After a disheartening 45-10 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend in London, the Detroit Lions are a NFL-worst 1-7 and seemingly all out of answers. In the midst of this year's putrid start, Lions head coach Jim Caldwell's office seat has slowly but surely caught on fire. Grumbles from the fan base have turned to full-on calls for his job, and we can't help but agree with the vocal majority. Here are three reasons why the Lions need to pull the plug and end the Jim Caldwell era sooner rather than later:
3) Matthew Stafford's regression
Stafford has been forced to pass the ball a lot since the Lions have been losing for a large majority of every game they play in, which has inflated his passing yardage to 2,083 yards through eight games, but overall play has dropped off since last year. He's already thrown 11 interceptions - compared to just 12 all of last year - and his QBR dipped from 53.5 to 50.1. Stafford is in danger of turning into Detroit's version of Jay Cutler, and it's because his decision making has gotten worse under Caldwell.
2) Offensive coordinator change didn't help
Caldwell essentially already tried to blame this season's struggles on offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, who was fired by the team the Monday after they lost to the Minnesota Vikings. That's supposed to serve as some sort of motivator for this team, right?
Instead, the offense and entire team fell flat on their face against the Chiefs, proving this wasn't solely an offensive coordinator problem. Sure, Stafford and Lombardi didn't always see eye-to-eye and they'll need some time to adjust to a new play-caller, but it was clear this team quit on the field against Kansas City. That's not an offensive coordinator problem - that's a head coaching problem. Lombardi was just the fall guy.
1) Massive underachievement
Detroit came into this season off an 11-5 record in 2014 and what probably should've been a wild card win over the Dallas Cowboys, and they were expected to continue to be one of the NFC's best teams. In fact, some even thought of them as Super Bowl contenders. Instead, the Lions are the worst team in the league and have lost four of seven games by double digits - including two by 25 points or more. It's amazing how bad this team has gotten so quickly, and there's no one to blame but the coach.
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