Record: 7-9
Playoffs: Missed playoffs
Head coach: Jim Schwartz (fired)
Notable assistants: Scott Linehan (offensive coordinator, fired), Gunther Cunningham (defensive coordinator, demoted to senior coaching assistant)
Regular Season Overview
To sum the Lions’ season up: they simply didn’t win enough games to keep the coaching staff around. All evidence points to the story that Schwartz lost control of the team toward the end of the season, causing him and the majority of his staff to be let go and replaced with Jim Caldwell and his crew. Detroit got off to a strong start, winning six of their first nine games and taking control of the NFC North.
But they crumbled at the end, only winning one of their last seven games and missing the playoffs. Reggie Bush and Joique Bell provided for a strong one-two rushing combination, but Calvin Johnson, the best receiver in the game, missed some time at the end of the year. Quarterback Matthew Stafford also had the worst statistical year of his career as a starting quarterback with the Lions. For the second year in a row, Detroit failed to win a game in December, which ultimately led to their downfall in a year when the NFC North would have been easy to claim.
Biggest Win
Detroit’s Week 8 win over the Dallas Cowboys wasn’t close to their biggest margin of victory of the year (they only won by one point), but because of Johnson’s huge game, this one will go down in the record books.
Johnson came within just seven yards of tying the NFL record for receiving yards in a game (held by Flipper Anderson of the then-Los Angeles Rams) by catching 14 passes for 329 yards and a touchdown.
Despite Johnson’s huge performance, the game still came down to literally the final seconds, when Stafford led a drive down the field. With 12 seconds left, the Cowboys were convinced Stafford was going to spike the ball on the one-yard line to stop the clock. Instead, Stafford faked the spike and leaped over his offensive line to get the game-winning score. Stafford’s performance was completely over-shadowed by Johnson’s massive performance, but it’s still a game that will stick in Detroit fans’ minds for a long time.
Toughest Loss
Heading into Week 16, the Lions still remained in playoff contention despite their losing slide starting in Week 11. They were facing the New York Giants, one of the worst teams in the league last year. But they ended up leaving Ford Field eliminated from playoff contention after an overtime loss to the Giants.
This game was the fifth time in six games that the Lions blew a fourth quarter lead, almost sealing Schwartz’s fate. With 23 seconds left, Schwartz decided to play for overtime, running the clock out despite having two timeouts and starting on Detroit’s 25. New York had already been long eliminated from playoff contention, and was just playing for pride, so it decided to go for the first down on a fourth-and-seven in overtime. Eli Manning ended up converting, and his pass set up the game-winning kick for the Giants.
Offensive MVP: Calvin Johnson
In a perfect world where Peyton Manning didn’t exist, and the Lions didn’t implode in the second half of the season, Johnson could have made a strong case for MVP of the whole league. This wasn’t Johnson’s best year statistically speaking (he missed two games with injury), but he still had the third most receiving yards of his career, and had his highest yards per catch average of his career. Johnson at this point means more to the Lions than almost anyone else to their team besides Manning or Tom Brady. He had seven 100-yard games this season, and four multi-touchdown gams. Yeah, he’s pretty good.
Defensive MVP: DeAndre Levy
The Lions have some pretty big names on defense (Nick Fairley and Ndamukong Suh anyone?), but Levy was the unsung hero of this defense all season. Levy led all linebackers with six interceptions this season, and was second on the Lions in tackles with 119.
The sixth-year player wasn’t very active on the rush, but he was one of the better pass-defending linebackers in the league, deflecting 15 passes and even scoring a touchdown on one of his interceptions. Levy doesn’t have the same name power was Suh and Fairley, but he had a much better season than either of them.
Most Disappointing Player: Matthew Stafford
Stafford is still considered one of the 15 best quarterbacks in the league, but Schwartz and the rest of the offensive coaching staff had to have been expecting more out of Stafford than what they got. Stafford threw the sixth most interceptions in the league, and by the end of the year, the conversation centered around if the new coach for the Lions could “fix” Stafford. That’s never a good sign. In the fourth quarters of games, Stafford’s completion percentage dipped to 54.4 percent compared to 64.1 percent in the first quarter, and he only had nine fourth quarter touchdowns compared to six interceptions. Blame Schwartz all you want for the Lions blowing games, but Stafford was a big reason too.
Best Rookie: Ezekiel Ansah
Given that Ansah was Detroit’s first-round selection in 2013, they should hope that he turned out to be their best rookie, but he did even more than meet expectations. The defensive end led the team in sacks with eight, even with Suh and Fairley on the team. Ansah tacked on 32 total tackles as well as two tackles for a loss. Ansah is incredibly athletic and looks to be a building block of this Lions defense along with the two other aforementioned linemen.
Statistical Leaders
QB: Matthew Stafford- 58.5 percent completion percentage, 4,650 yards, 29 touchdowns, 19 interceptions
RB: Reggie Bush- 223 carries, 1,0006 yards, four touchdowns, 54 receptions, 506 receiving yards, three receiving touchdowns
WR: Calvin Johnson- 84 receptions, 1,492 yards, 12 touchdowns
TE: Brandon Pettigrew- 41 receptions, 416 yards, two touchdowns
Tackles: Stephen Tulloch- 135
Sacks: Ezekiel Ansah- 8
INTs: DeAndre Levy- 6