MINNEAPOLIS -- The Detroit Lions lost 24-9 on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. Here are three things we learned.



Teez Tabor has been one of the worst cornerbacks in the NFL. That's not subjective either. There are 121 corners who have played at least 20 percent of their defense's snaps, and Tabor is the only one allowing a perfect QB rating. He's ranked dead last out of 111 qualifying players at the position, according to ProFootballFocus, and it's not close. His grade is 29.7. Nobody else is under 40. After allowing four catches on four targets last week, including one touchdown and another penalty, Detroit slashed his playing time to 14 snaps against Minnesota -- then he still managed to allow four more completions on four balls thrown his way. One of them was on fourth down against an undrafted receiver who was making his NFL debut. Oh, and he committed two more penalties, one of which was a pass interference where Kyle Rudolph caught the ball anyway for a 24-yard gain. He's now committed six penalties overall, and has as many touchdowns allowed (three) as incompletions forced (three). He's fading fast, and you can't help but wonder at what point the Lions should pull the plug on the second-round pick.



The Lions have a real problem at right guard. T.J. Lang is a good player, and his trip to the Pro Bowl last year is evidence of that. But the man just can't stay healthy. He couldn't even manage to play half the snaps against Minnesota before departing with yet another injury. At the season's halfway point, he has still played just one full game. That's forced Kenny Wiggins into the lineup a lot, and while he enjoyed a good debut against San Francisco, he's been dreck since. He was on the field for five of Minnesota's 10 sacks on Sunday, and four came flooding through his gaps. It's hard to say how many were on him because we're not privy to the assignments, but I feel comfortable saying two were on him, and probably more.



The season is getting away from Matt Patricia. It wasn't that long ago that the Lions crushed Miami for their third win in four games. But then Detroit got taken apart by Seattle, shipped its No. 1 receiver to another NFC contender and then got hosed by Minnesota. Suddenly, the club is 3-5 and staring down the barrel of games against the first-place Bears (twice), first-place Rams and second-place Panthers over the next month. Now a team that has talked all year about becoming relevant again, is teetering on the edge of irrelevance -- quite a feat, given just how winnable the North is this year.