Lions playoff post-mortem: 5 turning points that doomed 2018

Week 12: Stafford’s pick-six against the Bears on Thanksgiving

You can either watch the play here, or you can just imagine all the worst parts about the Jets game and combine them into one ill-advised and carelessly telegraphed pass toward the sideline that Bears corner Eddie Jackson jumped, for an even easier interception return than Darron Lee had a few paragraphs ago.

With the score tied 16-16 midway through the 4th quarter, the Lions defense had forced a three and out, putting the ball back in #9’s hands for a potential upset-sealing drive. It only took one play and nine seconds of game time before the ball was in #9’s hands again, this time trailing 23-16.

After a redemption drive that took the offense to inside Chicago’s ten yard line, the next series also ended with a Stafford interception, this time in the end zone to ice the game.

Doom Level: 4

Honestly, the ship had probably already sailed by this point in the season. If the Lions happened to sneak past the Chase Daniel edition of Chicago, it’s not like the injury bug and offensive woes were going to clear up any moving forward. Without Kerryon Johnson, Golden Tate, Marvin Jones, and just about anyone else who might have been helpful on offense, a win on Thanksgiving would have been fun, but only a temporary diversion from an inevitable 7-9 finish.

Honorable Mention: Week 16 (2017) Lions lose at Cincy on Christmas Eve

Even though it happened last year, the 26-17 loss against an already-eliminated Bengals team still looms large for two reasons:

• This loss knocked the Lions out of the playoff race (even though it turned out that 10 wins wouldn’t have been enough to make it last year anyway.
• This is the game that got Jim Caldwell fired, plain and simple.

Doom Level: 8

For 2019 and beyond, Matt Patricia could still be the guy to push a long-suffering franchise into new levels of success. As far as 2018 goes though, I don’t think there’s any way that a Lions team still coached by Jim Caldwell would have been this disappointing.