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Joique Bell: Green Bay Brings Out The Best In Us

By: Ashley Scoby
@ashleyscoby

The Lions will take on the Packers for the second time in three weeks Thursday night, the second time in a row Detroit will play on Thursday.

Since the Lions are suddenly in the playoff picture (albeit in an unlikely way), divisional matchups become even more important for tiebreaker situations. If Detroit comes out of Ford Field with a win Thursday, it will have swept Green Bay for the season.

But the scheduling quirks of the NFL – back to back Thursday games, divisional rivalries twice in the span of three weeks – don't matter to the players.

"That's just the schedule," Joique Bell said on the Stoney and Bill show. "It's just another game on a Thursday night. If we had to play them back to back, I'd be fine with that. If they want us to play the first game of the season and the last game of the season, I would have been fine with that. Wherever they are, I always love playing Green Bay. They bring out the best in us and hopefully we can bring out the best in them so we can go toe to toe."

The Lions' last game against Green Bay was one of their best of the season. Detroit won 18-16 and kicked off the three-game winning streak they're currently on.

If that streak continues, Detroit could at least hope for a playoff spot at the end of the year if it got some help from other teams.

But Bell dismissed those playoff scenarios almost immediately, taking his coach's "one game at a time" philosophy to another level.

"It's actually one play at a time for me," he said. "Take one play at a time."

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