Detroit Lions Week 11 Report Card: Another close loss

After another narrow loss on Sunday, here’s the Detroit Lions Week 11 report card.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Detroit Lions played a competitive football game on Sunday, but ultimately fell short in the end.

After going down 13-0 against the Cleveland Browns, the Lions battled back to make it a 13-10 game.

Detroit remains he only winless team in the NFL (0-9-1). While they could have won multiple games by this point, they continue to find ways to lose.

This game followed a similar script to most games this season. The offense was bad, and the defense was pretty good. Then, the offense shows some flashes and the game gets a little closer. Then, when it matters most, the Lions fall short.

Detroit Lions Week 11 Report Card

Offense- 1.5/5 Stars

Another week, another first half with zero points for the Lions.

The offensive futility continued into the second half, only disrupted briefly by a long D’Andre Swift touchdown run.

The Lions were simply not able to generate much of anything in this game. That was especially true of the passing game, with just 77 yards through the air as new starter Tim Boyle completed 15 of 23 passes with two interceptions.

Turns out a change in quarterback doesn’t mean much for this offense.

Only one wide receiver caught a pass today, and as in Week 8 it was Amon-Ra St. Brown (four receptions for 18 yards). The rest of the production went to the tight ends and running backs, with T.J. Hockenson leadng the way with six grabs for 51 yards after last week’s catchless dud against the Steelers.

There was only one player who had a good game on the offensive side of the ball for Detroit.

Best offensive player: RB D’Andre Swift

Surprise, surprise, the Lions’ most electric player was the only one who provided a jolt to the offense against the Browns.

Swift accounted for 55 percent of the Lions’ offensive yards in this game, with 57 yards on his touchdown run.

Chris Burke of The Athletic practically called it.

Swift’s ability to make people miss in space is ridiculous. And his ability to maintain speed while doing so is just as impressive. On this run, you can see the exact moment Swift sees the hole he wants to hit. He makes a decisive cut, and he takes off.

With his 136-yard effort against the Browns, Swift is now up to 975 total yards on the season with back-to-back 100-yard games on the ground. That puts him on a 17-game pace of 1,657 total yards. He has easily been the Lions’ best offensive player this season, and he has done some of his best work in the past two games.

Worst offensive player: QB Tim Boyle

Anyone who missed the preseason just witnessed the exact reason there was such little optimism heading into this game.

All the accuracy issues we saw Boyle have in the preseason were on full display against the Browns. The two interceptions were bad, but at least he didn’t take any sacks or fumble the ball.

It looks like Jared Goff will miss at least another game, so Boyle will have a shot at redemption against the Bears on Thanksgving Day.