Allen Park — Picture this: It’s a Sunday in Dec. 2020. The Detroit Lions are getting ready to play the Chicago Bears, a divisional rival in flux with a not-so-good quarterback who still somehow manages to play well enough to be listed as the Lions’ owner on Wikipedia after most meetings between the two teams.
But in the first game without former head coach Matt Patricia, who was fired a week prior, the unthinkable happens: The Bears throw from near their own end zone with a three-point lead, Romeo Okwara strips Mitch Trubisky, and the Lions complete a 10-point comeback in the final 2:18, leaving Chicago with a win, as Adrian Peterson rushes in a 5-yard touchdown.
Life was good.
Your memories of this game — the Lions’ last road victory — might be a little fuzzy. That’s because it was more than 700 days ago. And as the Lions prepare for a trip to Chicago this weekend, they could desperately use another one of those results.
“It’d be big. It’d be really big,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “It would be important for our second (straight win to come on the road) … kind of get us on a little bit of a roll. And that’s the hope. … But, I feel like if we play our best, we’ll come out victorious.”
Detroit has played 13 straight road games without a win, the longest active streak in the NFL — by a substantial margin — and as head coach Dan Campbell continues chipping away at the early stages of building a winning culture, getting a victory on the road is the last bastion of ‘firsts’ left to tackle.
Campbell spoke on Wednesday about what it would take for that to happen this weekend.
“Well, I think composure, discipline and … when you go on the road, you know it’s going to be loud. There will be things that are going to happen, momentum will shift, and to not buckle under that pressure is big,” Campbell said.
It’s no secret the Lions have routinely buckled from the pressure under Campbell. One could argue that late-game collapses are what the talent on this team begets. On the road, where external factors are amplified, it’s not all that surprising that a team that’s won five times in 23 games under Campbell has struggled to win one outside the friendly confines of Ford Field.
Over their 13-game winless streak, they’ve had their fair share of close calls, including a tie at Pittsburgh, two late losses to Minnesota, and close losses at Cleveland and Atlanta without starting quarterback Jared Goff. The effort has been there, even if the execution has faltered, at times. Now, Campbell and his staff must find a way to bridge that gap.
“I think from a coaching standpoint, we’ve got to keep it — we’ve got to have enough ammo, but we’ve got to keep it simple enough to where we don’t put ourselves in a bind,” Campbell said.
“You put in too much stuff, for example (on) offense, man, it’s good. You’ve got all these things you want to attack, but yet, man, if it’s a lot of kills and shifts and motions to the extent where it takes away from you getting lined up and just doing your job, playing fast, playing efficient, that’s where you’ve got to be careful.
“So, I think that’s a lot of it, is just keeping your composure, and when the momentum shifts, you’ve got to get it back in a hurry.”
Thanks to the tie against Pittsburgh, Detroit’s seven-game road losing streak remains second among active streaks. The top prize belongs to Carolina, who has lost eight straight away from home. But while they’ve played winnable games over their 13-game winless streak, the reality is that they have been mostly terrible.
Detroit’s offense is averaging 15.6 points per game on the road over that span, while allowing nearly double that (28.5). Those stats would rank 29th and 32nd, respectively, this season, so it’s not hard to see why the Lions have had an issue staying in games.
Even though the Lions’ dismal defense has been the center of attention during Detroit’s early-season struggles, this season’s road games have actually painted a different narrative. The Lions are being outscored, 81-30, as the away team and have scored just six points in their last nine quarters of football on the road.
In fact, the Lions’ defense has yet to allow 30-plus points on the road this season — which isn’t that impressive league-wide, but given relative defensive performances, is actually a pretty noticeable improvement from the 30.6 points per game — and three games of 30-plus points — they’ve allowed at home.
While nobody would say it outright, after a 1-6 start, the Lions have been desperately looking for validation — that this whole thing is actually working; that Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn are the right men for their jobs; that winning is indeed close.
Well, good news, boys: You can find some more of the good stuff in Chicago this weekend.
“I don’t know (if I would say) validation, I just know I do feel like we’re going in the right direction,” Campbell said. “I know the wins are not there, though we just got one there. I like the improvement. I would like to be in a better place, certainly. I feel like we should have at least two more wins here, and that’s on me. But certainly, to get a win for a win’s sake, for winning, goes a long way.
“And we’ve got a chance this week to win on the road (for) the first time since I’ve been here, win back-to-back games, win another division game. So, for us, we’ve got a lot to play for, obviously.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi