Lions Week 12 Report Card: Poor coaching dooms Detroit on Thanksgiving

Coaching Staff- 1/5 Stars

A lot of people are already done with Dan Campbell calling plays for the offense.

Multiple times throughout the game fans booed the play call, typically when a draw play was called in third-and-long situations.

But that is not what made this game so bad for the coaching staff. It was the final moments of the game.

The Bears had the ball and were driving down the field. Going into a third-and-nine the Lions called a timeout, as they wanted to stop the clock and save time for their offense.

Then, a miscommunication in the secondary caused panic on the Lions sideline. Alex Anzalone had noticed the Bears were using a “max protect”look, so he checked the Lions’ defense into a different coverage. Half the secondary noticed, half did not.

The coaching staff noticed the miscommunication, and frantically called a timeout. The only problem with that is you can’t call back-to-back timeouts, so a five-yard penalty was enforced.

Then on third-and-four the Lions were playing  off coverage, which allowed the Bears to get an easy conversion. That allowed them to wind down the clock and kick a chip shot field goal as time expired to win the game.

It’s clear this coaching staff is still very much learning on the job. But some of these learning moments have been very frustrating to watch.

Final Thoughts:

If you are someone that is all in on the Lions getting the first overall pick in next April’s draft, you left this week happy.

It should be noted the Lions can win a game and still hold the top pick because the Texans won in Week 11.

All we need is one, just a single win this year to be happy.

What’s been the most frustrating is how tantalizingly close the Lions have been to getting that first win. Though as the season drags on, it seems less and less likely to happen.

Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. All that matters, for now, is the Lions found yet another creative way to lose on Thanksgiving Day.

Final Grade: 2/5 stars