The Detroit Lions and their fans have been on an emotional roller coaster over the past few days. Actually, the better amusement park ride for this metaphor might be a drop tower—it would more accurately convey how jarring and abrupt the changes in mood have been with this week's news. Lions great Lem Barney was erroneously reported to be dead for a few hours on Saturday, and in a broader context that's somehow more of a below-the-fold item.
The ride began Wednesday when former Lions center Frank Ragnow, who retired this past summer, declared he was returning to football. The team's announcement of the news, featuring a totally sick archive photo of Ragnow running out of the tunnel, provided an instant shot of energy. The Lions' 29-year-old Pro Bowl center would be coming back to protect Jared Goff and improve an already-fierce run game, in the final stretch of the regular season. It wasn't Thanksgiving yet, but already this felt like a victory.
Feelings can be deceiving, though. The Lions still had a game to play Thursday, and that one ended in a more literal defeat. Not even a Jack White halftime show, with a brief appearance by Eminem, could will Dan Campbell's team to victory; Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love threw four touchdown passes as his squad won, 31-24. The loss dropped the Lions to 7-5 and third in the NFC North. Star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown sprained his ankle early in the game, and might miss a week or two. The Lions have lost three of their last five, including one to the Eagles, whose offense is in its own sort of freefall. One of those two wins required a late-game comeback against the deeply pathetic New York Giants. Realistic goals for the 2025 Lions have been downgraded from "division title repeat" to "just get into the playoffs somehow."
Life comes at you fast. Within one calendar year you can look like a Super Bowl contender, and then a team trying to scrabble out of the "In The Hunt" graphic. It's not easy to have your fourth-down magic disappear, then watch your old offensive coordinator take off his shirt to earn free hot dogs for another city. Try not to let the bad thoughts creep in, but they might anyway: What if that was it? What if the best years of this team have already happened?
Don't think like that! Frank Ragnow will fix this, or part of it anyway. About that:
The Lions announced on Saturday that Ragnow had a Grade 3 hamstring strain that would keep him out for the rest of the season, “and for that reason, Frank will not be rejoining the Lions.”
For those unfamiliar, grades of hamstring strains are like degrees of burns: Third is the bad one. A Grade 3 hamstring strain can include a complete rupture and require surgery. Ragnow couldn't pass his physical, so he'll be staying home.
Help is not on the way, and the Lions' remaining schedule is not easy. In order: home vs. the Cowboys, away vs. the Rams, home vs. the Steelers, away vs. the Vikings (four days later), away vs. the Bears. Three of those teams currently lead their respective divisions, one is weirdly feisty, and the last is the Vikings. Like any coach who knows his cliches, Campbell is trying to take it one game at a time.
"Look, we dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole," the Lions coach said after Thursday's loss, via The Athletic. “That’s the bottom line—we are in a little bit of a hole. That’s just what it is. There’s nothing more than that. All we gotta do is worry about cleaning up this and then getting to the next game and finding a way to win the next one in front of us. … That’s what the focus will be.”
As if that—all of it—wasn't bad enough for the Lions, Matt Patricia, whose coaching tenure in Detroit preceded Campbell's and was exceptionally putrid, helped Ohio State and Ryan Day finally beat Michigan for the first time since 2019. Man, Lem Barney didn't not die for this.
