Welp, the season is over. Although there is still a game next week against the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions have nothing to play for but a winning record. Heading into the Christmas Day showdown against the Minnesota Vikings, the Lions still had the possibility of making the playoffs. What they needed was to win their next two games and have the Green Bay Packers lose their next two.
Detroit couldn’t even defeat Minnesota.
The offense chose to have its worst game of the season at the worst possible time, and the Vikings’ defense took advantage of it.
Here are my seven takeaways from the Lions’ Week 17 loss.
Once again, the offensive line struggled
Stop me if you heard this before, but the offensive line was the biggest reason for the loss this week. Things appeared to be headed in a good direction with center Graham Glasgow practicing. Christmas morning, though, it took a turn. Left tackle Taylor Decker popped up on the injury report with an illness and missed the game. Glasgow, despite practicing, didn’t play either, and suddenly the Lions had Dan Skipper at left tackle and Kingsley Eguakun at center.
As you might expect, the Lions’ offense struggled to move the ball no matter what they tried on Thursday afternoon. Quarterback Jared Goff was sacked five times, fumbled the ball three times due to a bad snap by Eguakun or an immense amount of pressure from the Vikings’ pass rush that couldn’t be stopped. During the game, right tackle Penei Sewell got injured and missed some time, replaced by Kayode Awosika, and eventually returned.
Overall, it was a makeshift offensive line with no chemistry and little experience to try to stop the Vikings’ defense. The injury bug struck the Lions heavily this season again, and their depth was tested along the offensive line. Boy, did we learn that the depth behind the starters is not what we thought it was. This offense was built needing extremely clean trench play, and when they fail, the whole operation gets shut down.
Sonic and Knuckles ran out of lives
Not only does this team rely on a good offensive line to help out its offense, it also needs a running game to move the chains. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs had another disappointing performance, finishing with 41 yards on 17 carries, averaging 2.4 yards per carry. He was constantly getting stopped at the line of scrimmage or caught from behind by an unblocked defender.
David Montgomery got more chances with the rock, and he didn’t have many bright spots, finishing with 25 yards on 10 carries, averaging 2.5 yards a carry. It didn’t matter who had the football in the end. Either back was getting gang tackled as soon as they had the ball, they were caught from behind on outside runs, or they missed the hole that was there and ran into a pile of bodies instead.
The Vikings’ defense overwhelmed the Lions’ offensive line for all four quarters, and with missed assignments left and right, the running game could never find its footing. Gibbs and Montgomery did combine for 38 yards on four catches, but that was the only thing they could gain positive yards.
The only positive was the pass rush
I have a lot more negative things to talk about, but I do need to give a shoutout to the Lions’ pass rush. They were playing a Vikings offensive line that was also down three starters: center, left tackle and right tackle. Not only that, they were facing a third-string quarterback in Max Brosmer, who doesn’t have much experience in knowing when to give up on the play and when to keep it going.
Aidan Hutchinson had a great game, getting six tackles and two sacks. His counterpart in Al-Quadin Muhammad also had two sacks, and rookie defensive tackle Tyleik Williams got his first career sack. The Vikings’ passing game was extremely limited by how good the Lions’ pass rush was. If you include the sack yardage, Minnesota had three net passing yards. If you don’t include those, they had 51 passing yards.
51 passing yards was enough for a team to win a football game, and that’s disgusting to think about. If the Lions’ run defense was better—and especially if the offense could move the ball at all (or at least hold onto it)—Detroit had this game in the bag. It’s frustrating seeing a great game by the pass rush get wasted like this.
Back to the negativity, and it starts with how Goff played. While a lot of the struggles can be pinned on the offensive line not giving him time to throw the football, they weren’t to blame for all his mistakes. The two interceptions by Goff were 100 percent on him; throwing a horrible pass when he’s about to get sacked was a big mistake. The other interception was a good play by Vikings safety Harrison Smith that Goff was baited into.
Goff got sacked five times, fumbling on one of them after getting sandwiched by defenders on both sides. The other two fumbles I would pin more on Eguakun, but Goff failed to recover them. When Goff wasn’t turning the football over, he was taking too much time in the pocket and not getting rid of the ball fast enough, when possible.
Goff usually has a bad game or two a season; we saw it last year against the Houston Texans. That time, he was bailed out by the defense, run game, and special teams. This time, he had no help from the run game, and while the defense played well for a majority of the game, they made a big mistake late that made the game unreachable.
His time for a clunker couldn’t have been at a worse time, just like the offensive line. There was lots of anti-Jared Goff chatter in my household, but you can’t blame him solely for the loss with how well the Vikings’ defense played and how poorly the offensive line did. He was to blame for some of the loss; he can’t be excused for his mistakes either.
Dan Campbell needs to re-evaluate a lot
I thought this was the worst game Dan Campbell ever coached. First, the offensive playcalling was horrendous. You have a makeshift offensive line with limited snaps in practice with each other, and he thought play-action would be a good idea multiple times. Minnesota likes to bring the pressure so why would he think this offensive line could withstand that?
Campbell seems to have too much faith in his guys. He prioritizes competitiveness and effort over actual talent. If you play hard, that means you have to be a good player in Campbell’s eyes. While I think Campbell was right to stick with the running game, the actual plays were terrible. Too many times, a guy was left unblocked—sometimes by design instead of a mistake by the offensive line. On the touchdown run by Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison, it instantly made me wonder why Campbell didn’t use Jameson Williams like the Vikings used Addison. Addison runs a 4.49 and got that play to work. Williams is faster than that, so why not call that play?
This offseason, Campbell must review everyone and everything, including himself. I believe his play-calling duties need to be taken away. He wasn’t the worst play caller, but he needs to give that responsibility to someone else so he can focus on everything else evenly, as I do think that focus on the offense has hurt him elsewhere. He also needs to make some changes to the coaching staff.
The season is officially over, but there’s hope for 2026
Week 18 will be the most boring game for Detroit since early in the 2022 season. There are no postseason hopes, no chances at eliminating their opponent, and I wouldn’t be shocked if a lot of starters don’t play next week. The only thing the team can play for is a winning record, so maybe that pushes them to fight and play hard, but with how the season has finished, I wouldn’t mind them sitting out next week and focusing on 2026.
This year was a big step back from 2024, and while nobody expected the same 15-2 record, they expected better than what we saw. The good news is the roster is mostly intact, and multiple players will be back next year, recovered from injuries, and rested. For the past two seasons, Detroit has played into the middle or late January. Those extra games and weeks will now be spent on resting and recovering. Maybe that gives them a spark for next year.
What will help them next year, besides players returning from injuries, is that the schedule will be a lot easier. The NFC North plays the NFC South, which could be a favorable four games for the Lions. If Detroit finishes in fourth place, they’ll have three games against fourth-place teams, too. Detroit’s roster is in a good spot, and while they certainly can use some upgrades in some areas, they have a lot of talent that can get them back into the postseason.
Finally, the players who returned this season from injury should have a better year next year. Players who have a serious injury usually take a step back the first year back, but afterwards return to their peak performance. Hutchinson had a solid season, but next year he should be at an entirely different level. Defensive tackle Alim McNeill disappointed this season, but expectations should be high for him in 2026.
This team will be back; they just need to go back to the drawing board and make some adjustments, because the Super Bowl window hasn’t been shut as many people think.
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