4 winners, 6 losers from the Lions’ loss to the Vikings

Thus ends the Detroit Lions’ 2025 campaign. The dream was dying after a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week, but it is officially dead following the Christmas Day loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Detroit has fallen to 8-8 on the season, an embarrassing and disappointing fall from their 15-2 season the year prior.

The Lions still have one game left to play, but it matters little besides pride for a prideless team. Officially, there are winners and losers from this game, but as a whole, the entire Lions organization is a loser this week and this year.

Loser: Dan Campbell, HC

The captain goes down with the ship. In what has been a season to forget for the Lions, Campbell must shoulder the brunt of the blame. The offense had seen a slight resurgence when he took over play calling duties from John Morton, but any positivity went out the window on Christmas Day.

From top to bottom, the offense was dreadful. Jared Goff had an awful performance (more on that later), but the recurring theme of the day was incompetence. The passing game was incompetent. The run game was incompetent. The decision-making was incompetent. Brian Flores outright dominated this game and it made Campbell look like a high school coach coasting on bravado. One of the major failures this season comes down to the decision to hire Morton as offensive coordinator. Not only did he fail in his coordinating duties, but it forced Campbell to take over a role he did not want, nor is he cut out for.

Next week’s game against the Chicago Bears will be telling. Do the players show any fight, or has everyone given up on the 2025 campaign? Part of me wants the Lions to sit important players like Penei Sewell or Amon-Ra St. Brown—why risk them in a meaningless game?—but I equally know that Campbell is not the type of coach to wave a white flag. Normally that die-hard attitude is a positive, but it could be a negative next week.

Loser: Jared Goff, QB

I fully understand why Goff struggled against the Vikings, but understanding is not excusing. Goff was under fire all game—per PFF, the Vikings recorded 20 pressures on just 34 dropbacks. However, Goff completely collapsed when the team needed him most. He committed two brutal and uncompetitive interceptions, while also getting dinged for three lost fumbles, though not entirely his fault. Goff’s longest completion was 28 yards, highlighting both his inability to push the ball downfield and the lack of time for deeper routes to develop.

Regardless, those are five turnovers that came at the hands of Goff and fundamentally changed the outcome of the game. The Vikings had 161 yards of offense—ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE—and still managed to score 23 points. The Lions were in a perfect situation entering this game, with Minnesota having to lean on undrafted rookie Max Brosmer at quarterback—the goal was to force him to push the ball downfield. Instead, the Vikings were gifted easy field position time after time.

There was a lot more at fault than just Goff, but that does not justify him faltering like this.

Loser: Kingsley Eguakun, C

It seems fitting that the player praised by Campbell for his play last week followed it up with a horrible outing. For as bad as Goff was on Christmas, I would argue that Eguakun was the worst player on the field. Looking at specific plays, three stand out for negative reasons. Eguakun was largely responsible for two of Goff’s fumbles due to bad snaps. He also had a crucial false start on fourth down that killed a drive. Looking more broadly, Eguakun provided no positives as a blocker. He allowed multiple interior pressures and hurries on the day, playing into one of Goff’s greatest weaknesses as a quarterback. In run blocking, the interior generated no push for either running back.

Eguakun had a chance, albeit a slim one, to give the Lions consideration for him as a starting center going forward. He answered that question definitively: a resounding no.

The rest of the offensive line was appalling too, not just Eguakun. Sadly, this has become the norm for the Lions. A former strength is now a glaring weakness.

Loser: Jahmyr Gibbs, RB

If Gibbs was not the prolific running back we know he is, I think he would have been benched. The obvious talking point is his fumble, just one of the numerous calamitous plays from the offense. Normally a steady hand, Gibbs has now fumbled in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, though last week’s fumble was fortunately recovered by Gibbs himself.

The real concerning trend is his rushing production, or lack thereof. Since Week 11, Gibbs has 450 rushing yards on 96 attempts, a 4.7 yard per attempt average—good, right? However, 219 of those yards came in one game against the New York Giants (219 yards on 15 carries). Excluding the massive outlier, Gibbs has averaged 2.9 yards per attempt. This illustrates why Gibbs can be so frustrating: it is feast or famine. He has the home run potential, sure, but it feels like his plays either go for 20 yards or nothing. The blocking is doing him no favors, but I am extremely discouraged from Gibbs’ performance over the last two months. And while his receiving prowess has been elevated in recent weeks, he only had two catches for 23 yards against the Vikings.

Winner: Kelvin Sheppard, DC

It’s difficult to categorize Sheppard’s defensive game plan as a winner given the numerous injuries to the Vikings offense, but there is no question that they got the job done—at the end of the day, they executed, regardless of the opponent.

