The Lions will have plenty of critics after Sunday's blowout loss to the Colts, and those critics will have plenty of fuel.
They'll say Detroit's past two wins came against a pair of last-place teams. They'll say the apparent progress wasn't real. They'll say Detroit's performance Sunday against a first-place team is more indicative of where the club stands.
They might even say the Lions got a little high on themselves stringing together a couple wins.
“No, not at all," said safety Duron Harmon. "But at the end of the day, if you go out there and you put up a performance like that, that is what people are going to say."
And the Lions will have no choice but to wear it -- even if linebacker Reggie Ragland doesn't want to hear it.
"Who cares what these critics got to say because they don’t play in this league. They don’t play football," Ragland said. "This league is hard to win. I don’t care if it’s one-win teams, two-win teams. These critics don’t play in this league. They don’t understand. Getting a win in this league is hard as it is. I don’t care what no critic got to say. Damn them.
"That’s why they sit behind the desk and write on papers. They don’t play this game, next question.”
So Detroit's 20-point loss on Sunday to the 5-2 Colts doesn't reflect how it measures up with the better teams in the NFL?
"No, man, no," Ragland said in frustration. "Regardless, they are professionals in this league. The Falcons got good players, the Jags got good players, they are in this league for a reason. How can a critic tell me about playing football in this league when they don't play? Next question."
Fact is, this has been a theme of Matt Patricia's tenure. The Lions have just three wins over winning teams through his first 39 games. They are 12-26-1 overall.
"Every game is hard," Patricia said when asked about Detroit's struggles against quality opponents. "Every team is good and has a lot of talent. Next week is new and it will be harder than this week. But the records, we can’t look at that all the time. We just have to do the best we can do to win.”
Was this a setback for his team after two straight wins?
"I mean, I think we understand every single week the teams we play get better. As the season goes on in the NFL you have to improve. No one stays the same. Everyone gets better and the competition gets harder. From that aspect of it, we have a lot of work to do."
The Lions played poorly on both sides of the ball against the Colts. But they were especially bad on offense, particularly in the first half. Against a defense that ranks No. 2 in the league, the Lions went long stretches without even mustering a first down.
It felt like another indictment of who they truly are.
“When you look at drives that we’re clicking, it’s like clockwork," said Marvin Jones. "It’s easy. It’s consistency, that’s all it is. If we can do it consistent, we can really move the field and score on anybody. And I think we’ve showed that, but obviously we’ve showed the opposite as well. The opposite is what’s hurting us.
"Basically, we just have to be who we know we are. We can score points at will. We just have to do that every quarter and have that mentality every snap of the game.”
Of course, it's easier to score points against defenses that rank toward the bottom of the league.
“You’ve got to prove yourself every week," said Matthew Stafford. "Just because we won a couple weeks ago in Jacksonville doesn’t mean we were going to go down there and beat Atlanta. And just because we beat Atlanta, doesn’t mean you’re going to go out there and beat Indy, or lose to Indy. Each week, it’s a prove-yourself league."