It's never a good thing when, after a loss, you start to becoming inundated with stats that say your team has allowed the most of something through the first four weeks of a season in your teams' history.
For the Detroit Lions, that "thing" is total yards - 1,186 passing yards, specifically. That's the most allowed by a Lions team through four weeks of football in the franchise's history, and a direct encapsulation of just how down bad their defense is right now.
The debate that will continue to rage on, likely for the entire year, is whether this porous defense is the fault of defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard's inability to mask the teams' shortcomings in their secondary, or the personnel not being up to the task of making Sheppard's schemes work, or both.
Honestly, there's no surefire answer to that question, and barring a total strip down and rebuilding of their defense, we're unlikely to get one until next season. For now, they are what they are. And, what they are is a tied-for-last-place NFC North team staring down back-to-back divisional games in just a few weeks. Fun!
NFC North Week 4 power rankings: Lions stumble to bottom of the pile
4. Detroit Lions (2-2)
In addition to their obvious woes defensively, they had a really bad game down the stretch on offense, too. You can blame the defense for not providing any sort of confidence to the offense if they were to actually secure a lead or tie in the 4th quarter, but the pressure that Jared Goff and Jahmyr Gibbs faced all game was palpable. Gibbs was totally out-dueled by Chuba Hubbard in this contest despite the Panthers being one of the worst run defenses in the NFL up to last night.
If the Lions aren't absolutely perfect on offense, they have no shot at winning games. And, that's just an impossible ask of a new-look offensive line, a new offensive coordinator, and again, with a lack of confidence that perfection would even matter. The Lions are in a really bad place right now, and honestly, it's hard to envision what can be fixed beyond hope Brian Branch's return unlocks some things for their secondary.
3. Green Bay Packers (2-2)
The Packers get a boost this week thanks to being one of three NFC North teams to actually win in Week 4. They managed to take down a very injured, very flat Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, but it wasn't exactly a convincing effort - Jordan Love only finished up with 197 passing yards, while their top rusher was Kaleb Johnson with 42 yards on the day.
They continue to struggle on offense thanks to a porous offensive line and a total lack of legitimate running back depth. While they got a win, being unable to totally dominate a winless Tampa Bay team with no Baker Mayfield in tow isn't exactly convincing. But hey, a win's a win. The Lions don't know anything about that from Week 4.
READ MORE: Sam LaPorta news may push the Lions toward a Brian Branch contract extension
2. Chicago Bears (3-1)
One of the more frustrating storylines for the Lions to have to watch unfold this season has been the Bears' resilience amid a slightly lengthy Caleb Williams injury.
Head coach Ben Johnson utilized both Case Keenum and Tyson Bagent in a dominant win over the struggling New York Jets - who, by the way, only had the ball for 17 minutes on offense and managed to pick up just 119 passing yards against Chicago. Quite a far cry from the masterclass Geno Smith was allowed to get off against the Lions' secondary just a week prior.
The Bears are unbelievably good this year. Under Johnson, it's clear that they'll never be at a disadvantage on offense, with just their defense being a slight question mark for this year. Still, it's beginning to look like a two horse race between them and the Vikings for first place in the division, while the Lions are still struggling to find their identity during a contention window.
1. Minnesota Vikings (4-0)
It's beginning to feel like the Vikings may not need to really score touchdowns this season.
Minnesota is 4-0 through four weeks of action, and that's in thanks to defensive coordinator Brian Flores' absolutely stellar play-calling as of late. Minnesota has held their opponents to an average of 12.8 points per game, four total touchdowns, and 194.8 passing yards. They are beating teams with hammers every single game - effectively locating their weaknesses, and exploiting them repeatedly.
So, who cares that they're only scoring 21.5 points per game, or that Kyler Murray has yet to look like any sort of savior for them at quarterback? As long as they can drag opponents down to the mud with them, they have a great chance of winning football games. With two wins against divisional opponents already, they're in firm control of the NFC North.
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