Monday open thread: Do you feel better, worse, or the same after the Lions’ loss to the Steelers?

Another Detroit Lions loss is in the books and the hopes for the 2017 season are slowly fading away. Detroit now finds themselves 2.5 games behind the division leading Minnesota Vikings and they only have two months to make up ground.

Sunday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers had its ups and down. Detroit’s offense exploded in terms of yardage. Their 482 total offensive yards was their highest output all season by over 100 yards (their previous high was 367 yards vs. Cardinals in Week 1). Of course, all of that is offset by the fact that Detroit couldn’t get in the end zone once, and had to settle for five field goals on the day.

On defense, the Lions bottled up Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell for nearly the entire game. However, they gave up an absolutely back-breaking 97-yard touchdown in the third quarter and couldn’t give the offense one more chance on the final drive of the game.

So with all of positives and negatives, today’s Question of the Day is:

Do you feel better, worse or the same about the Lions after their 20-15 loss to the Steelers?

My answer: About the same. Obviously, I saw a game like this coming, considering I picked the Lions to lose 20-13 in my On Paper preview.

However, I did not expect the Lions to be able to move the ball as consistently as they did between the 20s. Detroit only punted three times in 11 possessions, and this was against a defense that ranked second overall in DVOA. So despite the embarrassing red zone troubles, I actually came out a little more positive on the Lions’ offense.

Defensively, Detroit played just as well as you could possibly hope, but the reason I’m still only feeling about the same regarding this team is simply because they’re running out of opportunities to compete in this division. With nine games left, Detroit is going to have to play near-perfect football the rest of the way.

To get to 10-6, the Lions have to go 7-2 down the stretch. While their schedule certainly lightens up from here on out, Detroit has no margin for error anymore. They can no longer afford to have an “oopsie” game or an off day.

I still believe the Lions can compete with any team on any given Sunday, but it’s just hard to see this team clicking in at least seven of the next nine.

Your turn.