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The late Arizona Cardinals' coach Dennis Green uttered those now infamous words in 2006 after his team's crushing loss on Monday Night Football: “They are who we thought they were!”  Green was letting the world know that the opponents that night, the victorious Chicago Bears, were nothing spectacular, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing they were not expecting.  

And unfortunately, the same can be said for the 2016 Detroit Lions.  Nothing spectacular, nothing out of the ordinary. They began the season 1-3.  They finished the year 1-3.  In between, they won a bunch of games against many of the worst teams in the league, with most of the success coming at Ford Field. 

So last night’s result is anything but a shock.  The Packers entered the contest firing on all cylinders, winners of five straight, and carrying with them the right arm (and dancing legs) of Aaron Rodgers, still one of the two or three most dangerous quarterbacks in the league.  The Lions came in losers of two straight, trying in vain to hold on to the notion that Matthew Stafford had turned some kind of corner this year and was now playing on that Rodgers-Brady level.

And the evening played out depressingly on-script, with the Packers picking up steam as the game went on and the Lions playing with the same general flatness that’s been plaguing them since they returned from the trip to New Orleans.  

These Lions have not played well against quality competition for the great majority of the year.  All told, Jim Caldwell’s crew would go 0-5 against 2016 playoff entrants, and 9-2 against those that finished out of the money.  They were handled with relative ease in all five of those losses.  To be a playoff team, you usually have to figure out a way to beat some of the big boys.  Somehow, the Lions were the exception to that rule and snuck their way in anyway.

A Big Drop

While any year that concludes with playoff football around here is a reason to celebrate, this one feels especially hollow.  After all, it was just a few short weeks ago that the Lions were nestled cozily in the #2 seed in the NFC, with realistic dreams of not only hosting the first playoff game at Ford Field, but doing so after a relaxing first-round bye.  Then bang, bang, bang -- three consecutive defeats, none of which were really in doubt during the final minutes. 


Detroit Lions photo

During that glorious stretch of football from early-October to mid-December, the Lions snapped off eight wins in nine games.  The city of Detroit and the rest of the country tried to convince themselves that this was a team to be feared; that Stafford had left average behind and was now knocking on the door of greatness; that trailing every game in the fourth quarter was somehow a recipe for success.  But it was all a mirage.  Both wins over the hapless Vikings were borderline miracles.  It took some questionable flags in closing moments to escape the Bears at home.  The Lions rallied to knock off the punchless Rams, but not before surrendering a million yards to one of the league’s worst passers in Case Keenum. 

While all of those victories were wonderful on paper, the way each of them transpired was genuine cause for concern.  If the Lions had so much difficulty simply sneaking by the league’s worst, how would they fare against the NFL’s best? We found out, and the answer was not pretty.

Seattle in January Is No Tropical Getaway

So on they trudge to the Pacific Northwest to tangle with the ex-champion Seahawks in a stadium that doubles as a modern-day dungeon.  Winning in Seattle is among the tallest of NFL tasks.  The ‘Hawks were a near-unbeatable 7 and 1 at their home field this season; the last three home victories were by a combined 65 points. 

So to reference the great Jerry Seinfeld, “Good luck with allll that.” 

For a brief moment, the Lions were 9-4 and visions of 1991 began bouncing around the Motor City.  The Giants don’t score a ton of points; the Cowboys will have nothing to play for; Rodgers is never quite himself at Ford Field.  But these are still the Detroit Lions, and happy endings have never really been part of their arsenal.

They backed into the NFL Playoffs and will likely be booted right out come Saturday night.  Then it’s on to the same old off-season chatter. 

Should this be the end for Caldwell?  What does Bob Quinn need to address in the draft?  Is Stafford ever going to win a postseason game? 

The more things change, the more they stay the same for the Honolulu blue and silver.

They’re a “charging team that will not yield” -- unless the opponent happens to be half-decent.  Then it’s a couple quarters of passable football followed by a second half with virtually no offense to speak of.

It’s been a weird 16 games aboard the Lions Train. They started off rotten, got hot for a few months, and with everything to gain in the final three weeks, fell flat on their whiskered faces.

Maybe one of these days the closing act will surprise us.  The underdog will prevail in the final frame.  Then again, maybe not.

This has been the most consistent organization in pro sports over the last 50 years.  Remember, consistency does not go hand-in-hand with success.  It simply means that a person or process is unchanging in level of achievement over a period of time.

The Lions are nothing if not consistent; a fact of which, on this morning, all football fans in Detroit are all too aware.