Alright, how is everyone feeling about the Detroit Lions after Thanksgiving? My guess is that some turkey naps and a couple rounds of pie has soften your feelings on the entire thing. Who could still be mad after pie? 

Now that everyone has calmed down, it's time to really diagnose what's going on with this team and how the Lions can fix it in the next 10 days. I don't really believe any of their issues are beyond repair at this point. This team isn't totally broken or anything. Also I don't think firing anyone is the answer. That's just not realistic. 

I've gone over some of the Lions biggest problems in the last three games and have come out with the realization that a lot of this stuff is very fixable. Here's my thoughts: 

Turn the page in the offensive playbook

I know that there’s this thing where Ben Johnson is the worlds greatest offensive coordinator and he can’t do anything wrong, but he just got it handed to him by Joe Barry and the Packers defense. The Bears had things pretty well figured out as well. So did the Raiders.

The Lions are often able to get down field and get themselves into the red zone. But then they immediately begin to struggle. The Lions had a shot on thanksgiving. But here's how their trips ended in the red zone in that game.

• Touchdown
• Touchdown
• Turnover on downs
• Turnover on downs
• Touchdown

They also had another turnover on downs at the Green Bay 35-yard line and a fumble on the Green Bay 31-yard line. There's at the very least 14 points left on the board there. That's enough to win this game.

Here's the good news. The Lions have actually improved in this area a lot since David Montgomery came back. The Lions scored 72.7% of the time they got in the red zone over the last three games. So that should be easy to fix. The fourth down aggression thing should be too.

The Lions also need to change things up a little more in an effort to get to the red zone. Becasue lately it's been either run, run, pass or big play, run, run, pass and punt. It's time to work in some new ideas and maybe turn to that Jameson Williams page you have in there. He showed in the last three games that he can be a problem for defenses. 

Settle Jared Goff down

I know how you’re feeling. Jared Goff has turned the ball over six times in the last two games. That’s very bad. But I don’t think it’s evidence that’s he’s due for regression or anything like that. I think the Bears clearly knew he was going to throw over the middle and think the Packers entire defensive gameplan was to force him out of the pocket. Both those things worked. 

I know that fans hate excuses, but they're a real thing. There is a reason that things happen in this world and that's that. Four of these turnovers are freak accidents. 

• LaPorta gets bumped off his route while the ball is in the air
• The ball gets tipped by a defensive linemen and gets picked
• Goff's arm was moving forward on first fumble and it barely wasn't a fumble. 
• Goff got swarmed on his third fumble 

That really just leaves a bad pass over the middle against the Bears and Goff foolishly running down the field holding the ball with one hand on the other. 

Right off the bat you cut this problem beyond in half. Freak accidents happen. Stafford was the king of the freak accident interception. Lions fans should be used to this. This just doesn't mean that this a turnover problem. 

I think if you settle Goff down in the next ten days, you'll see him have a productive day without the turnovers in New Orleans. Just control what you can control. We know the mental is good because of Chicago. 

Offensive line had a bad day

The Lions have the best offensive line in the NFL. That wasn’t something that we all imagined. They had a bad day on Thursday. Jared Goff got hit 12 times in this game. 12! The previous high was 9 against Atlanta. On average, Goff has been hit 5 times a game this season. So as you can see, the offensive line was really off on Thursday. 

This is just another thing that went haywire when it usually doesn't.  The Lions need to get Jonah Jackson back after this little break here. The Packers really targeted Colby Sorsdal and Kayode Awoiska in this game. Sorsdal was having a lot of problems and got benched after the first half. Awosika maybe have been worse. Jackson can fix this issue by simply playing. 

Do something different

Aaron Glenn really needs to sit down and watch all of the film from the last three games. He’s see that he really needs to switch somethings up. One of the first things he can do is stop doing man coverage so much. Their cornerbacks are getting beaten off the line with little to no problems at all. That’s how you get that 53-yard catch from Christian Watson to start the game. That’s how Keen Allen punished the Lions defense too. 

The Lions do need a pass rush, but they hardly have the time to get there most times because there is always an open receiver that's already beat his man. If the Lions gave a little cushion to their defensive backs, that might help them. Instead they're constantly giving chase. That simple change could make the Lions defense a little better down the stretch. 

Other than that, they need to find a way to take advantage of all the attention that Aidan Hutchinson gets. They've got 10 days to do it. 

The Lions defense can't be fixed totally overnight. This is something that needs to a lot of attention during the offseason. But we've seen this unit play really well this season and at the end of last season. They need to figure out what's hurting them and fix it. 

With all of that said, it should be noted that this is what the Packers offense looked like after that first quarter: 

• Turnover on downs
• Field Goal
• Punt
• Missed Field Goal
• Punt
• Touchdown after the fake punt set them up on in the red zone
• Punt
• Punt

Clearly the Lions got things figured out on defense yesterday. They can continue to do it going forward. 

Get some rest

I know you’re average casual football fan that played in high school will tell you that the Lions need to get their guys in the building immediately and drill them half to death on video and up downs, but this team could really use a breather. 

The Lions just played three football games in the span of 12 days. None of those games were easy either. They were all down to the wire and required every single second of energy. Mix in practices and long days at the facility and you can see how a team might come out and have a game like they did on Thursday. The Packers were the least tired team and they clearly wanted revenge more than they wanted rest. 

I think the Lions could make a lot of headway with their issues if they just take a second to catch their breath. 

The Detroit Lions are not frauds

The Detroit Lions lost on Thanksgiving day for the seventh straight year. This caps off an irritating three week stretch that has seen the Lions struggle on both side of the ball. They're allowing a lot of yards and points and they're suddenly dealing with turnover issues on both sides of the ball. Yet, they're […]