The highlight for the defense was the relentless pressure. The Lions recorded six sacks of Brosmer and made life difficult for him. Detroit certainly benefitted from an undrafted rookie starting behind a makeshift offensive line, but I nonetheless think Sheppard was on point with his defensive play calling. The blitzes were effective and aside from the one 65-yard carry by Jordan Addison, the run defense had an excellent runaround (Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler combined 77 yards on 25 carries, an average of 3.1 yards per attempt). Additionally, the Lions have now held Justin Jefferson to 77 receiving yards across two games this season—the quarterbacking in Minnesota is undoubtedly partially responsible for that, but credit to the Lions for not making light of a favorable situation.

Despite the good field position granted by the Lions’ offensive woes, the defense held the Vikings to three field goals and two touchdowns. Of the two touchdowns, the Addison run was almost solely the fault of backup Jalen Mills (in for an injured Thomas Harper), while the second came on a drive starting at the Lions 16-yard line. This was certainly a much-needed turnaround for the defense. Unfortunately, it came in a game where the offense utterly collapsed—another week of non-complimentary football.

Winner: Aidan Hutchinson and Al-Quadin Muhammad, DEs

Call him a backup lineman merchant, whatever. The fact remains: Hutchinson is by far the Lions’ most impactful player on defense. The Lions needed to bring pressure to disrupt Brosmer, and, unlike postal workers, Hutchinson was more than happy to deliver on Christmas. Better yet, I think this was a good rebound for Hutchinson in run defense. Over the last month or so, he has struggled with containing the run, perhaps due to an increased dependency of his pass rushing prowess. This was a game in which he was not only dominant as a pass rusher, but also disciplined as a run defender.

As for Muhammad, I am beating a dead horse here, but the difference between him and every other non-Hutchinson pass rusher is staggering. He is quick, powerful, and best of all, precise—when I watch him rush the quarterback, rarely do I see him take an inefficient angle. He is by far the second-best pocket collapser on the team, which makes it even further frustrating that he is playing so little (just 17 snaps against the Vikings). When the Lions fall behind, it allows teams to run the ball, forcing Muhammad off the field. His run defense is a weakness, so the solution is not as simple as playing him on every down. The Lions simply have not set themselves up for a sustained pass rush due to these deficits.

Losers: Tight ends

I’m going to clump Shane Zylstra, Anthony Firkser, and Giovanni Ricci all together for one simple reason: they were a negative value on the field. Last week, Firsker had a decent four-catch, 40-yard output as a receiver, but that was essentially the extent of his impact. Against the Vikings this week, no tight end caught a pass. However, my expectations for the tight ends is low. A catch here and there is decent, but at this stage, what I truly value (and likely the Lions too) is blocking. You are not going to replace Sam LaPorta’s receiving ability, but you at least want your backups to block well. Unfortunately for Detroit, the tight ends struggled in pass blocking (Ricci), run blocking (Firsker), or both (Zylstra).

Going into next season, the Lions badly need tight end depth. LaPorta is an obvious star and Brock Wright is a well-rounded player, but the Lions could use a capable blocker to round out the group.

Winner: Isaac TeSlaa, WR

TeSlaa added another acrobatic touchdown—to be expected at this point—and he has become a legitimate top-tier red zone threat early in his career. Better yet, he is getting more involved in the offense outside of the red zone. He had catches of 28 and 17 yards in this game in which demonstrated some speed and yards-after-catch ability. TeSlaa was technically the target on one of Goff’s interceptions, but it was more of an errant heave from the quarterback than a misplay by the rookie.

While I had hoped for a greater receiving role for TeSlaa as a rookie (just 15 catches for 221 yards so far), he is playing well when called upon. My hope for 2026 is that he can be a bigger contributor out of the WR3 role.

Losers: Detroit Lions fans

After a 15-2 season, most fans realized a repeat would be difficult, but the expectation was that the Lions would not only be a playoff team, but a Super Bowl challenger. Instead, neither of those manifested in 2025 as the Lions failed to make the playoffs in frustrating and disappointing fashion.

The fans do not deserve a season like this. This type of season from this caliber of roster is beyond unacceptable and not only dampens the mood for the year, but the future as well. Stagnation would have been understandable. Success was anticipated. Making the playoffs was the bare minimum for the team and they still failed in that regard. The Lions have some serious questions to answer this offseason, questions that catchphrases embroidered on hoodies will not answer. This is not the time for the organization to preach faith or patience. This is a competitive window that is quickly closing and the Lions need to prove that they are capable of righting the ship. The Lions do not deserve your unwavering support—they need to earn it back.