They won the toss, and lost everything else. They fumbled, floundered and fell flat on their face. They got booed off the field and bounced from TV. They missed tackles and kicks, committed fouls and turnovers. They lined up illegally when they did anything right. They tripped on their own feet. They threw it away on fourth down. The Lions should throw it all out. They should take this 44-6 loss to the 2-5 Eagles, at home, and shoot it straight into the sun. Their season is headed there, too.
"That was bad," said Dan Campbell. "That was bad. We didn’t give ourselves a chance."
It was 7-0 after the first, 17-0 at the half, 38-0 after the third and 41-0 before the Lions scored a point. The organization honored Chris Spielman on a day the team got embarrassed. What felt like one of Detroit's best shots at a win this season turned into one of the ugliest losses ... in franchise history. Maybe we should have seen it coming. The Lions, for all their grit and grind in year one under Campbell, have yet to play two competitive games in a row.
They pushed the Ravens to the brink in Week 3, then fell off a cliff against the Bears. They nearly shocked the Vikings in Week 5, then flat-lined against the Bengals. They gave the Rams everything they had last week, and then gave the Eagles nothing. There wasn't an ounce of resistance in the Lions from the opening kick. They're a yo-yo whose highs hurt more than its lows.
"I really felt like we were flat," said Campbell, asked if his message is still reaching his players. "I’m not worried about my message. Well, maybe I should be worried about my message when you come out and play like this. I’m not worried about losing this team. I'm not worried about that.
"I am worried that I didn’t deliver the right message to get them ready to go. That’s what concerns me about what I did, not that I don’t have the right message or that I can’t get this team back up. My concern is that I did think I had them (back up) and in hindsight I obviously didn’t. It’s a lesson learned."
The Lions hoped to go into the bye on a high. On a modest wave of momentum. Instead they drowned in what Campbell called a "sea of trash," and this stink will linger for at least two weeks. No one was expecting roses from this team, not even Campbell if he's being honest. But Sunday was putrid. Sunday was as bad as it gets, in a stadium that was half-full at kick-off and all but empty by the fourth quarter.
The Eagles sized up the Lions and did whatever they pleased. They churned up 236 rushing yards, more than double their season average. They racked up four sacks by halftime, after producing zero in the two games prior. They bullied Detroit in the trenches on both sides of the ball, and sometimes Detroit helped them.
When Jared Goff hit Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 35-yard gain to push the ball inside the red zone late in the first half, the play was erased by an illegal formation -- the same infraction the Lions committed two weeks ago against the Bengals. Campbell took the blame for a "Day 1" mistake. Moments later, Campbell committed the first obvious blunder of his tenure when he let the clock tick down to 13 seconds on fourth down from the Eagles' 22-yard-line, then decided to go for it. Goff got sacked and the Lions forfeited points for no reason.
"I hate what I did before halftime, freaking hated it," Campbell said. "So that didn’t help either. I got out-coached, man. I got out-coached. I didn’t help these guys."
When the Lions went for it on fourth and 11 trailing by 24 midway through the third quarter, Goff rolled out of the pocket, couldn't find an open receiver and flung the ball out of bounds. The Eagles made it 31-0 on the ensuing drive. Goff said it wasn't a "misfire," that he "was not trying to throw it away," that the ball just "came out high." Hard to say which is worse.
"Hell, at one point today, we’re trying to help (Matt Nelson) and we step on his foot. How’s that helping? He gets run over and now we get sacked. It's like the Bad News Bears on some stuff," said Campbell. "And there again, that’s on me, man. You don't play that bad unless your head coach did not have you ready to go."
That one came early in the game, when the Lions still had hope. They double-teamed defensive end Josh Sweat with Nelson and T.J. Hockenson only for Hockenson to step on Nelson's foot and send him tumbling to the turf. Sweat slipped off Hockenson, ran over Nelson and swallowed Goff for a 12-yard loss on third down. The Bad News Bears can't bear the comparison.
"Here’s the good news," said Campbell. "We’re at the bye and I have a week now where I can really dive into this and say, ‘Alright, let me look at all of it. Let me look at exactly where we’re deficient, where we’re not, what we can help.' I go back to this: Where can we help ourselves schematically? Where can we help these players we have be better than they are?"
They can't be worse than they were on Sunday, from the coach on down. The Lions were so inept that local FOX stations switched to a more competitive game midway through the third quarter. The loudest cheers from the crowd were for Spielman, who swore things will get better. The jeers were for the Lions, who truly deserved them for the first time this season. If their fears are 0-17 -- "No, no, no," said Goff, not thinking about it -- they have reason to be scared on Halloween.