Lions stun Cardinals in huge home upset, rout Arizona for second win in three weeks

Detroit entered Week 15 as a two-touchdown underdog

Two weeks after stunning the Vikings on a walk-off touchdown that gave them their first win of the 2021 season, the Lions have played spoiler yet again, routing the Cardinals at home to improve to 2-11-1. Arizona entered in contention for the NFC's No. 1 playoff seed, but without star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, the Cardinals sputtered offensively to drop a second straight game and fall to 10-4 on the year. Detroit, meanwhile, rode big games from emerging standouts Craig Reynolds and Amon-Ra St. Brown to claim their second victory in three weeks under first-year coach Dan Campbell.

The Cardinals entered Week 15's matchup as 13-point favorites in Detroit, but they trailed 27-6 deep into the fourth quarter, only cutting the deficit to two touchdowns with less than five minutes on the clock. Kyler Murray, once considered a front-runner to win MVP, struggled to maintain rhythm through the air and was a nonfactor on the ground. The Lions, on the other hand, won the time-of-possession battle thanks to steady running from Reynolds (112 yards), who started in place of the injured D'Andre Swift; and another productive outing for St. Brown, who's emerged as one of Jared Goff's most reliable pass targets.

Arizona has now lost two of its last three games. Thanks to the Lions' underdog performance Sunday, the Cardinals' chances of winning a division title, winning the NFC and winning the Super Bowl have all decreased significantly, according to SportsLine simulations. Arizona is now projected to have a 60.5% of winning the NFC West (down 21.2%), a 17% chance of winning the conference (down 4%) and an 8.8% chance of winning the Lombardi Trophy (down 2.6%).