Thanksgiving loss no reason to panic, Detroit Lions just need 'to play clean football'

Maybe the expectations were unrealistic.

Not that the Detroit Lions would challenge for the NFC championship. That dream is alive and well despite Thursday’s 29-22 Thanksgiving loss to the Green Bay Packers.

That they would continue to dominate teams the way they did early in the season.

The Lions played a stinker of a game Thursday and have been at less than their best since the bye.

Jared Goff has six turnovers in the past two games. The defense couldn’t stop Jordan Love or Justin Fields, let alone Justin Herbert. And a blueprint is forming on how to beat the Lions: Protect the quarterback, get after the secondary, chase Goff off his spot and don’t let Amon-Ra St. Brown beat you.

But the truth is it’s hard to win in the NFL. Every team has good players and coaches, and when they have enough film to study they usually can find ways to keep games close. Sometimes it’s by being creative. Sometimes it’s by mucking up a game.

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The Lions won four straight games by double digits in September and October and have five wins by 10 or more points this year.

The Philadelphia Eagles, the team with the best record in the NFL, have two double-digit wins. The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs have three.

Only the San Francisco 49ers — the best team in the league, most people agree — have more with seven.

Most NFL games are nail-bitters and the Lions have played close ones against inferior opponents each of the past three weeks. They won a shootout with Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers, needed a late-game rally to beat Fields and the Chicago Bears, and finally got clipped living too close to the edge Thursday, when Love threw for 268 yards and three touchdowns and Goff couldn’t get out of his own way.

After piling up lopsided wins to start the season, the past three weeks have been paralyzing in a way. But the sky is not falling at 8-3.

“I mean, we won two of (our last three games) and lost the third one,” Goff said Thursday. “I don’t put much stock into how many points we’re winning by or how the game happened. We get that onside kick (at the end of Thursday’s game), we score a touchdown and then it’s, ‘Oh, we won three in a row.’

“It’s all a million different things that go into winning and losing and myself, personally, I try to focus on what’s next. ‘OK, we won or lost a game, what’s next? OK, move on, good or bad.’ And, yeah, I don’t put any stock into how many points we’re scoring, or winning by, or giving up, or anything like that.”

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There is something to be said for playing good, efficient football. In the NFL, it’s important that teams are at their best late in the year, and with the calendar about to flip to December the Lions need to find their footing or they’ll peter out quickly in the playoffs.

That starts with Goff cutting down on the turnovers, something he was magnificent at late last season and pretty good at, at the start of this year.

Goff went 383 pass attempts between interceptions from last November through mid-September this year. He threw a pick that was returned for a touchdown in the Lions’ Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, then had just four other turnovers before his recent bout of careless play.

The turnovers haven’t all been Goff’s fault. The Lions’ formidable offensive line struggled in pass protection Thursday, and one of his interceptions against the Bears was simply bad luck.

But the preponderance of the issue falls on Goff as Lions quarterback to take better care of the ball.

“You’ve got to play clean football,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “We just have to. And everything’s got to start with the turnovers. We can’t turn the ball over and we’ve got to find a way to get takeaways. Let’s start there and then we’ll figure the rest out.”

Goff has had pronounced turnover problems in the past. It’s one of the reasons the Los Angeles Rams were eager to find his replacement three years ago.

Still, no one is suggesting he’s relapsed. Rather, teams have made Goff pay for his shortcomings like a lack of mobility, and the ball is back in the Lions’ court to answer.

Jonah Jackson’s pending return at left guard should help. Jameson Williams’ slow emergence should, too. And when the Lions are able to play with a lead they’re a different team and Goff is a different quarterback.

“I think with some of these you feel like we’re a little bit behind and maybe that’s the cause of some of it,” Campbell said. “We just, there’s a little uneasiness. We’ve just got to get back to what we do, play with a little more rhythm and it’s not — this isn’t something we’re going to go into panic mode. I’ve got some time here to just look at a couple of things and see where we can get a little more efficient. But at the same time, this is the same team that’s been here all year. Offense, defense, Goff’s the same quarterback. We clean a couple of things up and I think we’ll get back into a rhythm and we’ll be just fine.”

The Lions still have a favorable enough schedule to win 12 or 13 games. They face a mediocre New Orleans Saints team in what could be another virtual home game next week, then play the lowly Bears again in Chicago before closing the season with games against playoff contenders the Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings (twice) and Dallas Cowboys.

The Lions can’t set their cruise control and expect to land the NFC’s one or two seed, but if they cut down on their turnovers and get better play from their quarterback it will mask a lot of the issues that have held them back of late.

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“It doesn’t matter who comes in there,” Campbell said. “When they play a perfect game, if we don’t play our best when they’re playing a perfect game, things like that’ll happen.”

Three more thoughts on the Lions at their annual Thanksgiving break:

Fake punt revisited

It’s fair to criticize Campbell for the fake punt he called deep in Lions territory Thursday, but if you criticize him for that call you can’t have it both ways and applaud the fake punt he nailed from his own 17-yard line against the Chiefs in Week 1.

With risk comes reward — and often failure — and at that point in the game the Lions had done little to think they could stop Green Bay’s offense.

Sure, the Packers punted one possession early, but only after Romeo Doubs dropped a would-be third down conversion and they moved the ball with ease early in the game.

I’m not sure the Lions had the right look to run the fake, so there might be something to clean up there. But Campbell’s gambles have paid off far more often than they’ve failed — the Lions are now 8 of 10 on fake punts during his tenure as coach — and his aggressive nature as a coach is very much a positive for the team.

Hooker coming

Hendon Hooker was trending on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, during Thursday’s game, which comes as no surprise given Goff’s struggles and the nature of the backup quarterback position in the NFL.

Hooker, a third-round pick out of Tennessee, told me this week he expects to return to practice soon. That could happen as early as next week, but he’s still a long way from helping the team.

The Lions almost certainly will use Hooker’s entire 21-day practice window before activating him to the 53-man roster, and Teddy Bridgewater will remain Goff’s backup upon Hooker’s return. Theoretically, the Lions could give Hooker snaps in their Week 18 game against the Vikings if they decide to rest starters with a playoff berth clinched, but even that might be a long shot.

Looking further into the future, Goff is going to get a monster contract extension this summer that should solidify his place as the franchise’s starting quarterback. Hooker, in all likelihood, will spend the next few years as his primary backup.

Razor’s edge

Bruce Irvin should be ready for game action when the Lions return to the field next Sunday against the Saints, and the Lions badly need contributions from him as a pass rusher. They’ve failed to record a sack in four or their 11 games this season, haven’t had a sack in the first half of a game since September, and have had to resort to playing Derrick Barnes and Jack Campbell out of position to try to create a reliable second edge presence.

I don’t know what Irvin has left at 36 years old, but he started 10 games and had 3.5 sacks for the Seattle Seahawks last season so it’s worth finding out.

Charles Harris and Julian Okwara have a combined 3.5 sacks this season. Josh Paschal and Romeo Okwara don’t have any sacks. And James Houston has barely played because of a leg injury.

Houston still could return this season; he was working out on the side at a recent Lions practice. But the Lions need to prioritize adding another pass rusher to go with Aidan Hutchinson and Alim McNeill next offseason.

Their secondary hasn’t been great this year, and it doesn’t help that they have fewer sacks than every team with a winning record but the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Next up: Saints

Matchup: Lions (8-3) at New Orleans (5-5).

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Dec. 3; Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' Jared Goff must clean up turnovers to make playoff run