Detroit Lions: How the heck did it come down to this?

It’s amazing what three weeks in the NFL can do. The Detroit Lions were on a roll early on in the season but have since suffered three straight losses, finding themselves in the bottom of the NFC North.

Week one left us feeling empty inside. The Detroit Lions should have beat the Arizona Cardinals on the road. The Lions squandered an 18-point fourth-quarter lead only to tie after a scoreless overtime. For many fans, it felt like a loss.

The Lions of the past would have curled up into the fetal position and coasted through a five-win season or something of that nature. Detroit was able to bounce back with back to back wins against the Chargers and Eagles. Although both teams were banged up, you can only beat whoever is on the field. Detroit took care of business.

When the Chiefs rolled into town, the Detroit Lions had the high powered Andy Reid offense at bay. Detroit held a fourth-quarter lead late, yet failed to hold as Patrick Mahomes led K.C down the field for a game-winning scoring drive. That was a loss that left many fans optimistic.

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Despite being without the explosive Tyreek Hill and rotational back, Damien Williams playing the Chiefs close was very impressive. Kansas City is expected to be a Super Bowl contender come January. It appeared the Lions were on their way.

Everything came to a grinding halt following a Detroit Lions bye. The team traveled to Green Bay for their first divisional game of the season. The Lions started fast, outplayed the Packers, but failed to score touchdowns in the red zone settling for five field goals rather than touchdowns. Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell seems to have an explosive script between the ’20s, but the play calling and team performance bogs down as the Detroit Lions enter the red zone.

That being said, the officials did their best screw job of 2019 in that Detroit, Green Bay game. It wasn’t even a single call; it was multiple outrageous game-changing calls, especially late in the football game.

Trey Flowers was flagged twice for illegal use of hands, hands to the face. On both occurrences, his hand was on the Packers’ offensive lineman’s chest. After the game Flowers expressed his displeasure and also mentioned, he’s been using that move throughout his entire career.

The last call came on a third-down play with just under two minutes left in the football game. The Packers would have been forced to kick a mid-ranged field goal, in turn, leaving Matthew Stafford plenty of time to get Matt Prater into field goal range himself leaving the Lions an opportunity to win the football game if Mason Crosby did convert the go-ahead score. The loss, which should have been a win left fans and analysists across the nation flabbergasted.

Just when things couldn’t get worse, the Detroit Lions hosted the Minnesota Vikings and yielded more than 500 total yards as the Vikings cruised to a victory in Ford Field. The Vikings went a perfect five for five in the red zone against the Lions — a big difference from Detroit’s production in Green Bay.

That’s how we’ve gotten to this…

Detroit currently sits at the bottom of the NFC North division with a 2-3-1 record, three games back of the division-leading Green Bay Packers. With the trade deadline looming general manager Bob Quinn decided to trade away team captain, Quandre Diggs. Diggs not only popular amongst his peers but also the Lions faithful. Was the move part of the rebuild after drafting Will Harris in the third round this past spring? Or merely just a salary dump?

The lead back in Detroit Kerryon Johnson was placed on injured reserve designated to return list yesterday. If he can return this season, it will be for the final two weeks, but if Detroit is ‘out’ of it, we may not see the often injured Johnson again until next year. It’s the second injury-riddled season in Detroit for the young back.

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The Lions have two roster spots freed up, leaving us to wonder what Bob has in mind–stay tuned.

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