Getty Dwayne Haskins runs over the Lions.
The Detroit Lions had yet another embarrassing effort against a bad team and ended up coming up just short against the Washington Redskins in a tough defeat.
Detroit failed to muster much of a consistent effort on both sides of the ball and even managed to fall apart on special teams. Safe to say this could be rock bottom in terms of the grades for the season, and it should be that way when the Lions lose to a 1-9 team.
How should the Lions be graded for this effort? The answer is pretty poorly on the whole. Here’s a look at the Week 12 ledger for the Lions.
Offense
D-
The Lions moved the ball on the ground and had plenty of rushing yards. They also got a few nice catches from Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones. That was about it on the afternoon, and the Lions didn’t do much right late in the day in order to win. Jeff Driskel made too many mistakes, and the team didn’t get in the end zone when they had to late in the game. Too many field goals is an easy way to lose games, and the Lions learned that the hard way once again in 2019. Not a great day for the offense by any stretch, and more points could have helped the Lions salt this game away instead of endure yet another fourth quarter collapse.
Defense
F
Aside from a few nice takeaways, there wasn’t a whole lot to love about the way the Lions played defense again. They’ve been dreadful in 2019 and that continued by letting Dwayne Haskins drive down the field late for the game winning field goal. The Lions can’t get stops, they can’t pressure the pocket and they can’t figure out a way to get solid play in long stretches. It was another failing effort for this side of the ball, and that is becoming all too common lately.
Special Teams
F
The Lions had a few field goals from Matt Prater account for their scoring, but Detroit also allowed a kickoff return for a score, and had a missed field goal from Prater loom large early in the game. The lions have to be perfect in a game like this in order to get the job done, and allowing a touchdown on special teams isn’t going to help them pitch the shutout they needed. There’s no curves this week, and Detroit’s special teams fails for allowing some big returns from Steven Sims Jr. to help change the game.
Coaching
F
It was a bad look from Matt Patricia and crew to lay this stink bomb against the Redskins, a team that has essentially quit in 2019. If losing to a 1-9 team wasn’t bad enough, the Lions didn’t have much of a defensive identity again and their offense sputtered far too often for a team that had put up points in weeks previous. Detroit seemed to play down to their competition, which might be the hallmark of a team that is on the fritz in terms of playing hard in 2019. The staff needed to win this game in a bad way, and by losing it, they only opened themselves up to more criticism.
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