Lions left tackle Taylor Decker soundly rejects ‘Same Old Lions’ narrative after loss to Bills

After Thursday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions left tackle Taylor Decker made it absolutely clear he rejects a long-running narrative about the team.

“SOL” means something else to the vast majority of people, but to Detroit Lions fans it means “Same Old Lions.” In some respects Thursday’s 28-25 loss to the Buffalo Bills, with just enough mistakes to fall short, fits the narrative.

Don’t try telling that to left tackle Taylor Decker though.

Via Nolan Bianchi of The Detroit News, the Lions’ longest-tenured player had plenty to say after Thursday’s game.

"I thought the entire game we were going to win,” Decker said. “Even on the last-second field goal, I was like, ‘Man, they’re gonna block the kick.’ … I mean, we just — I felt it. We truthfully went out there expecting to win and we didn’t, and that’s on us. I don’t think it’s anything they did. They’re a great team; give them their credit.But I think we had opportunities to put that game away or at least get into a four-minute situation where we could run off the clock, so yeah. We’re going out there expecting to win every single game, no matter who it is that’s on the opposite side"

Taylor Decker soundly rejects “SOL” thing for this year’s Lions

Decker, the team’s first-round pick in 2016, has been to the playoffs as a Lion. He’s willing to speak his mind when the opportunities surface, rare as they are for an offensive lineman, and he’s clearly a team leader.

Decker went a little further after Thursday’s loss, with a NSFW phrase that may land on a bumper sticker in short order. Or be hung somewhere on a wall in the team facility, in a frame with his picture as the background.

"This isn’t the fucking same old Lions,” “We’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna get our respect and we’re gonna earn that respect. We came up short today, but week in and week out, we know we’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna bring it, and we’re not gonna get done. We’re gonna keep fighting, and those will turn into wins against those sort of high-caliber teams."

In plenty of past years, a team like the Bills would have had to be riddled with in-game injuries and/or made a ton of mistakes for the Lions to have any chance to beat them. That wasn’t the case on Thanksgiving Day, and Decker spoke for his teammates to tell the world these are not the “Same Old Lions.”