The Lions are worse than we even realized
The Detroit Lions are now the only team in the NFL to not record a win as of yet now that the Jacksonville Jaguars got their first win in London.
Detroit is 0–6 and when you look ahead, it’s hard to find a game they will win. It’s the NFL and it’s always unpredictable, and I doubt that the Lions go 0–17, but it still doesn’t look good.
Las Vegas betting odds thought the Lions would get 5 wins this season. If you bet the under, you’re probably feeling pretty good right now. They look terrible.
Some thought that after last week when head coach Dan Campbell cried after losing to the Vikings, the players would come out and get a win for their passionate coach. Instead, they played dreadfully against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Lions looked sloppy on both sides of the ball. Detroit’s defense allowed Joe Burrow to throw for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns. Joe Mixon had 94 yards on the ground on just 18 attempts. That’s an average of 5.2 yards per carry.
On offense, the Lions couldn’t do anything. Jared Goff didn’t even have a touchdown passing and he had a quarterback rating of 67.8 with 202 yards passing. The rushing attack for the Lions was even worse. Their top rusher was D’Andre Swift with 24 yards on 13 carries. They had 36 yards rushing as a team.
It’s really glaring when you look at the numbers to this game and realize that Detroit only turned it over once and they only had 11 points. All of which came in the fourth quarter when the Bengals were in prevent defense. This offense just is not working.
It’s very hard to find a “bright spot” on this Lions team. It’s certainly no one on defense. On offense, no one has stepped up and been a breakout star, either.
The Lions have actually shown some fight in them during this season on a couple of occasions. They almost made an incredible comeback in week 1 against the 49ers. They had two games lost on a last-second field goal against the Ravens and Vikings. Both teams beating the Lions 19–17, oddly enough.
The other games have not really been close, though. They’ve been outplayed for the majority of the season.
Now that the team is 0–6, it’s going to be hard to motivate these players. Especially with such a grueling defeat against the Bengals. The only motivation now will be for themselves. To prove that they belong on an NFL roster next year. Whether that results in any wins…time will tell.
Jared Goff has been pretty bad this year. A lot of Detroit fans were hoping maybe Goff wasn’t as bad as the media was making him out to be. That maybe Goff could be the future of the Lions and the Lions could draft a different position of need in the 2022 Draft.
As it turns out, the Lions will most likely be trying for the best quarterback available. Goff has 4 interceptions and 6 fumbles in 6 games. Not only that, his decision-making has been questionable at best. On Sunday, Goff threw the ball away on fourth down. He admitted it was a mental mistake. But, it’s just one of those things that you look at and it fits perfectly into the season he’s been having.
Many believed that it was Sean McVay that was behind Goff’s past success. He was 42–20 under Sean McVay. When McVay isn’t his coach, he is 0–13. It’s a team sport, and not every loss is on him, but it’s still an astonishing statistic.
There’s clearly a reason the Rams threw in an extra first-round draft pick when they shipped Jared Goff off to Detroit. The Lions are now taking on his massive contract and he’s performing very poorly. He hasn’t elevated anybody, nor shown that he can get it done without a ton of help around him.
Goff can do just fine when he has a complete team around him with multiple weapons, but when he’s making $25 million a year, it makes it hard to make him your future.
Detroit can get out of the Goff contract after next season when they get a dead cap hit of $10 million.
Next weekend, the Lions go to Los Angeles to face Goff’s old team, the Rams. Matthew Stafford gets to face his old team. If there’s ever a time to have a comeback game for Jared Goff, it would be that one.
Goff can try to prove he’s not as bad as he’s been looking. The problem is, the Rams have a fantastic defense and Sean McVay knows Jared Goff very well. Stafford also knows Detroit’s defense very well, plus they’ve been bad. On paper, it looks like it might be a bloodbath for the Lions, but crazier things have happened.
That game kicks off next Sunday at 4:05 PM ET on FOX.
