FOXBORO, Mass. — The Detroit Lions entered their Week 5 matchup with the New England Patriots boasting the NFL’s top offense, hoping that a matchup against another 1-3 team could propel them in the right direction. They left at rock bottom.
The Patriots manhandled the Lions at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, outplaying Dan Campbell’s squad in all three phases of the game. Bailey Zappe, a rookie fourth-round pick starting his first game, looked cool, calm and collected throughout the game and never got even got his red-throwback jersey dirty. Matthew Judon led a dominant-defensive effort, no matter what Campbell tries to tell you, and Nick Folk pitched in four field goals on a breezy day in Foxborough.
The Lions, on the other hand, went 0-for-6 on fourth down, lost the turnover battle and committed seven penalties for 82 yards. Not great.
When asked what he can do to motivate his team following a shutout loss, Campbell was brutally honest.
“You just be honest with them. You tell them exactly what it is. To me, it’s about as bad as it gets. I mean, this is the worst,” Campbell said postgame, per team-provided transcript. “You know, this is where we’re at. And sometimes it’s going to get bad before it gets better. I believe we hit rock bottom. So now the only place to go is back up.
“… You don’t anticipate that. You don’t see that. But I also know — I mean, as bad as it looks, I also know what we’re capable of. And, look, we — it’s hard to say that when you look at the score today, but we got better defensively. I mean, we were — we played better today than we’ve played. Now, is it good enough? No. But we did play better. And offensively, we’re better than what we just put out there on tape. So, yeah, it’s bad. But as a total team here, it’s just 29-0. So to this point in the season, it’s as bad as it’s gotten.”
Understandably, Campbell has taken most of the heat following this loss and likely will be moving forward. The road won’t get any easier for the Lions, as they return from their Week 6 bye with a triad of games against the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins and Green Bay Packers.
