything like that, no, they were celebrating the firing of former Lions head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn. And trust me when I tell you it was a celebration, unlike any victory Patricia put in the standings ever elicited.

Fast forward one year and the Lions are 0-10-1 under the direction of first-year head coach Dan Campbell. The honeymoon period has officially come and gone; hard-fought losses and moral victories are now nothing more than Monday morning fodder for those still clinging to the optimism Campbell brought with him to Detroit back in January.

But hey, at least the Detroit Lions finished with a better record in November than the Los Angeles Rams.

Lions vs. Bears Week 12 Song of the Game: “Look On Down From The Bridge” by Mazzy Star

Look on down from the bridge
There’s still fountains down there
Look on down from the bridge
It’s still raining, up here

The thing I adore about this record from Mazzy Star is how it’s so dripping in melancholy, and how those church organs clear a path for you to immediately sink into the mood this song creates—it just feels like rain on an overcast afternoon. And sometimes life imitates art in a way that’s entirely eerie, so on a rainy, overcast afternoon in Michigan, it’s immediately where my brain went this past Thanksgiving when the Lions squandered yet another opportunity to earn their first win of the 2021 season.

Look on down from the bridge
I’m still waiting for you

And here we are, still waiting for that Lions victory that seemed to elude Detroit for so many acceptable reasons back in September and October. There was a record-setting field goal as time expired, there was a Minnesota Vikings kicker who connected as time expired, there was the aggressiveness of Campbell that fans found a refreshing departure from the previous regime.

Everybody seems so far away from me
Everybody just wants to be free

Now, a victory for this team has never seemed so far away from happening. If the Lions had a shot at winning, the past three weeks represented football schedule serendipity. Banged up quarterbacks, other key players missing, the Chicago Bears visiting Ford Field, all of the luck the Lions could possibly get after being ravaged by injuries themselves earlier this season could only net them a tie over that three-game stretch.

If you listen to this song on repeat as I have over the course of writing this article, it’s hard to feel good about literally anything going on in your life, let alone last Thursday’s football game. Which is fine, there was hardly anything to feel good about in that football game, especially with the way the last drive by the Bears and Andy Dalton—an 18-play, 69-yard drive that lasted eight-and-a-half minutes—literally took the game out of the hands of Detroit.

All hope isn’t lost, however. Campbell is out here saying all the right things, accepting criticism, and inviting it in the face of defeat. Let’s just hope the skies clear and the Lions finally get this monkey off their back before this playlist ends up sounding like the burned CD I made after Autumn broke my heart the day before we took a field trip to Cedar Point in seventh grade.