DETROIT — They’ve waited generations around here for a team like this – rich with talent, armed with creativity and boasting a blistering offense. For the first time ever you could say “Detroit” and “Super Bowl” in the same sentence and not elicit laughter.
And that was before an 11-game winning streak got them to 12-1 on the season heading into Sunday.
Except here in Week 15, in a 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the familiar, if haunting, sight of the Lions injury cart kept making appearance after appearance to haul away defensive players.
Already riddled with injuries, with a two-deep scotch-taped together with fill-ins, this is the recurring nightmare of an otherwise dream season.
First, cornerback Carlton Davis III was lost to a jaw injury and didn’t return.
Then cornerback Khalil Dorsey was carted off with an ankle injury that looked brutal.
Then there was defensive lineman Alim McNeill, a key cog who had just returned from a concussion, hobbling off the field, into the blue tent and then onto the cart with a knee injury.
“I don’t feel good about either of those guys [Dorsey and McNeill],” coach Dan Campbell said. “Normally, if I’m saying ‘not good’ it’s not good for the rest of the year.”
Forget losing the game. It happens and Buffalo is a big-time team with its own Super Bowl aspirations.
It was what was lost that matters. Again.
“No, I’m not buying, I don’t buy it,” said Campbell of the defensive injuries costing the Lions the game. “We can be better. We should have been better. We know how good they are but we should have been more urgent.”
Campbell is a no-excuse guy. He’s repeatedly said injuries are part of the deal and the job is for anyone on the field to be good enough and prepared enough to perform. It’s what you’d want and expect him to say.
“I just feel like we didn’t play at the same level as that team,” Campbell said. “That’s why I put this on me. I didn’t have them ready.”
Still, the facts are the facts.
The Lions’ injured reserve list was already overloaded with defenders – star defensive end Aiden Hutchinson (broken leg), defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo (knee), linebacker Malcom Rodriguez (torn ACL), cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. (hamstring), safety Ifeatu Melifonwu (undisclosed), linebacker Alex Anzalone (forearm), linebacker Derrick Barnes (knee), linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin (neck), defensive end Marcus Davenport (triceps), defensive tackle David Bada (Achilles), defensive end John Cominsky (knee) and defensive end Nate Lynn (shoulder).
That’s a dozen, plus three more during the game.
No wonder Allen, who hardly needs much help, led the Bills to 498 yards. He, himself, accounted for 362 (and two touchdowns) passing and 68 more (and two touchdowns) rushing. The Bills punted once.
The Lions defense was so beaten down and beaten up, that Campbell, trailing 10 points, called for an aggressive, if telling, onside kick with 12 minutes left in the game. It was ripped by many as reckless, but it was a likely sign of his lack of faith in getting a defensive stop.
It also failed in spectacular fashion when Buffalo’s Mack Hollins returned it 38 yards to the Lions’ 5.
“I thought we’d get possession,” Campbell said. “I thought we would get that ball … Obviously, now sitting there in hindsight, with them taking it down to the [5-] yard line, yeah, I wish I hadn’t done that. But it is what it is.”
One play later, the Bills scored, to take a seemingly commanding 17-point lead. Yet the Lions kept punching to take another shot (and near recovery) at an onside kick with 12 seconds remaining.
That’s how good the Lions offense is – hook and laterals, a touchdown pass to an offensive lineman, 494 yards and five touchdowns passing out of quarterback Jared Goff.
In the end it wasn’t enough, and the Lions could find themselves in a three-way tie atop the NFC record-wise by the end of Week 15.
Buffalo got the hard-fought victory in what was billed by some as a possible Super Bowl preview. It may be. The Bills are an offensive juggernaut. And while Detroit was defeated, it was the first time since September 15 – a full three months.
“No excuses,” Campbell said. “We weren’t good enough. That was the bottom line. It was frustrating … but you know what, that is part of life. You lose and it’s a bad taste in your mouth.
“What are we going to do about it?” he continued. “Are we going to sit there and feel sorry for ourselves? We’re going to bounce back and go to Chicago.”
For a franchise that has won nothing in the Super Bowl era, the goal remains everything. Maybe that’s too much, too soon, but NFL fortunes are fleeting and windows of opportunity shut swiftly.
Campbell says the Lions are built for this. He isn’t focused on what he doesn’t have, but what he does.
“I think much more about finding ways to win games,” he said.
It’s the right answer and his record gives him the benefit of the doubt. Yet as the injury cart kept getting wheeled out for the defense, the underlying question remains.
At what point is too much, too much?
