The Detroit Lions understand that many NFL pundits and a segment of their fanbase believes their odds of winning the Super Bowl have drastically decreased.
After getting outplayed by the Bills and suffering another rash of injuries, Detroit’s outlook for the remainder of the season appears grim to some.
This week, Detroit’s coaching staff and several players addressed the “sky is falling” narrative and reiterated their belief that the team still has enough talent on the roster to win more games and to make a deep playoff push.
“Yeah, we talked about it this morning (Wednesday). We just had the first meeting, really significant meeting since the Buffalo game,” Dan Campbell told reporters. “So, like I said, I just hit it head on and tell them what the facts are. This is where we’re at, this is how we’re viewed right now, and look, nobody writes our story. We’re the only ones who write our own story, so we have the pen and there’s a lot of football left and I think we’re looking forward to this to be honest with you.
“You pick yourself up, you dust yourself off and you go back to the basics. Go back to work, that’s the only way to get better and clean up issues that cost you because the bottom line is that we lost a game,” Campbell continued. “That really is the most important thing, we lost a game and here’s why we lost a game at the end of the day. So, why don’t we go clean those things up and take it into Chicago and see what that looks like.”
While no player likes to lose, losing to a quality opponent can actually aid the Lions down the stretch.
“Well, what’s interesting is there’s two things that unfold, really. One, it’s the loss. When you haven’t lost since September, so there’s the loss element and then there’s the injury element and so everything gets compacted,” Campbell said. “So, you really need to address both and that’s what we did, one is, hey, we mention it. We got popped in the mouth and we have to get up off the ground and we have to go back to work and reposition ourselves to be able to play the next game and learn from what just happened.”
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Despite losing key defensive players, Detroit’s popular coach remained steadfast in his confidence with the healthy players on that side of the ball.
“And the other is to not lose confidence in the fact that we still have really good players here on defense and that we have good coaches and that we can play any way that we need to play from that standpoint, but as well as offense and special teams and still win games. So, that’s what’s important and really you just have to stay focused on what’s in front of you,” Campbell said. “It really is, ‘Just worry about today and worry about today’s practice and what your job description is and how you’re going to play the very best that you can play.’ It’s my job to alleviate stress in some areas and just kind of balance the buoy if you will. And we’ll do that.”
Quarterback Jared Goff noted the team will rebound and kept things in perspective by reminding reporters that it was the team’s first loss since September.
“It’s funny cause it’s relative. Adversity two years ago is different than adversity right now,” Goff said. “Watching him stand in the storm in 1-6 and 3-13 or whatever we were that first year, that’s what, for me, makes his words mean so much more when we’re 12-2 facing our first loss in the last 12 weeks. If that’s our adversity now, we’ll be just fine, we’ll handle it. We’ll move on. I think when he stands in front of the room, people listen. The way that we’ve handled adversity as a team has been pretty good.”
Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown indicated the team is aware of the narratives, but still has confidence the team can rebound and win games. He noted it was imperative the team not take the Bears lightly, as any team can take advantage of mistakes to win a game many don’t expect them to.
“I mean, you guys tell me what the narrative is right now. You guys write them. I think it’s pretty obvious we have a lot of injuries. Everyone sees that,” St. Brown said. “We just lost our first game in I don’t know how long, but our narrative is whatever we make it. We still have three more games left in this regular season, we can still clinch that one seed and get a first-round bye.”
Despite the outside noise, St. Brown expressed the team can take matters into their own hands and focus on what they can control the final three games of the 2024 season.
“It is what it is. You have injuries, you kind of want to be playing your best ball at the end of the year and people see that we just lost to the Bills and it wasn’t what they expected and we’re trending downwards,” St. Brown explained. “And that’s what people think it is, but like Dan said, ‘We can write our own narrative,’ and we can only control what we can control in this locker room. And we’ve got to go out there and win games.”
