At 1-6 after Sunday's 31-27 loss to Miami at Ford Field, the Lions have the worst record in the NFL and are teetering even closer to the edge of being out of contention for any of their preseason goals by the end of November.
Obviously frustrated by a fifth straight loss, head coach Dan Campbell still didn't waver from his belief that his team is close to turning a corner, and is still preaching hard work, fixing mistakes and getting better.
"My thought is as frustrating as it is, I know how close we are because we are still talking about one play," Campbell said after Sunday's loss. "And the hard thing is to just keep doing your job and staying in the thick of the storm, and the easy thing is to go down below and get under the blanket, eat all the food and whatever.
"Guys who are going on the deck and just continue to do their part because they know the sun's coming, those are the guys we're looking for. So that's how I choose to think of this. The only way to clean up everything is to go back to work, that's just – that's all I know."
So the Lions will go back to the drawing board in Allen Park this week and get ready for Green Bay. Just like they've done after their previous five losses. In hopes of finding the right answers to break their current five-game skid.
The worry has to be that the message could start to fall on deaf ears as the losses mount, but quarterback Jared Goff doesn't think that will happen.
"Yeah, it's hard, it's hard," Goff said of losing and players having to stay locked in. "But it's who we are, it's what we're made of, it's how we're built. The guys that can handle will rise to the occasion and the guys that can't won't.
"But I'm pretty sure I know who's in that locker room and how we will handle ourselves coming this week on Wednesday and for the rest of the season."
This is a critical point in the season to see what kind of character they have in the Lions locker room and whether they'll adhere to Campbell's message to go back to work and find a way to salvage their season over the next month.
"It's exhausting, but there's nothing I can do other than go back to work," veteran tackle Taylor Decker said. "There's nothing this team can do other than go to practice Wednesday with a good attitude and try to get this thing right. When there are opportunities, we have to capitalize on them. There's no other way to put it. It sucks, but like I said, there's no alternative to how we're approaching it."
STATUE FOR BARRY
The Lions announced at halftime during today's Homecoming game at Ford Field that Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders will have his legacy permanently cemented in Detroit with an eight foot bronze statue outside of Ford Field that will be unveiled ahead of the 2023 season.
Sanders, who was in attendance for the announcement, joked that his former teammates were already giving him grief about the height of the statue. Sanders stands 5-foot-8.
Sanders ran for 15,269 yards and 99 touchdowns during a stellar career. He won rookie of the year in 1989, went on to be named All-Pro in all 10 of his seasons, and earned offensive player of the year and was the league MVP in the 1997 season, when he ran for a record 2,053 yards.
SWIFT TOUCHES
Running back D’Andre Swift missed Detroit's last three games with ankle and shoulder injuries, but was available Sunday vs. Miami. Swift was used sparingly, however. He rushed just five times for six yards. He caught five passes for 27 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown in the first half.
"Yeah, we were just trying to see where Swift was at," Campbell said after the game. "Certainly, he's not 100-percent, but we got a few plays out of him."
Can he be 100 percent at all this season?
"I mean, we hope, but we'll take it as it comes," Campbell said. "At least we got him out there moving around. It's better than him not being at the game. And let's see if we can – how he came out of this game and hopefully he'll be a little bit better next week and maybe a little bit better the week after."
EXTRA POINTS
- Rookie safety Kerby Joseph produced his second straight game with a forced fumble. Since at least 2000, he is the first Lions rookie defensive back and second rookie defensive back in the NFL to force a defensive fumble in consecutive games.
- The Lions recorded two sacks, but none from their defensive line. Linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez and safety JuJu Hughes got one apiece for Detroit Sunday. Rodriguez also recovered a fumble in the game.
