Lions vs. Patriots quick thoughts: What Just Happened?

Welp, Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions did the thing that they just couldn’t do. They went to New England and put up an absolute stinker against the Patriots while Matt Patricia—public enemy number one as far as Detroit is concerned—was on the opposing sideline. It’s going to be a pain-filled week ahead after this 29-0 loss.

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

Saivion Smith

Before we get into it, we have to talk about something that’s so much more important than this really bad football team. It’s the health and safety of Lions Saivion Smith. The safety, who was starting for the second time in his career, went down with an injury early in the game. It was truly a scary situation. Keep him in your thoughts and send good energy his way.

Fourth-and-9

The aggression just isn’t cute anymore. It used to be. In 2021, it was understandable why the Lions would get so aggressive on fourth down. They had to do everything they could possibly do to be in games. Now it’s working to their detriment.

I understand that you’re worried about your kicker situation, but why not give the kicker a chance to fail? Instead the Lions went for it on fourth-and-9 and Jared Goff got sacked hard enough to fumble the ball and the Patriots ran it back for a touchdown. It’s time to cut down on the aggression and try to take the points or punt. Be smart out there.

Someone is about to get fired around here

Okay probably not, but you can’t blame fans for wanting some heads to roll after these past two weeks. It’s that bad. The Lions have fallen so hard since Week 2. It’s unbelievable. They went from the hot young team in the NFL to possibly the worst team in the league in truly impressive timing.

The Lions coaching staff looked like they were all being groomed to be future head coaches. Now I can’t confidently tell you that anyone will have job anywhere in the NFL next season. It’s just been that bad. What is this team going to do to get past this?

Jared Goff

This is why my job is so hard. You have to pontificate when you’re in my shoes and that's just what I did in last week’s Monday column when I said the Lions have their quarterback. You couldn’t blame me after Goff was statistically off to the best start for a Lions quarterback since Matthew Stafford’s 2011 season.

On Sunday, Goff did everything he could to make me regret writing that column. He threw a dumb interception early, then fumbled for what would be a Patriots defensive touchdown and then just played poorly the rest of the game.

The Patriots defense definitely had this offense figured out. I’ll give Goff that, but he didn’t do the team any favors with his play too.

Injuries on top of injuries

The Lions entire secondary got hurt in this game. Sometimes they came out for good and sometimes they would go back in, but they all definitely got hurt. Of course, this had to be the game where the Lions made a healthy Amani Oruwariye a healthy scratch. Nobody is to blame here. Things just happen. It’s just insane that they have to happen on the one week that the Lions do this. This team just can’t stay healthy. I don’t know how you remedy that. It’s not something you can coach. You can blame the strength and conditioning team all you want, but there’s not anti-injury lift or cardio that you can do to keep players from getting hurt.

Susan Sarandon

A special shout out to Susan Sarandon for making this day a little bit better for some Lions fans. There was a point in time when the FOX broadcast froze on the actress and everyone in that area was saved from having to watch the Lions play their worst game of the year. For this gift I will now do a very quick Susan Sarandon movie power ranking.

1. Thelma & Louise
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
3. Bull Durham
4. Stepmom
5. Dead Man Walking

The NFL Draft is 100 some odd days away

This team is done. At least it seems that way. I just can’t see how the Lions could possibly dig themselves out of this hole in the shape they’re in. There’s just nothing good about this team right now. There is no silver lining. So now we go into the familiar waiting game. Just waiting until April of 2023 when the Lions are on the board in a probably pretty high spot. Then we can start this whole thing all over again.