Getty Jared Goff reacts in frustrating fashion during a 2022 loss in Dallas.
The Detroit Lions came into the 2022 season full of optimism, but that optimism has hit the skids in a big way midseason.
Many thought the team would be capable of competing this year, but lately, there’s been more bad news than good for the team. Detroit is 1-5 and staring down another miserable start to a season. There’s been problems on both sides of the ball, and once again, it’s looking like things have fallen apart for the franchise.
As ESPN’s Mike Greenberg aptly pointed out after an ugly Week 7 loss, he thinks the momentum the team seemed to build late last year and through the offseason is all gone now. As a result, anything good about the team has now been undone.
Everything good we all wanted to say about the #Lions has pretty much been undone. They’re 1-5 and have scored 6 points in their last two games combined.
“Everything good we all wanted to say about the Lions has pretty much been undone. They’re 1-5 and have scored 6 points in their last two games combined,” Greenberg tweeted.
Indeed, the Lions may be cruising to another high finish in terms of draft seeding. That points to a team that simply isn’t getting it done on the field. The Lions have not built the kind of depth needed to survive an onslaught of injuries, and they have not done well to hold their own this year in spite of all their problems.
For Greenberg and likely many fans, that means the team could be right back at square one.
Lions’ Offense Struggling Badly Lately
As Greenberg aptly points out, the Lions have had a tough time of it on the offensive side of the ball in the last two weeks, and the problems have been felt in multiple ways.
Not only are the Lions not running the ball as efficiently as they had been, Jared Goff’s play has regressed in a big way. In the last two weeks, he is a combined 40-61 for 457 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions.
Detroit’s offense has put up a total of six points in two games to go with only 624 total yards. They’ve seen the departure of big plays with the absence of players like running back D’Andre Swift and wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown.
As much as Ben Johnson has been proclaimed an offensive genius, it seems the league has begun to figure him out a bit. It will be on Johnson to find a way to crack the code the rest of the way so the team can have more respectable efforts.
Detroit’s defense is having problems, but the offense was leading the team in spite of that. Without them showing up in any support of the defense, it’s going to be a long finish to the year for the Lions.
Greenberg Seems Tired of Lions’ Inconsistency
While he has praised the Lions a lot in the past, it’s clear that Greenberg is looking at this in the proper way, much like weary Lions fans should.
Greenberg has gone as far as to praise the Lions for close losses in 2021 as well as proclaiming Dan Campbell the right coach for the team in 2022. Still, he has conceded the Lions have to stop being close in games and find a way to be more consistent on the field. That means finding a way in spite of problems.
Being a Jets fan, Greenberg knows frustration through the years. It’s clear he feels more than a bit duped by the 2022 Lions, who have proven to be one of the most inconsistent teams in the league thus far this season.
As Greenberg says, any of the goodwill the team built up recently might now be completely undone thanks to their miserable start to the season.