Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are hard at work preparing to monitor the election returns diligently …

Oh, who are they trying to kid? They’re watching hockey, which, unlike the NBA, is not taking Election Day off.

Anyway, in news of a sport other than hockey, the NFL keeps trundling along as it reaches the more-or-less halfway point of the season. Thus far, all the usual clichés aside about how there’s still plenty of season left and variations thereof, things seem set for a Super Bowl clash between the Kansas City Chiefs for what seems like the 37th time in the past three seasons and the Detroit Lions for the first time in … well, ever.

With the Dallas Cowboys sinking into irrelevance this year — will Jerry Jones ever fire his incompetent general manager self? — the Lions are rapidly becoming America’s new team. Detroit is the scrappy underdog, or should I say undercat, that after years of mediocrity, has grown from weak as a kitten to living up to its name. Quarterback Jared Goff has gone from #1 pick bane to boon, efficiently leading an offense lacking in individual superstars yet consistently racking up the wins. He is one of the few effective old-school quarterbacks presently in the NFL, greatly preferring to be a pocket passer in lieu of both passing and running. His passer rating is behind only the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, who should be presented the AFC MVP award now and skip the formalities. The defense, presently minus its best player, defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who’s out with a broken leg, is good against the run but less than average against the pass. It is worth noting they are presently tied for the league lead in forcing turnovers.

Statistics do not tell the entire tale of any team. For example, as of now, the Tennessee Titans have allowed the fewest average yards per game in the league, and the New York Giants lead the league in sacks. Have you seen their respective records? Goff has only two 300+ yard games this season, and one of them came in the Lions’ only loss to date, a Week Two letdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All he does is win. Detroit can rack up the points when the opportunity presents itself; it racked up 42 against the Seattle Seahawks and 52 against the Titans. No team has scored more than 29 points against the Lions. Detroit does what it needs to secure victory, beating the good teams and usually beating up on the bad ones.

Can the Lions keep it up? There is no argument declaring why they can’t. That said, the schedule presents challenges. Detroit’s remaining divisional games against its best teams not named the Lions, namely the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, are at home. The Lions go on the road to face the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers and host the Buffalo Bills. On the easier side of things, Detroit plays Chicago twice, hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars, and visits the Indianapolis Colts. Running the table will not be easy, but neither is it impossible. The Detroit Lions play team football, and they play it very well. In an era of me-first athletes, it’s rather refreshing to see a team both play as one and win as one.