Getty The Lions struggle to catch Cordarrelle Patterson.
The Detroit Lions didn’t get the job done against the Chicago Bears once more, and the defeat happened in front of a national audience. The performance wasn’t great for the 3-8-1 Lions, who struggled with any semblance of consistency in multiple facets of the game.
Grades for the Lions in recent weeks have bottomed out, and this is no exception for the week. The Lions may not have been a failure in all phases like they were last week, but they were darn close.
Here is a look at the grades for Thanksgiving Day.
Offense
D+
The Lions moved the ball better with David Blough, and the team had a decent running game with Bo Scarbrough. They hit some big pass plays, but it simply wasn’t enough in the end. Protection was good early, but did not hold up later in the game when the team needed it to in a bigger way. The Bears seemed to adjust and the Lions did not, which wasn’t great. A few more touchdowns would have likely ended the game early, but Detroit never applied that pressure. As a result, they lost. It’s tough to ask the offense to be perfect when the defense has been such a disaster, but this is where the Lions are currently at. The offense didn’t get it done as a whole on this day.
Defense
D-
It wasn’t a failure but it was darn close for the Lions, who didn’t get any of the stops they needed when they needed them late in the game. The Lions were only able to force one turnover and couldn’t manufacture any pressure on Mitchell Trubisky. The secondary played poorly again minus an interception by Darius Slay, and gave up way too many yards to an average passing attack. It was another horrible day for this group who didn’t allow a ton of points, but still didn’t get off the field nearly enough or make enough winning plays when they counted in order to steal a victory.
Special Teams
C-
The Lions executed a well-timed special teams play to snag an onside kick as well as hit a few kicks, but they allowed a huge kick return on the first play of the game which set the Bears up for an early score. They also managed to hurt the team with penalties which is a silent killer for the Lions. Not a great day for this group who allowed far too many big plays on kickoffs to have a higher grade on the afternoon for their work.
Coaching
D-
Matt Patricia has failed the Lions yet another week. His inability to get the challenge right and his inability to manage his team effectively is really costing the Lions and making folks wonder if the coach is the right man to lead the franchise. Once again the defense was miserable and while the offensive game plan wasn’t horrible, the team didn’t execute and at the end of the day, that boils down to coaching. The Lions haven’t been consistent enough and in close games, it does matter. Not great for the team.
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