It doesn't guarantee them anything in the playoffs, but several Detroit Lions said today that they had their best week of practice this season in anticipation of Sunday's wild-card showdown against the Dallas Cowboys (4:40 p.m., Fox).
"Best," safety James Ihedigbo said. "I mean best this season. Offensively, the ball didn't hit the ground. Defensively, I don't think we made like an M.E., a mental error, I don't think we had one throughout the whole week. Guys are locked in."
Lions coach Jim Caldwell praised his team's practice habits several times this week.
He said Thursday that Wednesday's practice and walkthrough were "about the best we've had," and he said today was "pretty close to as good as Wednesday's."
"I think, sometimes, it's just the urgency of the matter," Caldwell said. "It's not like our practices have been poor. They've been very good, but I do think this time of year brings out the best in you. It'll either polish you up or it'll grind you down, one or the other. So yeah, our practices have been crisp."
In the locker room after practice today, players milled about, playing their usual games of ping-pong and cornhole, dancing to Notorious B.I.G. and sorting through prints of action photos taken by Getty Images.
Caldwell has said that he wants his players loose and aggressive for games, and guard Rob Sims said that's how they'll be Sunday.
"We're loose," Sims said. "I feel like we've earned this one and we didn't have to wait for anybody to get us in there and we did it ourselves. That goes a long way."
