Lions vs. Vikings quick thoughts: What Just Happened?

Could it get any worse than this? Probably. If you’re on team tank, then this 20-7 Lions loss was for you. The Lions played their worst football of the season and it showed everywhere on the stat sheet. It was so bad that I might throw up mid-article.

As always, I have thoughts on this game. These are those thoughts.

‘Trade Stafford’ trended in Michigan last week

What is wrong with some Lions fans? David Blough had a fun coming out party in the first quarter of the Lions’ Thanksgiving game against the Bears. Good enough to get some Lions fans who are desperate for wins, and are misguided in their beliefs, to believe that Blough was the future.

Those fans have to really be regretting their endorsement of Blough after Sunday. The quarterback had a pretty good stinker and it never got any better for him. After going 1-6 for the first quarter and a half of football, Blough finished the game going 20-40 for 205 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He completed 60 percent of his passes and got sacked five times. He had a passer rating of 60.9. Ouch.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kyle Sloter start against the Bucs next week and Blough head down to the practice squad. It was that bad.

A timeout? Really?

This is more of a personal complaint than it is a football complaint. With eight seconds left in the half, down 17-0, head coach Matt Patricia called a timeout. The team was trapped back in its own territory with a quarterback that doesn’t have the arm to complete a hail mary. He did have the arm to complete the five-yard pass he wound up throwing. Ammendola dropped it, though.

Meanwhile there’s a full-on ice cream bar going on in the cafeteria and Patrica made me miss part of it. So yeah. Please don’t do that anymore.

You won’t believe it, but the defense wasn’t that bad

Ultimately the Vikings did win. But this defense allowed 42 points to this offense in Week 7 and had much better day on Sunday. They were able to get some pressure on Kirk Cousins at times and that allowed them to get Vikings offense on the field. Unfortunately, the Lions offense was extremely bad all day and in short order too, which meant an already tired defense had to come back on the field on a short turnaround. They got worn down.

Still they put up a strong effort in the second half allowing just three points. The problems are far from over. I mean really far from over. But they did have a better day than their week seven performance. Even if that isn’t saying a whole lot.

Lions got that one sack

Injuries upon injuries

Besides the badly needed player acquisitions and coaching changes that may happen this offseason, the Lions need to take a really good look at their training staff and their strength and conditioning staff.

The Lions are constantly the victims of injuries the past two seasons. Sunday’s game continued that problem when Darius Slay, Jarrad Davis, Rick Wagner Bo Scarbrough, Tracy Walker and A’Shawn Robinson all went down with injuries at some point. Sure, some of the players came back, but questions about the susceptibility to injuries that this team has need to be answered. Especially when they’re dealing with what looks like scorched Earth injuries two years in a row.

Bo no go

Bo Scarbrough has been a lot of fun to watch since he signed with the Lions a few weeks back. But on Sunday he met his match in the Vikings defense. I mean, sure, he ran for 65 yards and that’s not horrible. But it was on 3.4 yards per carry. That’s his worst YPC of the season.

This guy deserves to be here and should absolutely get a contract. But I would temper my expectations on just how good he can be for this team in the long run.

Team Tank

So if you’re on team tank, this loss has to make you feel good. What has to make you feel bad is that only the Falcons won their game. The Dolphins came close to beating the Jets, but lost in the final seconds of the game. On top of that, the Bengals couldn’t beat the Browns and Washington lost to the Packers. So pretty much nothing went right on Sunday for the Lions or their fans.