The Detroit Lions finished smack dab in the middle of the NFL in points allowed per game during losses in 2025, and while that sounds underwhelming, it tells a larger story about where the defense stands heading into this season. Detroit allowed 224 points across its 8 losses, averaging 28 points per game in those contests. That’s 15th in the league, a number that sits closer to the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks (25.3) than it does to some of the league’s worst defensive performers.

Rank	Team	Losses	Points allowed	PPG allowed
1	Texans	5	96	19.2
2	Packers	7	152	21.7
3	Bills	5	113	22.6
4	Chiefs	11	255	23.2
5	Eagles	6	149	24.8
6	Patriots	3	76	25.3
6	Seahawks	3	76	25.3
8	Vikings	8	206	25.8
9	Panthers	9	235	26.1
10	Saints	11	293	26.6
11	Chargers	6	160	26.7
12	49ers	5	137	27.4
13	Browns	12	329	27.4
14	Steelers	7	194	27.7
15	Lions	8	224	28.0
16	Raiders	14	397	28.4
17	Falcons	9	256	28.4
18	Buccaneers	9	257	28.6
19	Broncos	3	86	28.7
20	Colts	9	260	28.9
21	Giants	13	377	29.0
22	Titans	14	419	29.9
23	Jets	14	421	30.1
24	Jaguars	4	122	30.5
25	Rams	5	155	31.0
26	Commanders	12	373	31.1
27	Cardinals	14	436	31.1
28	Ravens	9	290	32.2
29	Dolphins	10	323	32.3
30	Bears	6	198	33.0
31	Bengals	11	369	33.5
32	Cowboys	9	302	33.6

My initial reaction was that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. It’s not good. You’d hope it would be better. But it’s not too far off from teams that made deep postseason runs.

How the NFC North stacks up

For starters, the NFC North rivals paint a fascinating picture when you apply this same method. The Chicago Bears allowed 33 points per game in their 6 losses. That is real bad. I’ve talked about how that Bears defense has been propped up by turnovers, and those turnovers masked serious deficiencies across the unit. I think Chicago could be in a lot of trouble this year because that defense got a lot worse.

The Green Bay Packers, on the other hand, allowed only 21.7 points per game across 7 losses. A lot of that had to do with Micah Parsons being on that defense. When you look at the difference between the Packers with Parsons and without him, they allowed more points in his absence. They were still a pretty good defense regardless.

The Minnesota Vikings came in at 25.8 points per game in losses, which is not too far off from where the Super Bowl champions were and not too far off from where the Lions were.

The best and worst in the NFL

The Houston Texans stood out as the most impressive team in this study. In just 5 losses, Houston allowed only 19.2 points per game. That’s a great defense, and there’s not much more you can say about it. The Buffalo Bills were solid as well, giving up 22.6 points per game in their 5 losses. Detroit takes them on in Week 2 this season.

The Philadelphia Eagles were a team I expected to land higher, but they didn’t.

What it means for the Lions’ 2025 schedule

Here’s the thing. The Lions are playing a lot of these teams from the bad side of the ledger. Detroit has the Miami Dolphins on the schedule, who finished 29th in this metric. The Arizona Cardinals finished 27th. The Bears, as mentioned, finished 30th. The New York Jets came in at 23rd, and the Tennessee Titans were 22nd.

This is just another example of how favorable this schedule looks for the Lions on paper. We’ll see what everything looks like once the season gets going, but there are a lot of opponents on this year’s slate who couldn’t stop anyone even in their own losses.

The Lions sitting at 15th isn’t a number that jumps off the page. But when you consider the matchups ahead and the improvements Detroit has made along the defensive line this offseason, there’s reason to believe that number could trend in the right direction. Let’s see how it plays out.

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