As November flips to December, the Lions are still searching for their first win. If their offense wasn't one of the worst in the NFL, they might be in the thick of the playoff race.
The Lions have held their opponent to 16 points or fewer three weeks in a row without a single win to show for it. They also came up empty earlier this season while holding two top-10 offenses under 20 points in a pair of last-second losses to the Ravens and Vikings.
As 97.1 The Ticket's TJ Lang pointed out following Detroit's 16-14 loss to the Bears on Thanksgiving, the Lions would be 5-6 if they merely averaged 20 points per game.
They'd also be neck and neck with 5-6 Washington for the final wild card spot in the NFC. (The Football Team would own the tiebreaker.) Heck, the Lions would be two games behind the almighty LA Rams. If only they could muster 20 points per game like 22 of the NFL's 32 teams. If only their offense was simply mediocre, in a league where offense reigns supreme. Washington ranks 20th in the NFL with 21.2 points per game and woke up Tuesday in the playoffs.
Over in the AFC, the 6-5 Broncos are in a dead heat with the Chargers for the final wild card spot. Denver has averaged 20.7 points per game, 21st in the NFL. The Lions rank 30th with 15.8 points per game. They haven't scored 20 since the season opener, and that only came on the heels of a wild fourth-quarter rally in a 41-33 loss.
They've been even worse since Dan Campbell took over play-calling for Anthony Lynn after the bye, which was prompted in part by a six-point performance in a blowout loss to the Eagles. They've averaged 13.3 points in three games with Campbell on the headset. That includes barely 100 passing yards per game. Campbell acknowledged Monday "our pass game has got to get much better."
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As for the defense, which has yielded just 15 points per game since the Eagles loss, he said Aaron Glenn "and those guys have done a dang good job of trying to maximize everything we’ve got."
"Maximizing our staff, but also the players, trying to put them in a position to have success," Campbell said. "It’s easy to say, ‘Well, if you want to be a good defense, don’t allow yardage.’ But it’s not the yards. It really is the points and our guys are doing that right now. We’re able to limit the run, which really helps us. We’re making teams a little more one-dimensional.
"Look, it says a lot, because ultimately all you can ask for your defense is to give you a chance. To that point and to that stat, you would say they are giving us a chance. Now, there are things we’ve got to clean up. At the end of the day, when you’re talking about defense, your job is not to allow the opponent to score more than your offense. That’s what you’re charged with, too, but those guys are banging away over there."
Only two teams in the NFL have scored fewer points per game than the Lions: the Jaguars and Texans. All together, the three worst teams in football.