For four drives Sunday, the Lions played stout defense against the Steelers. Unfortunately for the Lions, the Steelers had six drives to go.
When Aaron Rodgers dropped back and lobbed a prayer that was answered by Kenneth Gainwell in the dying seconds of the first half, it capped a 90-yard touchdown drive and triggered Detroit's defensive demise.
After scoring three points and averaging 3.0 yards per play on their first four drives, the Steelers piled up 8.2 yards per play -- highlighted by three 45-yard touchdowns -- en route to a 29-24 win at Ford Field that stuck a knife in the Lions' season. All that's left to do is twist it.
"The rush and coverage always go together, and we have not worked in unison for a number of plays," Dan Campbell said Monday in the aftermath of the Lions' most damaging loss of the year. "We’ve gotten hit on a number of plays."
For a month now, Detroit's defense has been torn to shreds. Everyone has feasted, like sharks smelling blood, from Jameis Winston (395 passing yards, three touchdowns) and Jordan Love (four touchdowns) to rushing tandems Kyren Williams and Blake Corum (5.7 yards per carry, three touchdowns) and Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell (8.0 yards per carry, two touchdowns).
While the supposed best running back duo in the NFL watched from the other sideline Sunday, Warren and Gainwell combined for a whopping 279 yards of offense. It was one big play after another for Pittsburgh, who had struggled to generate big plays all year. The Lions have struggled to stop them in the most critical stretch of the season.
Over the last five games, Detroit has allowed an average of 32 points, 459 yards and 6.5 yards per play -- all of which would rank last in the NFL over the course of this season. In trying to protect their wounded secondary against the Steelers, the Lions played significantly more zone coverage than usual, gave their cornerbacks more help over the top and wound up allowing 230 yards on the ground, 198 of them in the second half.
"We play a certain style, right? And then if you feel like you’re not executing there, you try to give some help in areas. When you do that, then you expose yourself in others," said Campbell. "And that happened a little bit yesterday. We tried to play with a lighter box, and then we got hit in the run game. (On) some of them we missed some tackles. That showed up. Where we fit, who the support player is. That showed up."
On both of Warren's long touchdowns, the Steelers ran behind a fourth-string left tackle and a backup left guard and plowed the Lions off the line. It was Marcus Davenport, DJ Reader, Tyleik Williams and Derrick Barnes who got blocked up on the first one, Roy Lopez, Williams and Aidan Hutchinson on the second. Making matters worse for Detroit, backup safety Thomas Harper took poor angles in support and never had a chance to stop either run. Warren was barely touched on his romps to the end zone.
After getting gashed on the ground the week prior by the Rams, the Lions have surrendered 389 rushing yards and 6.9 yards per carry in their last two games, a dramatic spike from 3.9 per carry in their first 13 games. And this is happening against a front seven that's as healthy as it could hope to be at this juncture of the season, with better personnel now than the Lions had in Week 1.
"Obviously, it’s too much, man," said Campbell. "It’s not sustainable. Listen, you live and you learn. We’ve had some young guys that are getting valuable reps right now, and they’re going to learn from them and grow from them."
The Lions are technically still alive in the playoff race entering a Christmas Day game against the Vikings. But one more loss, or one more Green Bay win, will put the defense out of its misery.