Now all of that being said, the season is not over with and the reality of the situation is that we don’t know for sure what the outcome of this season or the Bob Quinn/Matt Patricia era will be yet.
Even though my friend doesn’t seem to understand it, I’m not negative. I’m a realist.
That means I call them as I see them. In the case of this Lions team, everything will change when they fix the defense. Dwelling on the positives is often done to the point of ignoring or downplaying the negatives.
When I am accused of following up a positive comment by focusing on the negative, it’s because the positive is already developing in the right direction. While I would love to spend more time on it, I realize that the important issue is giving the negative the attention it needs to be fixed. Because only then will the Lions truly become contenders.
If we look long and hard at these Lions, there are plenty of things to be disturbed about. We could start with their poor 2-3 record. They lost three games they had every right to win. They should have mauled the Jets on opening night, beat a 49ers team whose only win this season was against Detroit and defeated the Cowboys who were saved by Ezekiel Elliott‘s performance.
Granted the two Lions wins were unexpected and impressive, but if the Lions can win those games, then there is no excuse for losing the others.
The Lions run defense has been atrocious and we can argue that perhaps the Patriots and Packers don’t have overwhelmingly powerful ground games, but Dallas is the only opponent they have faced so far with an elite running back. What does that say?
To me, it says that these Lions have work to do. It says that until they fix the defense completely because the pass-rush still isn’t as consistent as it needs to be, they still have plenty to do before they can be legitimate contenders.