This Lions season, which started with high expectations, ended with a whimper with one game left in the regular season.
With a frustrating and sloppy 23-10 loss to the Vikings on Christmas Day, the Lions were officially eliminated from playoff contention. For a team that lost in the NFC title game two years ago and made the second round of the playoffs in 2024, there was a feeling around the team that they’d be at least back in the postseason.
Yes, the team had lost offensive and defensive coordinators — Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, respectively — to head coaching gigs, but they had talented players on both sides of the ball that are among the best in the game.
But with the loss and playoff hopes vanished, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after the game that he would be looking at a lot of things to see what truly went wrong this season — and that includes himself.
“I’m gonna be looking at a lot. I’m gonna be looking at a lot of things because I do not like being home for the playoffs,” Campbell told reporters. “And I know our guys don’t either. And there again, whenever you lose, it takes a village. Everybody’s involved, including myself. So, I’m always gonna look at myself first.”
He added that he and Lions general manager Brad Holmes will have plenty to discuss and figure out when they dissect the issues with the 2025 iteration of the club.
“Brad and I will have a lot of decisions to make, you know, a lot of things to look at,” Campbell said. “The what’s the whys, the how do we improve? Because we need to improve.”
The Lions came into the day with less than a 10 percent chance to make the playoffs, but needed the win to at least stay alive.
But self-inflicted wounds in the form of six turnovers proved to be the demise of Detroit in Minnesota. Quarterback Jared Goff never got things going, as he threw two interceptions and was held to 197 passing yards.
Goff didn’t shy away from how he felt about missing the playoffs.
“It sucks,” Goff said. “We’ll reflect on the whole season after next week, but yeah, it sucks.”
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