Unless something drastically changes, the Detroit Lions will join another notable NFL team whose Super Bowl hopes were dashed by a woefully underperforming defense. In 2000, the Rams boasted the NFL's best offense, but their toothless defense resulted in an early playoff exit. This year's Lions could suffer an even worse outcome.
Their defense prevented them from making the playoffs in 2025, and that could very well happen again in 2026. The issues started last week in New Orleans. After building a 21-0 lead, Detroit's defense was torched by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, who threw for 410 yards and three touchdowns.
The Lions prevailed in overtime, but the writing was on the wall. Turnovers are a bad defense's best friend. That was the case in Week 1 as the Lions managed to force three turnovers of Shough.
They were also able to sack him five times. But Week 2 was a very different story. Allen was protected well, and he didn't commit a single turnover.
More so, Allen ran circles around a Lions defense that simply had no answers him. The Lions' defense couldn't contain Allen on the ground (he ran for 69 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries) or in the air. Even more alarming was the lack of defenders around Allen's receivers.
The biggest example of this was Josh Palmer's 43-yard touchdown catch that gave the Bills a 14-0 lead. Josh Allen goes deep to a WIDE OPEN Josh Palmer for SIXDETvsBUF on Prime VideoStream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/hle75KIFVt We haven't even talked about James Cook III, who gashed Detroit for 135 yards and a score on 21 carries. Cook spent the night looking like Bo Jackson in Techno Bowl.
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