Oh man, how good does this little goodbye feel? After playing three games in eleven days and winning all three, the Detroit Lions had the entire weekend off. That will continue on Sunday as Lions fans, players and coaches can just sit on the couch all day and watch the rest of Week 14.

However, the results of Sunday’s game will certainly have an impact on the Lions’ future. The Lions have failed to clear space at the top of the NFC and NFC North thanks to the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles, who just seem incapable of losing at the moment.

Could this be the week that it finally happens and the Lions get closer and closer to conquering the league and the NFC top seed?

Let’s take a look at our rooting guide for Week 14 and what it could mean for the Lions’ postseason journey.

The only two games that really matter:

Falcons (6-6) at Vikings (10-2) – 1 p.m. ET – FOX

Root for: Hawks

The good news here is that the Falcons are a desperate team and barely have a lead over the 6-6 Buccaneers for the top spot in the NFC South. She need Here’s hoping they can finally snap the Vikings out of their five-game winning streak and give Detroit a huge lead in the division.

Panthers (3-9) at Eagles (10-2) – 1 p.m. ET – FOX

Who to root for: Panthers

This seems a little less likely. However, the Panthers are currently playing much better football than they did at the beginning of the season. Bryce Young looks capable, and they nearly pulled off a huge upset on the Chiefs and Buccaneers in back-to-back weeks. This week, however, they are 13.5 point underdogs. So don’t get your hopes up too high.

There are only two other teams that can mathematically catch up to the Lions: the Packers and the Commanders. Green Bay has already lost this week and Washington has a bye. So that’s really it for the rooting guide. Theoretically, I could delve deeply into tiebreakers and pick results that would benefit Detroit’s winning power, record in combined games, etc., but we’re a little too far away from getting to that point.

You could make an argument that you can support Bears over 49ersbecause that could help eliminate San Francisco from the playoff race before its Week 17 game against Detroit. It also hurts Chicago’s draft position.

But let’s just look at what the playoff situation would look like for Detroit with these two main results:

NFC North

1. Lions: 12-1
2. Vikings: 10-3
3. Packers: 9-4
4. Bears: Hopefully 5-8

In this scenario, the Lions would be close to winning the division. I don’t think they have a winning scenario in Week 15, but they could certainly get the win before the Lions-Vikings game in Week 18. According to the New York Times playoff simulator, that result would give the Lions a 97 percent chance of winning the division.

NFC playoff image:

1. Lions: 12-1
2. Eagles: 10-3

3-16: Everyone else

If the Eagles and Vikings lose, the Lions’ chances of winning the No. 1 seed would increase from 83% to 95%, according to the NYT. That’s a huge jump and would give Detroit some breathing room – which might be necessary given the tight schedule remaining.