Detroit Lions looking like pretenders after eight games

The Detroit Lions had higher hopes for 2020 but look like pretenders after 8 games

In a season with more downs than ups, these 2020 Detroit Lions sure don’t look like a team poised to make a playoff run. After an embarrassing loss to the Minnesota Vikings where their defense looked like shredded cheese all day, one has to wonder how close management is to pulling the plug on this “Patriots-Midwest” experiment.

The Lions have now lost two games in a row in terrible fashion, hardly looking like they belonged on the same level as the Indianapolis Colts and the (at the time) two-win Minnesota Vikings. Throw in the Packers game in Week 2 and three of their five losses were complete blowouts.

Some late-game scoring versus the New Orleans Saints made the final score look close and a dropped pass left the Lions without a win in Week 1. On the other hand, the Atlanta Falcons stumbled into the end zone to give the ball back to the Lions for a late-game victory and the Arizona Cardinals game came down to a field goal with no time left on the clock.

That recap leaves one solid, well-played game that ended with a Lions victory – a toppling of the one-win Jacksonville Jaguars. The one positive from this game? The Lions beat a team that they should have expected to beat based on records and season expectations. This is far from righting the ship.

I mean, how do the Lions expect to compete when they don’t even put all eligible players on the field?

No, this isn’t even the first time the Lions haven’t fielded a full 11 defenders in the past two weeks. Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia trying to prove he could hold them with fewer players on the field is an odd flex. It was more likely just a big error in getting the correct defense called.

Errors like this are one of the many reasons this Lions team is still on the opposite side of a winning season. One can only look at the positive so long before the reality of what this team is hits you square in the face. They are underperforming against even competition on a weekly basis.

Next, the two-win Washington Football Team comes to the Motor City for a lackluster showdown. Can the Lions show they are a good football team that wins when expected? Or will they continue their downward spiral that leaves fans looking to the draft before Thanksgiving? If you have any hope left, now would be the time to cling to it. If the Lions lose, based on their schedule, it might be time to pack it in for the season.