Earlier this week, we published our latest SB Nation Reacts surveys, brought to you by the folks over at FanDuel Sportsbook, asking Detroit Lions fans three questions:
- Are you confident the Lions are headed in the right direction?
- Do you approve of the Lions’ inaction at the trade deadline?
- Which player needs to rebound in order to secure a Lions win in Week 10?
Nothing sours a fan base more than a loss to a division rival. As we’ve seen following each of the Lions’ three losses this season, confidence in the team has dropped significantly from its previous level. While this week’s results are not as low as we saw following the Lions’ Week 1 loss to Green Bay, they still took a pretty big hit.
64% is pretty rough for a team that’s a single win out of being in first place in their division, but the standard is high in Detroit, and the team certainly fell short of those expectations last week.
As for our first standalone question—Do you approve of the Lions’ inaction at the trade deadline?—Lions fans had high expectations that the team would find more help on the trade market, but nothing presented itself. The majority of fans did not approve of the inaction:
What’s interesting about this question is that when searching the comment section of our original survey for explanations on why fans voted the way they did, almost all the “recommended” responses are in direct conflict with the results. Here are a few examples (slightly edited for clarity):
- Imbadatusernames: “To all the people whining about not trading: Who should they have traded for? We need IOL. The only IOL even conceivably on the market is Jackson Powers-Johnson, and that’s a long shot at best.”
- flyerinchicago: “I don’t know what Brad tried to accomplish at the trade deadline, but judging from the players moved, little was available.”
- Hankfan232425: “You can’t make a trade if there’s no one to trade for. Brad Holmes has been pretty consistent, and I’m sure he turned over every stone.”
- jjrod78: “I REALLY REALLY wanted them to make a move for a starting caliber IOL, but no one traded for one of those types of players. So I can’t fault Holmes for not making a move there if nobody in the entire league could make a move there.”
- golionsgolions: “There isn’t a trade that happened yesterday that I wish we’d done.”
As for our second standalone question—Which player needs to rebound in order to secure a Lions win in Week 10?—Lions fans focused on the two players responsible for making the in-game pre-snap adjustments on offense, which is the area most fans believe was the catalyst in the Lions’ most recent loss.
While Glasgow received the majority of the votes, once again, when we look at the comment section of our original survey, fans are focused on the offensive line as a whole, more than just the Lions center. Here are some examples of each (slightly edited for clarity):
- Arendtsure: “I voted for Glasgow to rebound. […] Both Gibbs and Goff were severely hampered by an uncharacteristic bad day from the o-line, including Glasgow. The offense turns on our quality line play. If they don’t rebound, then we will struggle.”
- TGarno: “Gibbs will run better when the line, in this case, Glasgow, is playing better. Goff will throw better when the line, in this case, Glasgow, is playing better.”
- icd8u2: “It’s not a single player that needs to rebound, it is a whole position group. Unless the offensive line turns things around, Goff and the running game will continue to struggle.”
- jreid90: “Why is Graham listed as needing to improve? I think Ratledge and Mahogany were worse than Graham. My choice would be that the IOL needs to improve for the Lions to win going forward.”
Throughout the year, we ask questions of the most plugged-in Detroit Lions fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
