After the Lions close loss the Kansas City Chiefs, nobody thought negative of the Detroit Lions, because they put up a great fight that proved to the NFL that they’re capable of playing anybody, no matter how tough the team is. Coming off of a helpful bye week to let star players come back from injury, the expectations stayed high for the Lions when they played the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football on the night of October 14th.

The battle between the Packers and Lions was a rough game to watch due to one thing, the horrible officiating. The refs were the ultimate game changers, favoring the Packers on multiple occasions and missing blatantly obvious calls that destroyed the game. The worst call of the game was at the end of the 4th quarter, when the Detroit Lions were leading 22-20 with just under 2 minutes left. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw an incomplete pass on 3rd down which would’ve stopped the clock and gave the Packers a chance to kick a leading field goal, but give the Lions plenty of time on offense to march up the field and win the game. Except that’s not what happened, after that play, a phantom hands to the face penalty was called on defensive lineman Trey Flowers, which the NFL later came out the next day and said was not the right call. This gave the Packers a fresh set of downs in which they killed all the time on the clock, putting them in field goal range and kicking the game winning field goal by Mason Crosby. Everyone from former head coaches, to fans, to NFL writers came out on social media in argument that the refs completely robbed the Lions from a win and that the officiating was some of the worst in NFL history of how awful it was. The Lions then dropped to 2-2-1 on the season, their next game was against the Minnesota Vikings back at Ford Field.

With fans dressed up as clown referees and booing every ref they saw, it was a rough day for the refs at Ford Field that day receiving constant hate the entire day. But when you talk about how the Lions played, the thoughts of being robbed of a win from the previous week may have continued to linger, as they were blown out by the Vikings by a score of 42-30, as they drop to 2-3-1 and for the first time this season drop to a losing record. The only highlight of the day was quarterback Matthew Stafford, who continues to be flawless under offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. Stafford threw for 364 yards and 4 touchdown passes, all 4 of them going to receiver Marvin Jones Jr. Stafford also broke the NFL record for fastest player in NFL history to throw for 40,000 passing yards that day. The defense played terrible against the Vikings and injuries were struck on both sides of the ball for the Lions, including star running back Kerryon Johnson, who has been placed on IR for the season.

With how quickly the Lions fell off the radar for being an elite team, people are really starting to question if they’re the real deal again after playing disastrous the past few weeks. If the Lions want any chance of getting back on their feet, then they must beat the below average New York Giants on Sunday in order to grab any momentum back.