John Niyo: For bye-gone Lions, road ahead only gets tougher

DETROIT — They’re certainly not friends.

But they are well-acquainted. And one of the things Dan Campbell talked about as his Detroit Lions team prepared to face the division-rival Minnesota Vikings on Sunday was all the ways that familiarity could lead to contempt.

Or lament.

The more times you face an opponent, the harder it is to keep a secret. The more you beat a team, the harder it’ll work to even the score.

“Yeah, that game never ends,” said Campbell, whose Lions hadn’t lost a game to the Vikings in three full years and hadn’t lost to them at Ford Field since October 2021, early in his first season as head coach in Detroit. “You always have to evolve every time you play that team.”

Yet as Sunday’s game devolved for the home team, with the pressure building and the injuries piling on top, another reality was starting to hit home. The weight of that NFC North crown is only going to get heavier for the Lions, not lighter.

'We looked out of sync'

This painful 27-24 loss to the Vikings wasn’t a final verdict, by any means. Detroit didn’t even lose any ground in the division standings Sunday because Green Bay also lost at home to lowly Carolina.

But this wasn’t a fluke, either, as the Lions came out of their bye week and got bullied and beaten in their own backyard by a Minnesota team that had lost three of its last four and hadn’t even won a game on this continent since September.

“It's probably one of the worst games we’ve played in a long time,” said Campbell, whose Lions have now lost more games (three) than they did all of last season en route to winning the No. 1 seed in the NFC. “We looked rusty. We looked out of sync. We were undisciplined. And we just didn't make plays — not enough of them. It’s evident that I didn’t have them ready and I’ve got to do a better job. A much better job.”

The Vikings, meanwhile, made just enough plays to get the job done here, snapping their five-game losing streak to the Lions and evening their record at 4-4 — only a game behind the Lions and Bears for second place in the NFC North standings.

For former Michigan star J.J. McCarthy this was only his third career NFL start, and it was his first since mid-September, when the 2023 first-round pick suffered a high-ankle sprain in a Week 2 loss at Atlanta. But McCarthy hardly looked rusty in his homecoming return, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for another as the Vikings capitalized on Detroit’s miscues and eventually built a double-digit lead late in the third quarter.

And while his final stat line wasn’t stellar, McCarthy’s coach couldn’t have been happier with the effort or the end result.

“His poise and running the show, I thought, was matched by him making some big-time throws,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said.

None bigger than the finishing touch McCarthy applied on this upset win with 90 seconds left, converting a critical third down with a fearless throw to Jalen Nailor, the former Michigan State Spartan who came down with the catch directly in front of Campbell on the sideline.

It was game over, at that point. And game on now for the Lions, who on Sunday looked nothing like the Super Bowl contender that beat Tampa Bay here a couple weeks ago. At least not after Jared Goff led the offense on a 72-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession, capped by a fourth-down pass to tight end Sam LaPorta, who rumbled 40 yards into the end zone for the 7-0 lead.

“I felt like we were ready to go,” Goff insisted, trying to reclaim some of the blame from Campbell in the postgame media room. “I felt fresh, we all felt fresh. Sure, I’m sure he’d like to do things differently, but from my perspective, we did what we were supposed to do (during the bye), and we didn’t play well as players.

“We didn’t in any phase, and (the Vikings) did. They played better than us today, and it’s been a long time since we’ve had this feeling of playing kind of poorly in all three phases. You do that, you probably lose.”

The way they lost this one, though, it was almost dizzying. And it was definitely disappointing, particularly on offense, where the disarray was a continuation of many of the same issues the Lions and their coaching staff tried to address during their bye week.

Painful loss

Third-down efficiency? Still a problem, obviously, as the Lions went just 5 of 17 on Sunday against a Vikings defense that could barely get off the field a week ago in a 37-10 thrashing by the Los Angeles Chargers.

“First of all, the fact that we had 17 third-downs, that’s crazy,” said Campbell, whose team also committed a half-dozen offensive penalties, including three false starts, that routinely put Goff & Co. behind schedule.

The run-game inconsistency? Still an issue, as Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery combined for just 65 yards on 20 carries in Sunday’s loss, a problem that was compounded by Montgomery’s costly fumble that set up that Vikings touchdown late in the third quarter.

“That ain’t good enough,” Campbell said of the 3.3 yards per carry, which led to four straight empty possessions in the middle of the game. “You can’t run it, it’s hard to be an explosive offense, because now you’re a sitting duck. You’ll sit back there in (shotgun formation) and everybody knows you’re passing and they just pin their ears back.”

And that’s what it looked like Sunday, as blitz-happy Brian Flores switched up some of his tendencies and pressure packages but still found a way for the Vikings to play Duck, Duck, Goose in the Lions' backfield.

Pass-protection breakdowns? Still far too frequent, as the missed assignments started early and then got worse as the game went off script and the starters started going down with injuries. The Vikings' final defensive totals were jarring: five sacks, 11 quarterback hits and a 47.6% pressure rate, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. (Redford native Eric Wilson led the way with six pressures and two sacks.)

“There’s more to fix, obviously,” said Goff, who despite all that chaos still finished 25 of 37 for 284 yards with two touchdowns, including a late one to Jameson Williams that gave the Lions a chance in the final 2 minutes. “There’s a ton to fix, and a ton of things to get better at.”

But the schedule only gets tougher this month, with trips to Washington and Philadelphia the next two weeks and a home date with the Packers waiting on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the injury list that was improving coming out of the bye took a sharp turn for the worse Sunday, at least on offense. Left guard Christian Mahogany likely will miss most of the regular season after suffering a significant lower-leg injury in the fourth quarter. Three other starters on the offensive line also left briefly with injuries Sunday, and though they all returned to play, Campbell said he’d know more Monday about the status of tackles Taylor Decker (knee, shoulder) and Penei Sewell (shoulder) for the Commanders game.

“We’ll do what we have to do,” he said.

Finding a silver lining in this loss wasn’t much easier Sunday, but the Lions still tried just the same.

General manager Brad Holmes may have to do something, too, with the trade deadline looming Tuesday afternoon, though it's a rarity in the NFL to find offensive-line upgrades via midseason trades most years.

“It’s hard for me to speak without being upset,” Goff said. “It’s unfortunate. We’re 5-3. It sucks. But we’ll move on. … We’ll respond. It’s what we do best.”

And echoing something Campbell told his players in the postgame locker room, Goff added, “a little adversity at this point in the season isn’t always the worst thing for you.”

Maybe not, but there are better ways to get ahead than this.

____