Detroit Lions flop in Minnesota: Dave Birkett, Jeff Seidel analysis
Dave Birkett, Jeff Seidel talk Detroit Lions flop at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025.
MINNEAPOLIS — Let’s start at the top.
That’s where the blame begins.
Lions executive vice president and general manager Brad Holmes is on the clock to fix this mess after the Minnesota Vikings spanked the Lions, 23-10, on Thursday, Dec. 25, knocking the Lions out of the playoffs.
For the Lions, it’s the end of a staggering, stunning collapse. This team just went from 15-2 and a No. 1 seed in 2024 to losing three straight games with the playoffs on the line in 2025. From building up a roster with incredible playmakers and a legit shot at getting to the Super Bowl to teetering dangerously close to a losing record — the Lions (8-8) will fall below .500 at season’s end for the first time since 2021 if they end the season with a loss at Chicago, which seems highly likely.
Even if it’s stunning.
While there might be reasons for the Lions collapse — it starts with a whole bunch of injuries — there shouldn’t be excuses. There should only be introspection, harsh evaluation and deep questioning of every aspect of this team and this organization.
And that starts with Holmes and coach Dan Campbell.
“Brad and I will have a lot of decisions to make, a lot of things to look at,” Campbell said on Christmas night. “The whats, the whys, the how do we improve? Because we need to improve.”
This season, obviously, this team took a huge step backward.
And that’s on Holmes and Campbell.
Holmes has learned that it’s harder to keep a team at the elite level than building it up. Should Holmes be in danger of being fired? Get real — heck no. But he should take a hard, fresh look at the problems.
“It doesn’t take much for things to get off balance,” Campbell said. “It’s really not as much as you would think. Sometimes it can be one thing. Here, it could be one player, it could be one coach. It could be — you just never know. Or the placement of somebody, maybe he needs to be playing here, or maybe he needs to be doing this. Every team is different every year, man, and even if you have the core which you believe in.”
Does this team have a core that can win?
Obviously — they proved that the last two years.
I firmly believe the Lions have the right culture, and they have all kinds of playmakers. But the Lions have lost three straight games — during the crunch time of the season — because their strengths have become weakness.
One of those strengths: The Lions secondary has gone from having a pair of stud safeties, who caused turnovers, created havoc and made game-changing plays, to a bunch of replacement parts.
Their other big strength has become a liability: Their offensive line is a shell of itself.
The original problem stemmed from center Frank Ragnow’s retirement.
Then came a cascade of injuries that all piled together against the Vikings. When you have the third or fourth replacement at center, when Taylor Decker is unavailable at left tackle and Penei Sewell is playing right tackle on a bum leg — it’s like the foundation has been ripped out of this organization.
“Can’t turn the ball over six times and win in this league,” Campbell said.
Why did the Lions have six turnovers? Because the Lions couldn’t run the ball, and so quarterback Jared Goff was under incredible pressure, getting hammered all day. He didn’t have time to step up in the pocket, and nothing was working, so he had to force the ball. Or else the protection was so bad, he got sandwiched and the ball squirted out.
“I do not like being home for the playoffs, and I know our guys don’t either,” Campbell said. “Whenever you lose, man, it takes a village. Everybody’s involved, including myself, you know. So I’m always going to look at myself first. I’m always going to wish I would have given Goff more, given those players more.”
So let’s talk about Campbell. I think he’s a tremendous coach, but nothing worked for him on this day.
He wanted to see a complete game — they looked frazzled.
He wanted to run the ball — they couldn’t.
He wanted to see progress — they got regression.
But it’s hard to call plays when you can’t run the ball. When you can’t protect the quarterback. When nobody can hold onto the ball.
First things first, Campbell, yes, must take a good long look at himself and figure out if he can continue to call plays. In a short week, was he more focused on installing a game plan than on having the pulse of his team?
Because this team looked sloppy and unprepared.
And Campbell’s plan simply didn’t work.
The Lions’ highlight of this game was a 19-play, 80-yard drive that consumed more than 10 minutes of the second quarter.
But even that was a mirage. It was not a methodical drive. It was three long passes that wiped out third-and-longs.
“We had some good third-down conversions,” Goff said.
After halftime, the Lions didn’t do a good enough job of adjusting to the Vikings’ adjustments.
“They came out in the second half and adjusted pretty well, and had some different stuff for us,” Goff said. “We didn’t do a good enough job on our side of adjusting to those different things that we’re doing.”
Is that on Campbell?
Or the players?
I’m guessing both. There’s plenty of blame to go around. Plenty to fix. Plenty to change.
“They did a good job on defense,” Goff said. “They had a good plan, and exploited some things on us. Were able to get after us, adding an extra rusher a lot of times. Whenever that happens, it’s a free rusher, I’m hot. And they did a good job with that. We had a plan that we thought would attack that, and it didn’t work.”
A plan that didn’t work. Maybe that sums up this season.
Are these problems fixable?
Yes. And they should start with fixing the offensive line.
Make it the strength of the team again, and suddenly the Lions will be able to run the ball again. Suddenly, Goff will have time to throw again. And that makes a lot of problems go away.
“I’m gonna be looking at a lot of things,” Campbell said.
On thin ice for so long this season, the Lions finally hit the breaking point on Christmas.
And the season shattered all over U.S. Bank Stadium.
“It sucks,” Goff said. “We’ll reflect on the whole season after next week. But yeah, it sucks.”
And that’s one thing we can all agree on.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff.