The Detroit Lions are slipping this season. After a great start to the season that saw them hold the NFC North for some time, the Motor City has lost their grasp on the division. To make matters worse, their playoff hopes are starting to dwindle as well. Their latest loss to the Green Bay Packers has made the Lions' chances of making the postseason even slimmer.
The Lions are now in crisis mode. It's easy to stress about how the Lions got to this position and get all flustered now. However, head coach Dan Campbell wants his team to channel this frustration into working for a solution to dig themselves out of this hole.
“Like I told the team, ‘It's frustrating, I know. We've got a lot to be thankful for even after a loss,'” Campbell said, per Eric Woodyard of ESPN. “And look, we've dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, that's the bottom line. We are in a little bit of a hole, but that's just what it is. There's nothing more than that. So all we've got to do is worry about cleaning up this and then getting to the next game and finding a way to win the next one in front of us.”
With the loss to the Packers, the Lions now sit at a 7-5 record, good for third in the NFC North behind Green Bay and the division-leading Chicago Bears. The Thanksgiving loss also gave Green Bay the advantage in a potential tie against Detroit. In order for Detroit to get the divison, they'll need to have a better record than Green Bay, which is a tall order now given the tiebreaker advantage for the latter.
The other route is for the Lions to get in through the Wild Card round. With how competitive the NFC West and North has been this season, though, a playoff berth that way is tough to attain. Based on the standings, two teams between the Rams, 49ers, and Seahawks will get in through the Wild Card. That leaves one spot, which will be contested by Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay, and potentially one of the Cowboys or Eagles.
Like Campbell said, the Lions have no choice but to try and dig out of this hole that they made themselves. Their quest to preserve their playoff chances starts in Week 14 against the whie-hot Cowboys, a game that could have serious Wild Card implications.
