DETROIT – Should Detroit Lions fans be worried after the ugly loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving?
The sky isn’t falling, but yes, there’s definitely reason for concern. Multiple reasons, actually.
It wasn’t a huge surprise that the Lions lost again on Thanksgiving. The Packers are a professional football team and very capable of winning on any given week. But the way the Lions lost -- that’s what felt jarring.
The defense, for a third week in a row, looked overmatched for the majority of the game. Since the team’s bye week, Aaron Glenn’s group hasn’t had many answers for the Chargers, Bears, and Packers -- three teams with losing records on the season.
Aidan Hutchinson is the only player capable of getting pressure on the quarterback, and when teams commit to keeping him in check, opposing passers have all day to look downfield. That’s exactly what happened Thursday, as Jordan Love picked apart the Lions to the tune of 268 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Jerry Jacobs had his worst game since the loss to the Seahawks in Week 2. Love targeted him play after play, whether he was matched up with Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, or Jayden Reed. Those plays rarely went Detroit’s way.
But unlike in Los Angeles, when the offense scored 41 points, or against Chicago, when a furious comeback erased a 12-point deficit, the Lions couldn’t dig themselves out of a hole on Thanksgiving. That was just as much the fault of the offense as the defense.
Jared Goff turned the ball over three times for the second game in a row -- this time a trio of fumbles. The Lions went 0-for-4 in fourth-down attempts that mattered, converting only once after the game had already been decided.
In Goff’s defense, he didn’t have much time to make decisions. He was hit 12 times on Thursday and sacked thrice by Rashan Gary, who spent the afternoon roasting Taylor Decker like a Thanksgiving turkey. When Goff did have time, his throws were often errant, or receivers weren’t on the same page.
The Packers dominated the Lions for 60 minutes in every phase of the game.
It was a stunning 180 from the last head-to-head matchup, when the Lions went into Lambeau Field and bullied Green Bay. This was an opportunity for the Lions to bury the Packers once and for all, but instead, the NFC North race is far from over.
Green Bay is still three games behind the Lions, but now, the Minnesota Vikings are only two games back, and this divisional loss by Detroit could prove costly in a tiebreaker scenario. The Lions and Vikings have two head-to-head matchups remaining in Weeks 16 and 18.
What once looked like a formality is now very much a race that’s up in the air.
Other than their one-point victory over the Kansas City Chiefs -- who were without star players Travis Kelce and Chris Jones -- the Lions have only beaten teams with losing records. They were defeated by both of the other playoff contenders on their schedule: Seattle and Baltimore.
That begs the question: Is this team as good as we thought at the bye?
The Chargers exposed some defensive weaknesses, sure. But these last two performances against the Bears and Packers were far more concerning. Other than a four-minute window at the end of the Chicago game, the Lions have been dominated by the two worst teams in the NFC North, while Goff, their leader, has six turnovers.
Looking ahead, Detroit doesn’t have an easy road. Next weekend brings a road game against the first-place Saints, followed by a trip to Chicago. Then, the Lions host a Broncos team that’s on a four-game winning streak before the difficult Vikings-Cowboys-Vikings stretch to end the regular season.
Like I said, the sky isn’t falling -- at least not yet. Every single Lions fan would have gladly taken an 8-3 start and a two-game lead in the division with six weeks to go.
But the confidence of the fan base has to be shaken. If Dan Campbell can’t patch up this defense and get Goff back on track, fans could be in for a whole new kind of heartbreak.
