Giants-Lions questions, answers: When is 6-4 something to be mad about?

The New York Giants and Detroit Lions operate on different NFL planets. The Lions are a team with Super Bowl aspirations where good isn’t good enough. The Giants are a perennially bad team again searching for a head coach where good looks like a pipe dream.

To learn more about the Lions, we turned to SB Nation’s Pride of Detroit for this week’s ‘5 questions’ segment. Ryan Mathews fills us in.

Ed: A 6-4 record sounds fantastic to Giants fans. It’s not where Lions fans hoped their team would be. How would you describe the season for Detroit thus far?

Ryan: It helps to keep things in perspective because it wasn’t all that long ago when the Lions were one of those teams who always found themselves at the bottom of the standings, looking up at all the success of the teams in their division, conference, and league in general. Things used to be real bleak, but in the here and now, at 6-4 with seven games remaining, it just doesn’t feel enough for a football team that came so close to climbing the mountain in 2023, but failed to plant their flag. The injuries caught up to them last year in the first round of playoffs, and expectations for this year remain contending for a Super Bowl, but at 6-4 and currently out of a playoff spot, the frustration is starting to percolate. With just seven games remaining, the Lions’ most important game is the next one on their schedule, so don’t expect them to come into this game looking ahead to their Thanksgiving Day matchup with a divisional opponent in the Packers–Campbell will have their heads on straight and focused on the task at hand.

Ed: Dan Campbell took over offensive play-calling There has been one good game with him in that role, one not so good. Reports have been that he intends to keep doing so. Do you believe that will be the case?

Ryan: That genie’s already out of the bottle, there’s just no way you can go back to John Morton calling plays at any point this year. It was clear that Campbell was making this decision to try and spark some rhythm and consistency for a group far too talented to be underperforming the way they were. In Campbell’s defense against the Eagles, the Lions were 0-5 on fourth down, but it wasn’t all on the playcalling–there were at least a couple of plays where some simple execution would have resulted in the drive continuing or points going on the board.

Ed: If you could take one player off the Giants’ roster and put him in Detroit’s lineup, who would it be Why?

*Ryan: The Lions would certainly benefit from someone like Andrew Thomas lining up at left tackle. Detroit’s offensive line has taken a significant step back from last year, and some of that was out of their control. Center Frank Ragnow retired, and the original plan was for rookie...