ARLINGTON, Texas _ They blamed penalties and turnovers and insisted most of their wounds were self-inflicted, trying mightily to find some sliver of hope in what was in fact a very revealing game.
Sure, the Detroit Lions committed a costly rash of penalties in the third quarter. And, yes, Matthew Stafford's two second-half turnovers were stakes in their collective heart.
But the truth of the matter is the Lions confirmed what most everyone thought heading into Monday night's showdown with the Dallas Cowboys: Playoff-bound or not, this team has no place among the NFL's elite.
After trading body blows in the first half and briefly taking a 21-14 lead, the Lions got hit smack dab in the kisser and crumpled to the ground.
Their defense, playing above its talent level all year, allowed an embarrassing 7.2 yards per play. Their offense inexplicably went away from the only thing it had going for it all night, Zach Zenner.
And when the Cowboys unleashed Dez Bryant, Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott _ the three best players on the field _ the Lions found themselves doubled up 42-21 in defeat.
"I think the score in itself that with the penalties and the turnovers, it was probably a little bit more of a lopsided game than it would have been," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "And I think a lot of that was self-inflicted. But that's not taking anything away from (them). This is a really good football team now. I mean, their quarterback play is outstanding, Dez Bryant's a talent and they have one of the best running backs, obviously, in the league at this point, if not the best. So let's not kid ourselves. This is a good football team we played. We just didn't play well enough to hang in there with them."
While some players talked longingly in the locker room about a possible playoff rematch _ ignore for a minute that the Lions still need to qualify for the postseason _ there's no reason to believe things would be different if the two teams met again.
The Cowboys, as their 13-2 record suggests, are the class of the NFC with playmakers across the board on offense and a couple good young pass rushers who make life tough on opposing quarterbacks.
But they're not a super power.
Neither are the Green Bay Packers or New York Giants, the next two best teams on the Lions' schedule who also happened to have had their way with Caldwell and Co. this year.
The Lions, with a glaring lack of playmakers on both sides of the ball, failed to score a touchdown in last week's loss to the defensive-minded Giants, a team locked into a wild-card spot in the NFC. And while the scorebook shows a tight 34-27 loss to the Packers in September, the game was nothing of the sort.
The Packers scored 31 of the first 34 points that day and coasted to victory behind big games from Aaron Rodgers (four touchdowns) and Eddie Lacy (103 yards rushing)
Green Bay comes into Ford Field on Sunday night for what amounts to an NFC North title game sans Lacy but with Rodgers as red hot as anyone in the league. The Packers have won five straight and are brimming with confidence since their quarterback declared five weeks ago that he thought they could run the table.
Asked what gives him confidence his team can win in what's likely a lose-and-stay-home scenario, Caldwell cited his team's fight and resilience and said, "We play well at home."
"We know what we are," tight end Eric Ebron said, answering the question with more bravado than his coach. "We let the opportunity when we went to Green Bay last time slip away from us. We obviously know we can put up points, so we're going to try to do our best and hopefully we don't fall short like this game."
The Lions are just 1-5 this year against teams that currently have winning records _ they lost to the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans, along with the Cowboys, Giants and Packers, and beat Washington _ so it's up for debate what exactly they are.
On Monday, they looked outclassed and overmatched against the best team in the NFC, like a team that doesn't belong in the playoffs and would be one-and-done if they make it.
Ebron insisted that isn't the case, and five days from now we'll find out for sure.
"We're a good team," Ebron said. "We're a damn good team. We just got to finish games. That's what we're known to do, we just (didn't) finish this one."
