This is an opinion piece from MLive's Kyle Meinke.

CHICAGO -- The Detroit Lions have lost three straight, which is bad enough. But they don't seem to know why, or how to fix it. And that's much worse.



They don't seem to have any answers.



Which might help explain why a team that thought it was going to contend for an NFC North title finds itself in the NFC North cellar after a 17-14 loss on Sunday against the Bears.



Yes, those Bears.



The ones who hadn't won a game all season. Hadn't won a game at all since Dec. 27. Hadn't won a home game since last Oct. 4. You could make a case Chicago (1-3) was the worst team in the NFL -- and they were playing without their starting quarterback, top two running backs and a bunch of cats from the defensive front seven.

And the Bears not only beat Detroit (1-3), they never even trailed.



Something's obviously wrong with the Lions. But they don't seem to know what.



"I honestly don't know," tight end Eric Ebron said. "We hang out all the time. We do everything. We've got a great relationship between everybody on offense. We've got tons of weapons. We just got to execute."





The offense's execution was particularly bad against Chicago, managing only a field goal in the first half and no touchdowns. They needed more than 12 minutes to achieve a first down, and almost another quarter to get their second. There was a moment midway through the second quarter when Detroit had more penalty yardage (36) than actual yardage (25).

Against a team that was down two huge pieces in the pass rush and a starting corner.

This isn't new, either. The Lions fell behind 31-3 before halftime against Green Bay last week. And the week before that, they managed only one first-half touchdown and 15 points overall in a loss against the Titans.

Chicago and Tennessee are a combined 0-6 when they don't play the Lions. They're 2-0 when they play the Lions, and both handled Detroit's offense without much of a problem.



Detroit clearly has issues, especially early in games, but nobody can figure out why.



"I don't know," receiver Golden Tate said.



Is it maybe the preparation?



"Preparation is great," Ebron said. "We ball out every week. Everybody puts 100 percent effort in throughout the whole week, and we get to Sunday, and ... I have no idea why. It's a bad drought we have. We've got to get ourselves out of it."



Maybe it's the coaching?



"No," Marvin Jones said flatly.



But even Jones acknowledged the Lions have too many good players to be losing games like this -- let alone three of them in a row.



"What we're capable of doing, and the team that we have, there's no reason for us to be this way," he said. "Obviously this is the NFL, and stuff happens in the NFL, and we just need to do some soul-searching. Everybody. And we need to make plays.



"I just think with the team that we have, it shouldn't be this way. With the playmakers we have, we just have to find a way."



Jones said something similar last week, about this being one of the most talented teams he's ever been on. Yet the Lions are 1-3 and in last place a month into the season.



If they're that talented, but underperforming by this much -- and they can't figure out why -- that falls on coaching. If they look this unprepared to start games, even against terrible opponents, that's on coaching.



No players would go there, as you would expect. That's how these things always go, regardless of the coach, and that's especially true when a coach is as beloved as Jim Caldwell is in that locker room. But something, clearly, is not right.



Obviously having DeAndre Levy and Ezekiel Ansah would help matters, though in Sunday's game, the defense wasn't even the issue. It was the disappearance of the offense. It was more ill-timed penalties, and more drops, and more missed assignments. More of the same old crap. Over and over again.





Players deserve blame for that, to be sure. But when it happens every week, and the same mistakes get repeated, and nobody can figure out what to do about it, that speaks to something much deeper than just having a bad game. This is a bad team, with bad coaching.



There's no getting around that anymore. Not after a game like this, against a team like that.