Last January, the Detroit Lions locked up the top seed in the National Football Conference playoffs with a romp win over division rival Minnesota. The victory over the Vikings was the last shining moment for Dan Campbell’s squad.
Two weeks later, they opened their postseason play on their home field and allowed the upstart Washington Commanders 45 points while losing by two touchdowns. A primary reason for the Lions quick exit from the playoffs after winning a franchise record 15 regular season games was injuries. The stop unit that defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn had orchestrated was missing key players at every position, and the makeshift alignments on the field finally caught up with the team.
This season, after an opening loss in Green Bay to the Packers in a division war, the Lions got on track and appeared to be their old selves while blowing out the Chicago Bears and their new head coach, Ben Johnson, in the Motor City home opener, 52-21. Three more wins followed, and the Lions appeared to have overcome the loss of both their coordinators to head coaching positions. While Johnson was leading the Bears, Glenn took the reins of the New York Jets.
The Lions four straight victories ran into a determined Kansas City Chiefs squad at Arrowhead in October and Detroit dropped a 30-17 decision. That was the start of the Lions being knocked off their perch as the best team in the NFC. Over their past nine games the Lions have a losing record, four wins and five losses.
The Lions enter action this week two games behind the division leading Bears with the Packers wedged between the front runner and Detroit.
The problems the Lions have encountered this season can again be traced to injuries on both sides of the ball. In November, they lost tightend Sam LaPorta, one of the best players at his position in the league, to a back injury that required surgery and probably leaves him in street clothes for the rest of the season on game days. In December, a defense that had already lost a couple key contributors took a major hit when safety Brian Branch was lost for the season to a torn Achilles.