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The new-look Detroit Lions have been a force to be reckoned with, but this season, they are in what has recently become unfamiliar territory.
After making the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons, the Lions missed out on the playoffs after being one of the favorites to win it all in the preseason.
In 2023, they were this close to making the Super Bowl for the first time. Last season, they lost in their first playoff game as the No. 1 seed.
“I really think we have all the pieces, and that’s why this year hurt the way that it did, because you know we have this high elite level of talent,” star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson told Fox News Digital on Radio Row. “I really just think it was a football thing, and it was a lack of complimentary football in critical moments. I think different phases were letting the team down. That’s defense included, too. It sucks that you have to sit there and say it, but I think that’s kind of what happened. Because we have the pieces.”
“I think we just slipped up here and there. Details kind of slipped up, we had a lot of people injured, but I wouldn’t make that as an excuse because we did the same thing last year. Just need to clean up some stuff,” running back Jahmyr Gibbs added. “Everybody’s in the league for a reason. Every team’s good. Every team’s got players getting paid. So, I mean, anybody can beat anybody any given Sunday, Thursday, Monday, whatever it is. We just happened to get beat more than we’re used to. So it is what it is.”
Part of the reason the Lions did not go to that Super Bowl two years ago, many would argue, is Dan Campbell’s aggressiveness on fourth down. But don’t expect anyone on the Lions to ever disagree with their coach’s mentality.
“We love it,” Amon-Ra St. Brown said. “We’re rocking with it, we feel like we have a good offense, players everywhere that can go make plays on fourth down. We feel like we can get it on every fourth down. Dan’s instilled that in us since we’ve been there… and we feel like we can get it every time.”
Gibbs’ answer was much simpler.
“We want more points,” he said.
One thing that the Lions undoubtedly do, though, is lean on one another. Hutchinson and Gibbs partnered with Rocket Mortgage on Radio Row to spread the word on being a good neighbor, and likened home living to the locker room.
“Be dependable. Always depend on that one person that’s gonna be, then no matter what, to help you. Like, you need your packages picked up. They gonna help you,” Gibbs said.
“It’s really what Rocket is all about,” added Hutchinson. “And their culture, they preach being a good neighbor and being kind and spreading kindness. The biggest thing is dependability when I think of teammates and neighbors. “I think the severity of the situation changes in-game, a little bit higher pressure, but it’s a similar flair of dependability.”
When asked if anything is missing to get over the hump, Penei Sewell echoed Hutchinson’s teammates about having the right pieces.
“Nothing comes to mind,” Sewell admitted.
“But I’ll tell you what,” Hutchinson added, “once we all come back for OTAs, we all know what’s at stake. We all know how much has been put into this team and the talent that we have. So it’s going to be continuing to sharpen iron, compete in practice, compete in games, and really become the best version of ourselves.”
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