Jim Caldwell Used a Parable to Describe How the Lions Approached the Bye Week

Jim Caldwell isn't carrying the Lions' back-to-back losses with him anymore, but are you still holding on to them?

The Lions are 3-3 and coming off their bye week, but their last two games were a pair of bad losses.

In Week 4 Detroit's comeback against the Panthers came up short and the team lost 27-24. Week 5 saw the Lions fall behind to the Saints early, and they trailed by as many as 35 in the third quarter. However, another comeback effort had the Lions within one possession and trailing New Orleans 45-38 with just under seven minutes left in the game. But an interception in Detroit's end zone by New Orleans sealed a 52-38 loss.

Coach Jim Caldwell has had a lot of time to dissect and evaluate the back-to-back losses with his team being off this past week, and in his mind, that's a good thing. Kind of. Maybe. Possibly. Well, it all depends.

It's better if you let Caldwell explain it. (Courtesy of Chris Burke of The Athletic):

Sometimes it's not a bad thing to stew on it awhile. But then you get to a point, too, that you've got to be able to put it behind you. The bye week gives you a chance, you can fester through your bye week -- it's time to get back to work now, you've got to put it behind you.

There's this old story about a group of traveling religious men that were over in a different country, they had taken a vow of celibacy, actually a vow where they should not touch a woman of any sort, at any point in time. They came to this river that was moving fairy fast, they were tall enough to walk through. There was a young lady there that was distressed, she had to get to the other side and couldn't get there because she couldn't swim and it was over her head. So, after much consternation, one of the religious men picked her up and carried her across the water and set her down. Then they're walking, about two or three miles out and the guys that were with him were upset with him. And they finally stopped and said, "Hey, you know what you did was absolutely wrong. You touched a woman, you weren't supposed to." And what he said was this, "Hey, I put her down about three miles ago. You guys are still carrying her."

So, sometimes, that's what losses can be like, as well. You can carry them a little bit too long into the bye week where we are right now, it's gotta be back behind us and looking forward to obviously playing a tough, tough football team that's playing really well.

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So, it seems like Caldwell is across the river and still walking, but he needs to make sure his team isn't still carrying the girl. Or the losses.

Worst case scenario, Matthew Stafford is stuck in the river and Golden Tate has to walk back to go save him.

Wherever the Lions are walking to and whatever they are carrying with them, they just need to make sure they are ready to play the Steelers Sunday night at home. If they're lucky, there will be a bridge at the next body of water they have to cross.