Opinion: The Detroit Lions are hopeless after dropping sixth consecutive game

Jeff Seidel | Detroit Free Press

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MINNEAPOLIS — Please make this stop.

The NFL should just put the Detroit Lions out of their misery and not make them play any more games, before another one of the players gets injured. That would be the humane thing to do.

Because this season has gone from frustrating, to disappointing, to ugly, and it reached cover-your-face embarrassing Sunday afternoon, as the Minnesota Vikings slapped the Lions around, 20-7.

“Go Vikings, run up the score!” the crowd sang at US Bank Stadium after every score.

That's what they did. The Vikings scored and sang, and scored and sang, and scored and sang.

And that was just the first half.

The Lions have now lost six straight games, including nine of their past 10. And if it’s hard to get worse during such a miserable streak, they have found a way to do it anyway. This time, there was no fool's gold — they didn’t lead in this game, as they had in previous matchups.

They didn’t keep it close at the end, as they have often this season.

Nope. This was over at halftime.

Most alarming, the defense was abysmal again. At halftime, the Vikings had 252 yards of offense and 18 first downs.

Look. The Lions weren’t going to win this game, with all of their injuries on offense. It feels as if the Lions are on their 11th string quarterback, if you count all the guys they have tried out.

Running back Kerryon Johnson has been on injured reserve since October. T.J. Hockenson is done for the season.

But there was running back Bo Scarbrough, who was playing his guts out, and then wouldn’t you know it, he started grabbing his side. Out with injury.

So there is only one thing you can take from this game: How did the defense do?

Every time that defense takes the field, it offers a view of the group that general manager Bob Quinn has put together. And once again, it left serious concerns.

When the Lions started this game, they were missing only Da'Shawn Hand. That is, unless you count safety Quandre Diggs, whom they traded in October. Because you know, this team has an embarrassment of riches on defense and can do those kinds of things, like trying to accumulate draft picks.

But then Lions linebacker Jarrad Davis and defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson went out with injuries. And I was thinking: Why can’t they go to a running clock, just so nobody else gets hurt?

After Davis was injured, he went to the sideline and started punching a table out of frustration. And when you get past another inevitable Lions loss, that was the lasting image. It showed how his desire. To me, that moment said everything about this team.

I have no faith in this front office. I have no faith in coach Matt Patricia.

But you can’t fault the effort of these players. They keep fighting and playing.

After the Vikings took a 17-0 halftime lead, the defense got a couple of stops in the third quarter and slowed down Minnesota, which felt like a momentous accomplishment. But it felt more like the Vikings went conservative, not that the Lions were playing so much better.

Even so, the players haven’t quit on Patricia. They even scored a late, meaningless touchdown to avoid the shutout.

So there’s that.

If the Lions bring back Patricia — and I see few reasons why they should — that would be the only thing he has accomplished this season.

It’s kinda sad, when you think about it. It’s not exactly something you put on your résumé: “Hey, we sucked, but at least we kept trying.”

Because the truth is: They kept getting worse.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/.