Wednesday open thread: Was Sunday’s loss worse than the Bucs game last year?

We’re only eight games into the season and we are already asking questions like this. Man, it’s gonna be a long second half of the season.

Question of the day: Was Sunday’s loss to the Eagles worse than the Buccaneers game in 2020?

My answer: No, but it sure is close. Both were quite humiliating losses.

For those who don’t recall, the Detroit Lions were blown out 47-7 by the Tampa Bay Bucs on national television (a Saturday afternoon game). With the score being 34-0 at the half, the Lions fumbled the opening play of the third quarter, and the Bucs opted to sit Tom Brady in favor of Blaine Gabbert—who promptly threw a touchdown pass to put the Bucs up 40-0 just ten seconds into the second half.

On the one hand, that loss was to a Super Bowl winning Bucs team and the Lions were forced to turn to wide receiver coach Robert Prince to lead the team after interim coach Darrell Bevell was out due to COVID-19 protocols.

On the other hand, it was humiliating early and often, with the Lions’ only score coming from a Jamal Agnew punt return—and that was with an offense that had Matthew Stafford at the helm.

The Eagles are considerably worse than the Bucs, but fortunately, the national crowd didn’t have to watch this week’s broadcast. Additionally, the Lions were only down 17-0 well into the third quarter. While this was predominantly a meltdown in the second half and merely a poor start in the first, the loss to the Bucs was an atrocity from start to finish and the whole country had to see it.

I’m not saying either was pretty, I still feel like I have to wash my eyes out with bleach before turning on another Lions game, but after last year’s Bucs game, I feel like I felt more shame than I did after this Sunday. What about you?