Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece from MLive.com reporter Kyle Meinke.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- When the Detroit Lions came this close to beating Kansas City, there was a feeling of legitimacy in the air.

Here was a team that went unbeaten in its first three games, then went toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and came within 20 seconds of taking down the reigning MVP.

“We’ll find out (what this means) here as we go through the season,” coach Matt Patricia said after the loss. “There are certainly some things in here to be really proud of, and as we take a look at it, as we get into the bye week, we’ll find out things we need to fix.

"That will be a key part of it. We have to fix those things as we go forward.”

Problem is, they haven't.

And they've won just one game since because of it.

The Lions’ latest defeat was a 31-24 setback on Sunday against the Oakland Raiders. It was their fourth loss in five weeks, leaving them buried in 10th place in the NFC with eight games to go. Just like that, this season has already slipped away. The playoffs are little more than a pipe dream now, a dramatic fall for a team that had such high hopes only a month ago.

And what’s so vexing about it is Detroit is losing these games the same way. Matthew Stafford is now the leading passer in the NFL -- nobody in the league is passing for more yards per game than him -- while his efficiency numbers rank among the top five. That guy is playing at a such a high level that he’d be a realistic candidate for MVP if the Lions didn’t suck so badly. But they do.

On Sunday, Stafford threw for 406 yards. That’s a two-year high. And it still didn’t matter, just like it didn’t matter against Minnesota, or Green Bay, or even his terrific game against the Chiefs. Because his defense just couldn’t get off the damn field.

And Detroit doesn’t seem to have a grasp for even the basics of how to fix this.

“If there’s one thing that I had to say that we need to improve on," defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni said after the Chiefs loss, "it would be the details and fundamentals.”

Ah, the fundamentals you say? OK, seems simple enough. Then they had a week off to fix them, and didn’t. Green Bay gashed Detroit for 170 yards rushing on Monday Night Football, and 447 yards overall, Detroit’s worst defensive game of the season to that point.

“It’s the techniques and fundamentals,” Patricia said after the game. Hey, that sounds familiar!

They had another week to fix those techniques and fundamentals. Then they were somehow worse yet against the Vikings, getting ripped for 504 more yards -- Minnesota’s best offensive output in a half-decade. And you’re just never going to believe what Detroit said the problem was.

“We just try to settle down and make sure that we can get better at the fundamentals,” Patricia said. "That’s really the biggest thing. We have to start with better fundamentals all the way across the board.”

The Lions did win their next game against the Giants, although they also allowed Daniel Jones to have the best game of his career. But, hey, a win is a win, and they held an opponent under 112 yards rushing for the first time this season. You have to start somewhere, right?

But a week later, the Lions were practically run out of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Oakland’s first three plays were runs. Josh Jacobs moved the chains twice and gained 28 yards overall. He plowed into the end zone for a touchdown on the drive, then added another before the end of the first half. He finished with 120 yards rushing, and the Raiders had 171 yards as a team, their second-best game of the year. They had 450 yards overall, their second-best game in more than a calendar year.

What’s so discouraging is everyone knew exactly what Oakland wanted to do. Detroit was among the league’s worst teams against the run, and Jacobs is having a fine rookie season for the Raiders. There was absolutely no mystery to what Oakland was going to do -- and then was able to do it anyway, ramming that football right down Detroit’s throat. And Detroit was helpless to stop it.

By the way, have I mentioned Oakland was playing without two starting offensive linemen? No? Oh, my bad. Anyway, yeah, they were down two-fifths of their offensive line -- and then they still left tire marks all over Detroit’s defense.

“It’s all a situation where the offense is doing things they want to do, and you can’t defend it when you want to defend it,” Patricia said. “It’s frustrating for everybody -- players and coaches.”

My, how far they have fallen. The Lions opened the season expecting to have one of the best defenses in the league. They had a top-10 defense after acquiring Snacks Harrison last year, after all, and were second in yards allowed per carry. Then they souped that thing up with guys like Trey Flowers, Mike Daniels and Justin Coleman this offseason. That was supposed to be the strength of this team, with a defensive-minded head coach getting all kinds of cash and draft investment to run this system.

But halfway through Year 2, Detroit still can’t stop a 3-4 team from doing whatever it pleases even when it knows what’s coming.

"This league is a copy cat league,” cornerback Darius Slay said. "They see we have a problem with that, they all do the same thing. Everybody in the world knows we play this, so they run this. They do it all the time.

"We ain’t seeing nothing new. Ain’t new plays designed up. It’s the same ones we have a problem with since the first week of the season. I don’t know, we might be putting the pieces of the puzzle in the wrong spots.”

Yeah, no kidding. The Lions have now allowed at least 430 yards in four of their last five games. Either they don’t know what’s wrong, and just keep repeating buzzwords like “fundamentals” to pass the time, or they do know what’s wrong and simply don’t know how to fix it. Either way, their failure to figure this out has already cost them their season. Unless, you know, they find a way to win seven of their last eight games. Which, you know, isn’t happening.

Matt Patricia was supposed to turn this team into a winner, and he was supposed to do it with defense. Now with yet another season officially on the brink, it appears we’ll have to wait until at least Year 3 to see either.

Welcome to Detroit Lions football. Waiting around and waiting around and waiting around some more. Since 1957.