Pride of Detroit
Not to be hyperbolic, but the Detroit Lions’ 27–24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings might go down as the most surprisingly unprepared and disappointing efforts of the Dan Campbell era. Coming off a bye, playing at home as near double-digit favorites against a quarterback making just his third career start, and facing a defense they’ve historically shredded—this should’ve been a statement game. Instead, it looked like the Vikings wanted it more, while the Lions were still out trick-or-treating.
Now sitting at 1-2 in the division with more losses than they had all of last regular season, Detroit has squandered the post-bye advantage and will be searching for answers. This week’s stock report—heavy on the red arrows—reflects just how far off their game they looked on Sunday.
Stock down: John Morton, offensive coordinator and Hank Fraley, run game coordinator and offensive line coach
Not many excuses can be made for a Lions offense that’s been among the NFL’s best the past few seasons to come out flat-footed, listless, and without any easy answers. It’s indefensible that the Lions had no counterpunch to—and couldn’t properly protect against—a blitz scheme they’ve often shredded in the past.
Detroit’s offense was completely overwhelmed by Brian Flores’ defense. The run game lacked any teeth again, generating just 3.25 yards per carry with a sub-25% rushing success rate for the second straight game—and no explosive runs for the first time since 2023. Getting away from gap-scheme blocking after the first drive was highly questionable as the game continued to spiral.
The passing game wasn’t much better. Jared Goff was sacked a season-high five times, and the team’s 40.5% passing success rate marked their second-lowest of the season (only behind Week 7’s 35.3%, the fourth-worst mark of the Dan Campbell era). The Vikings appeared to crack Detroit’s protection rules and kept exploiting them—particularly by dropping their edge rushers and hammering Graham Glasgow and Jahmyr Gibbs with responsibility for the same damn spammed crossbuck linebacker blitzes.
Dan Campbell spoke after the bye about improving on third downs—and instead, the Lions went 2-for-13 (15%) on 3rd-and-4+, averaging 2.5 yards per play, after going 1-for-10 (10%) in similar situations in Week 7. This was amplified by a four series stretch of three-and-outs. It’s the first time in years this offense has looked bad at situational football.
Yes, the timid screen calls are easy to point to, but deeper issues remain: the team isn’t moving people in the run game, there are no rushing lanes, the pass protection is breaking down, receivers aren’t consistently separating, and in-game adjustments are scarce. That falls on John Morton—and some of the blame belongs to Hank Fraley as well. They’re too reliant on players making plays instead of designing plays to make life easier on them. Minnesota was the more physical, better-prepared team, and Detroit’s offense became one-dimensional and self-destructive—that will never be the recipe for success.
There’s no cohesive plan on offense right now. Defenses are diagnosing plays too quickly, everything feels predictable and hard-earned,...
