Same old Detroit Lions? One-score losses continuing to haunt Dan Campbell & Co.

DETROIT — An all-too-familiar narrative performed itself out within the Detroit Lions’ season opener Sunday.

Sure, the Lions performed arduous towards the Philadelphia Eagles. They even made it aggressive late, pulling inside three factors of Philly with just below 4 minutes to play. However they fell brief … but once more.

For individuals who observe the franchise intently, shut losses have develop into an ongoing theme within the Motor Metropolis. Together with Sunday’s 38-35 defeat to the Eagles, the Lions have seven losses in one-score video games for the reason that begin of 2021, tied with the Carolina Panthers for second most within the league, per ESPN Stats & Data analysis. The Minnesota Vikings, their NFC North division rivals, lead the league with eight. The Lions’ .250 profitable share (2-7-1 document) in such video games ranks fifth worst within the NFL in that span.

Regardless of the ugly numbers, the staff is working arduous at flipping the all-to-familiar script.

“Coach [Dan Campbell] at all times says you may’t develop into numb to it (dropping). I hate dropping with a ardour … gotta return to work, watch the movie, see what you may get higher at. It’s at all times little stuff,” mentioned Lions operating again D’Andre Swift, who rushed for a career-high 144 yards towards his hometown Eagles. “One or two performs that may change the momentum of the sport. Gotta be higher.”

Detroit started the sport with a robust opening drive — together with a 50-yard acquire from Swift — earlier than his backfield mate Jamaal Williams punched it in from shut. However the protection couldn’t comprise the Eagles’ floor assault — Philadelphia turned the primary staff to have 4 completely different gamers with a speeding landing in a season opener for the reason that 1967 Raiders — or quarterback Jalen Hurts and wideout A.J. Brown. Hurts rushed for 90 yards on 17 carries and handed for 243 extra. Brown, making his Eagles debut after being traded from the Tennessee Titans, completed with 10 catches and 155 receiving yards.

The Lions added self-inflicted wounds as nicely. A miscommunication on offense resulted in a second-quarter pick-six of Jared Goff. And midway by way of the sport, Lions security and captain Tracy Walker III was ejected after receiving two private foul penalties on the identical play after a late hit on Hurts, who was already sliding.

“We ran the ball nicely. I believed our line performed very well,” Goff mentioned. “I believed Swift did what we anticipated him to do, and we simply left an excessive amount of stuff on the market. We had so many massive performs to be made on the market and left them on the sector.”

Stated wideout DJ Chark: “We’ve acquired to wash up every thing, every part of the sport, and never making an attempt to return out and be OK with dropping by one or two.”

Campbell’s message to the staff within the locker room following their newest shut loss was easy: preserve pushing.

“They perceive. I imply, it hurts extra for them than it does anyone. And we had been this shut and so, it’s actually like, ‘Look, man, that is Recreation 1 and we’ve acquired a protracted season right here.’ And I mentioned the excellent news is that we didn’t play very nicely and we misplaced by three,” Campbell mentioned. “That’s what you may take away from this. Now, if we simply take this complete strategy the place each week it’s like, ‘We misplaced by three, we misplaced by three, we misplaced by three.’ Then, what are we doing? So, we’ve acquired to wash this up and we’ve acquired to be higher. We’ve acquired to be lots higher in all of the areas.”