Detroit Lions' Loss at Lambeau an Optimism-Shatterer

There's no good news this week.

As Lions head coach Jim Schwartz said, "You'll have a hard time finding the silver lining in this one."

Wait, check that. The only good news is that the Lions didn't play the New England Patriots this week. Apparently shutouts come in much more humiliating packages.

Still, that's little consolation in a game where the Lions were shut out for the first time since 2001, and against an average defense.

For every positive you can think of, there's an accompanying negative.

The Lions managed five sacks and an interception on Aaron Rodgers...but he still went 29/37 for 358 yards and two touchdowns.

The Lions avoiding allowing any special teams touchdowns...except for the opening kickoff that was taken to the house and called back by a holding penalty.

The Lions were able to hold Ryan Grant under 100 yards rushing...but he still had more than the combined rushing total of the entire Lions team.

The Lions forced four fumbles...but only recovered two, and capitalized on zero.

See, there's no good thing you can point to in this game that doesn't have an ugly shadow cast over it. But that's the nature of a shutout.

I've made it my mission over the first five games to point out the good things.

Even in the losses, there have been strides taken. The offensive line stepped up, or Matthew Stafford made strides forward, or a certain player (Louis Delmas or DeAndre Levy, for instance) performed well.

None of that happened here. This was a shellacking at the hands of an above-average (but not great) football team that played a sloppy game.

What happens in two weeks will be a testament to Jim Schwartz's coaching ability.

In his postgame press conference, he himself said that he wished the Lions could have entered the bye week "with a good feeling."

Not likely.

The Lions continued losing streaks of 19 and 15 games at Lambeau Field (including playoffs) and on the road, respectively.

They failed to score any points, something that didn't even happen during last year's nightmare of a season.

Worse yet, Daunte Culpepper started the game as inadequate, and ended it injured, as a hamstring injury took him out in the third quarter.

Now, though injury is always bad, this might not be so bad. Stanton showed greater awareness, more mobility in the backfield, and a greater ability to read the defense in his quarter-and-a-half of play.

He threw two interceptions, but one was a good throw that was tipped off the receiver's hands. The other was an end zone interception, where Stanton tried to force the ball on third down during garbage time.

Schwartz has lots of coaching to do during the bye. This is, arguably, the only game the Lions have played all season with nothing positive to build on, and it couldn't have come at a worse time.

Now the Lions have two weeks to stew over their worst loss of the season, with a stretch of vulnerable teams (vs. St. Louis, at Seattle, vs. Cleveland in three of their next four) coming up.

It will be up to Schwartz to insure that the Lions come out with the will and drive to win those games, rather than allow this loss to get them in a funk.

Hopefully, his optimism is more resilient than mine.