After its 23-10 Christmas Day loss at the Minnesota Vikings (8-8), the Detroit Lions’ season is effectively over. Sure, the Lions (8-8) will travel to Chicago (11-4) in Week 18 and could play spoiler to the Bears‘ hopes to either win the NFC North or to capture the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

But, in terms of making the playoffs, the Lions‘ playoff chances and dreams of a Super Bowl run ended with their loss at the Vikings.

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As the reality sank in that Detroit had been eliminated from playoff contention with its third straight loss, Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked in his postgame remarks if there was a bigger-picture item that he and the organization need to look at.

“Yeah, I’m going to be looking at a lot. I’m going to be looking at a lot of things, because I do not like being home for the playoffs and I know our guys don’t either. Again, whenever you lose, man, it takes a village. Everybody’s involved, including myself. I’m always going to look at myself first. I’m always going to wish I would have given (Jared) Goff more, given those players more.

“On a day like today, you come out, you lose, win, doesn’t matter, man. If you feel like you need to improve or can improve, you want to,” Campbell said.

Campbell was asked how difficult it will be for the Lions to refind their identity.

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“Well, we got one game to go. I expect everybody to be ready to go when we get back in in a couple of days. Be locked in and be ready when we get on the plane to go to Chicago. To be locked in one more time, that’s what I expect and then we’ll go from there.

“Brad (Holmes) and I’ll have a lot of decisions to make. A lot of things to look at, the whats, the whys, the how do we improve, because we need to improve,” Campbell said.

While injuries certainly played a large part in derailing this 2025 Lions season, Detroit sunk from 15-2 to its current 8-8 state with much of the same core back.

“Until I have time to really sit down and soak everything up, I don’t know if I can quite answer that. I know this, it doesn’t take much for things to get off balance. 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.

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“Every team’s different every year. Even if you have the core, which you believe in and why we’ve got them, it’s always a new team. You’ve got to find your own way. It’s disappointing, but it is what it is,” Campbell said.

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This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions ‘going to be looking at a lot of things’ after playoff hopes die