More of them, though, leaned into the heart over the head: “I can’t bring myself to cheer for a team from Wisconsin” was one response, along with this one: “Gotta go with Detroit simply because of the insufferability factor with Packer fans.”
The largest answer category, though, was some variation on “neither.” One responded “meteor,” while another hoped for a tie. “The schadenfreude of the losing team” was one particularly enjoyable response, indicating fans weren’t so much rooting for one team to win as they were for one team to lose.
Detroit, of course, ended up winning 34-31 on a last-second field goal. The exhausting Lions were an absurd 4-for-5 on fourth down, which told the story of the game.
They were aggressive on two fourth-and-goals and scored touchdowns. They gambled on a fourth-and-1 in their own territory in the second half, didn’t make it and gave the Packers a short field to score a go-ahead touchdown. And they went for it on fourth-and-1 with 43 seconds left at the Packers 21, eschewing a go-ahead field goal in hopes of draining the clock before the attempt.
It worked, making the heart-leaning Vikings crowd happy.
If it hadn’t, Green Bay might have gone down and won and cleared a better path for the Vikings to win the Super Bowl.