When it's this bad, and getting worse, you can point to just about any moment and frame it as a fireable offense. For most Lions fans, it happens once or twice every week, at least.
But here was another Thursday, in the fourth quarter of what could be — though I do have my doubts it actually will be — Matt Patricia's final game as the Lions' head coach.
Detroit's annual Thanksgiving Day game was slipping out of reach again, the way far too many games have for Patricia's teams over the last three seasons. And facing fourth-and-1 from their own 34-yard line with barely 10 minutes to play, the Lions — already doubled up by the 3-7 Houston Texans on the scoreboard — had no choice but to go for it.
The call was for a quick handoff to fullback Jason Cabinda, who was met in the backfield by Texans cornerback John Reid. And though Cabinda's legs kept driving, the play was dead on arrival, telegraphed before the snap — a fullback dive? — and stopped for no gain. A few Lions players half-heartedly motioned as if it was enough to extend the drive, but in an empty Ford Field — a setting that allowed a national-TV audience to listen in on the laugh track that is the Lions on Thursday — you could actually hear one of the Texans' defenders yell, "Get off the field!"
And so they did, the offense glumly marching to the sidelines, well aware of what would happen next. Houston's first play from scrimmage was a flea-flicker — Dagger Time," remember? — and the Texans' Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson found Will Fuller streaking down the sideline for an easy pitch-and-catch touchdown.
Game over. Season over. And up in the owners' suite, where Sheila Ford Hamp sat — her mother, Martha Firestone Ford, was also in attendance Thursday — there can be no doubt now. No equivocating about what happens next, perhaps as soon as this weekend, though the harsh reality of a pandemic may play a role in the timing of any such decisions.
It's past time to admit the franchise's staggered shift toward this so-called Patriot Way has reached a stultifying conclusion: It hasn't worked, and it won't, no matter how hard general manager Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia have tried to reshape this franchise to match their own vision.
Because what we've seen on the field over the last few years was summed up in that one fateful play among many Thursday: Lots of churning, yes, but no progress and no hope.
