'It's Exhausting': What Lions Are Saying Following Another Close Loss

The Detroit Lions roster are growing tired of losing close games.

The Detroit Lions are a football team that is unable to play complementary football. 

When a football team repeatedly makes errors and incurs costly penalties, being on the wrong end of the scoreboard is oftentimes the result after 60 minutes.

Despite a first half that saw the offense score 27 points, numerous mistakes resulted in the team not scoring a single point in the second half against the Miami Dolphins. 

The Lions currently sit with a record of 1-6, following a 31-27 defeat to the Miami Dolphins. 

Here is a sample of what the Lions said regarding the impact of being on a losing football team and not being able to win close games. 

Dan Campbell

On team's 1-6 record and inability to play complementary football: “My thought is as frustrating as it is, I know how close we are because we are still talking about one play. And the hard thing is to just keep doing your job and staying in the thick of the storm, and the easy thing is to go down below and get under the blanket, eat all the food and whatever. Guys who are going on the deck and just continue to do their part because they know the sun’s coming, those are the guys we’re looking for. So that’s how I choose to think of this. The only way to clean up everything is to go back to work, that’s just, that’s all I know. So, we go back to work because if we don’t, we have no chance of being in any of these games. So let’s get back into it. We had a chance to win that game, and once we get that chance, let’s see if we can handle the pressure better and not shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Jared Goff

On the mental strain of continually coming up short in close games: “Yeah, it’s hard, it’s really hard. It’s really hard. You know typically all these games are going to be one score, right? And the teams that have the good records are on the right side of that and the teams that don’t aren’t. And we have been on the wrong side of it a handful of times now. It’s hard, but you know at some point it’s going to flip if you keep doing things the right way. And that’s the only thing we can do, keep trying to do things the right way and keep putting our best foot forward and trusting everyone around us and doing our jobs to the best of our ability.”

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Taylor Decker

On how he describes what it feels like to continuously lose close games: “It’s exhausting, but there’s nothing I can do other than go back to work. There’s nothing this team can do other than go to practice Wednesday with a good attitude and try to get this thing right. When there are opportunities, we have to capitalize on them. There’s no other way to put it. It sucks, but like I said, there’s no alternative to how we’re approaching it.”

Will Harris 

On how the Lions will attack the rest of the season despite the record: “One, because it’s our job. This is what a lot of these guys signed up to do their whole life. And this isn’t a game to a lot of the guys in here. This is more than a game. Sure the game is fun. We play Sundays, we like to call it the players’ day. Sunday is the most fun day of the week, right? We get to come out here and compete, but at the same time this is a way of life for us, and for us to look at it any differently – I think every guy to a man in here is in here seeing it that way. This is a way of life for us. There is no other option to either take a step back or doubt yourself. There’s never a time for that as a competitor.”

Jeff Okudah

On his level of fatigue with hearing that the team is close to winning games every week: “Obviously, it’s tough to always be close. We eventually want to get over the hump. I’m optimistic always. We’re going to keep approaching the week the same way.”

Jamaal Williams 

On the difference between the offense in the first and second half today: “We’ve just got to stop inflicting penalties on ourselves, especially when we get in a grove. We’ve just got to keep it going and just try to get the domino effect of positive plays happening.”