CINCINNATI -- The Bengals had the worst offense in the league. They had been outscored 80-14 in their last nine quarters. Nobody's been worse at running the football, and nobody's been worse at stopping the run.

The Detroit Lions could not have hand-picked a better opponent to face in a win-or-go-home scenario. Then they lost, 26-17 on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. Now they're going home.

And for that, Jim Caldwell should go, too.

There are no excuses for this. The Lions were the better team, with their season on the line. And they played like garbage. That's squarely on Caldwell's shoulders.

"We struggled today," Caldwell said. "That's the fact of the matter. They did a better job controlling the line of scrimmage on us, they ran the ball well. You know, we had a couple sparks in there here and there, but we just were just not sharp one way shape or form. We had a few plays here and there, but they played better."

How is this possible? After four years, why are the Lions still struggling so much to be even mediocre? To even qualify for the playoffs, let alone actually do damage once they're there?

Listen, Caldwell has done a lot of good things in Detroit. More than many fans would like to admit. He is 35-28 at the helm, which means he's won more often than any other Lions coach in the Super Bowl era. He's had only one losing season in four years, something Detroit hadn't done since 1997-2000.

The Lions made the playoffs twice in his first three years, after missing them in 13 of the previous 14 years. Twice, they took the Packers to the final day of the season for the division title. Clearly, Caldwell has helped make them more competitive.

But four years into his term, he still hasn't won anything either. Not so much as a playoff game, let alone an actual title of any kind. And still looks no closer to doing it now than he did three years ago.

The Lions have been patient, retaining Caldwell through a couple rounds of calls for his head. They even offered him an extension last offseason, when many wanted him out. And I can't fault them for that either. But then they went out there in 2017, and were plagued by many of the very same issues.

They still can't run the football. Still haven't finished better than 28th on the ground, even though Caldwell talks about it as a priority every bloody year. Of course, the offensive line issues don't help either. But that's on him too.

He's had four years to fix it, and it has only gotten worse. Bob Quinn sank first- and third-round picks into repairing the left side, and $19 million annually to fixing the right side. It's hard to imagine a GM pouring more resources than Quinn did into a line the last two years. Yet their run blocking is the worst in the league, and their pass blocking has allowed the second-most sacks. Even though their quarterback has also evaded the most sacks.

"Those guys battled and played well," Matthew Stafford said Sunday.

Respectfully, Matthew, they did not.

Stafford has matured over the last couple years, another feather in Caldwell's cap. He hasn't touched 5,000 yards in a season since 2011, but he has been a top-five quarterback in overall production this year, while also being a top-10 quarterback in efficiency. Again, Caldwell deserves credit for that.

But Stafford will wrap up his ninth season next weekend, and do so without a playoff win. Without a division championship. After running Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson out of town without any hardware, Detroit is starting to risk the same with Stafford, who turns 30 next offseason.

He is their best player. So why were the Lions running the ball on first-and-15 again? Why were they running on second-and-18? Why were they running at all, let alone actually deploying an offensive game plan that seemed to hinge on the run against Cincinnati?

That made no sense, given the Lions' long-established problems running the football under Caldwell. And doing it down three offensive linemen seemed especially, uniquely absurd.

"We did what we thought we could do," Caldwell said.

What the Lions could do under Caldwell was once enough. For a team struggling to make the playoffs more than once a decade, he was a step up. But now it is time to make the next step -- to actually winning championships, instead of just competing for them. To actually advancing in the playoffs, instead of just hoping to make them.

After an embarrassing loss against one of the worst teams in the league, they appear no closer to doing any of it under Caldwell. And it's time for a change.