The 2019 season did not go very well for the Detroit Lions, as they finished 3-12-1. In fact, it went even worse than that when you consider they started 3-4-1. That's right, they lost their last eight games of the season.
So what changed that made Detroit completely fall apart? It's pretty simple actually. Simple, but devastating. Star quarterback Matthew Stafford suffered an injury and missed the rest of the season after their Week 9 loss to the Oakland Raiders.
Detroit was 3-4-1 at that point, the rest, as you know, went poorly for them.
How did the offense do though? Let's grade the unit out.
To be fair to the Lions. Things were going a lot better for them to start the year. It's incredible how important Stafford is to the team.
In fact, it's pretty easy to see why he's considered one of the better quarterbacks in the league. Without him, the offense was abysmal. They could not get anything going.
With that in mind, let's give them two grades. The first we'll give right now. The Stafford-led offense. You could give them a “B” or an “incomplete” either way, it works. With Stafford at quarterback, they moved down the field well and actually scored at a good clip.
Then there is the non-Stafford-led offense though.
In eight games without him, the Lions averaged 17.1 points per game. If they did that throughout the entire year, only the Washington Redskins (16.6 points per game) scored at a worse rate.
Detroit wasn't much better when it came to moving the ball down the field either. Yes, they had their injuries (Stafford, Kerryon Johnson, etc.) but every team has to deal with injuries. That argument does not hold nearly as much weight as some people think it does.
In reality, this is still an NFL team. They should be able to get moving a little bit better.
Still, the injuries were pretty devastating. Because of that, the Lions will steer clear of that dreaded “F” grade when it comes to offense.
However, they don't get all that much leeway. They still racked up a “D” grade without Stafford.
The good news though is neither of the grades so far are the final grade. We're grading the total product. That means you need to mix the good with the bad. When all is said and done, the Lions had a lot of bad moments, but quite a few good ones as well.
With plenty of positives and a lot to build on, they sneak back into the “C” area and land with a “C-“. Passable, but a lot of work to be done.
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