The Detroit Lions have nothing left to play for, but pride. With that in mind, could David Blough’s performance on Thanksgiving mean a little more?
The Detroit Lions are 3-8-1 and just playing out the string at this point. There is very little that will happen in their final four games that will have any real effect on the team moving forward.
This season has been some of the best and the worst of the Lions. The media has posed the question of whether Matt Patricia has lost this locker room or not again. However, despite their poor record, they have led in every game they have played this season.
Teams simply don’t get the lead in every game they play just by being talented or even having a Hall of Fame coach. The New England Patriots are the defending world champions and boast Bill Belichick who is absolutely one of the best coaches, if not the best, the NFL has ever seen and despite their 10-1 record, they can’t say they’ve led in every game.
Now circumstances do play into a team being able to build or get the lead away from an opponent. In the case of the Patriots, they ran into a buzz saw called the Baltimore Ravens who never gave New England a chance. Yet no team can get that elusive lead in each game with players laying down or giving up.
To Matt Patricia’s credit, the Lions have played hard for him. Unfortunately, they have either made critical mistakes or just not been good enough to hold those leads.
The mistakes do go back to the man who coached them. Not being good enough goes back to the general manager who built the team. In the Lions case that would be Bob Quinn.
At some point after the season, the decision will be made about whether both Patricia and Quinn will stay or if there will be a change made. One way or another, there just may have been a ray of sunshine that came out of the Lions Thanksgiving Day loss that could alter the course of Detroit’s offseason plans.