The Detroit Lions had an opportunity to go into the bye week on a high note after getting thrashed by the Seattle Seahawks’ offense last week. The New England Patriots aren’t a good team, and they were starting their third-string quarterback—a fourth-round rookie who was making his NFL starting debut.
Instead of making a statement and potentially taking some positive momentum into the bye, just about everything went wrong for the Lions in Foxborough. Detroit shook up the roster in the secondary, only for just about every defensive back to get injured—leaving the Lions without the help of Amani Oruwariye and JuJu Hughes, two former starters who were healthy inactives in this game.