CHARLOTTE, NC – They had a chance. Give them that ... I guess?
Actually, no.
For the second time in three weeks, the Detroit Lions got exposed on national television. That was especially true of the defense, but we'll get to that side of the ball in a moment.
First, the offense.
It had a chance to win the game late. But the Lions shouldn't need to go 89 yards with no timeouts and 2:06 left to beat the Carolina Panthers, who were missing their starting cornerbacks, a couple of their receivers and their left guard.
Yeah, yeah, this is a parity league. And the Panthers made the playoffs last season. They also gave up 59 points to the Chicago Bears in their season opener.
Yet here were the Lions, holding, jumping offsides, unable to pick up a blitz, settling for field goals – four of them – when they knew they needed touchdowns.
Unable to run the ball. Again.
Winning games in the 30s is the only way they're going to win with this defense, which we'll get to in a minute. It's how they're built. And yet here we are, four weeks in, and the offense keeps beating itself, as it did again at Bank of America Stadium as the Lions lost to Carolina, 32-26.
That's on Dan Campbell and Drew Petzing and the offensive line that's still miscommunicating too often and not doing enough to spring running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
The low point came in the middle of the fourth quarter, when the Lions were down 13 and had moved into the red zone; they went backwards once they got to fourth down. First a delay of game. Then a false start. They went from fourth-and-10 to fourth-and-15 to fourth-and-20.
They did not convert.
That might have been malpractice after what happened most of the night. Bryce Young completed 12 of his first 13 passes. He threw for 329 yards.
First down, second down, fourth down, it didn't matter. He dealt.
Holding? That was a blip. Occasional pressure? Young shrugged it off. A blitz? Get serious.
The Lions brought five, six, even seven, as they did early in the third quarter when the Panthers took the second-half kickoff and casually moved down the field to the Lions' 10.
It was second and nine. Sheppard sent seven.
SEVEN!
No one got home. Young flicked it to Tetairoa McMillan, who ran free across the middle and into the end zone for the touchdown.
McMillan – how shall we say this? – embarrassed the Lions all night, catching 14 balls for 192 yards.
Then again, can you be embarrassed if you're outmanned, outflanked and outwitted? That's getting harder to say.
This mess isn't just the fault of the secondary. The linebackers aren't helping in coverage enough, either.
Tight ends have torched Detroit so far, and while they didn't so much Sunday night, it didn't matter, not with McMillan running free, not with little resistance in the run game, not with defensive backs trying to stay with tight ends and linebackers trying to say with slot receivers and slot corners trying to stay with outside receivers.
Carolina manipulated the Lions' defense the way an adult manipulates an Etch-a-Sketch. Again, blame general manager Brad Holmes. His whiffs in the 2024 draft, and his failure to fortify the secondary this offseason, are the foundational reasons.
Yet they aren't the only ones.
This back seven isn't where it is supposed to be consistently enough. And when the front four can't hold up in the run, which it hasn't in three of four games, the defense has no chance.
None.
It's not even that opponents are making tough plays all game. Sure, there have been some; this is the NFL. But most of these first downs and explosive plays we've seen now from the New Orleans Saints, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Jets and now the Panthers have come easily, as if they were doing dry run-throughs in a hotel ballroom.
It's astounding. And while you can point back to Holmes' falloff in the draft and struggles in free agency, and you could've predicted a certain level of ineptitude, what we're witnessing is staggeringly demoralizing.
Partly because it's a tough watch, but partly because it reminds of coach Dan Campbell's statement after the loss to San Francisco in the NFC championship game in the 2023 season.
"No guarantee we get this far again," he said.
That felt dramatic at the time for what looked like an ascending team, for a young team.
And while it's too soon to say never, those words feel heavier by the week.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions' defensive flops not just embarrassing, they're demoralizing
