5 Takeaways from Detroit's 14-6 Loss to Arizona

The Detroit Lions traveled to the desert with visions of first place in the entire NFC dancing in their heads. The 7-2 Lions would ascend to that lofty status with a win over the 8-1 Arizona Cardinals.

Instead, the Cardinals solidified their grasp on the top spot with a 14-6 smothering of the punchless Lions. 

This game was over at halftime. That's not hyperbole; the second half was literally pointless:

"

Lions-Cardinals: first scoreless 2nd half in NFL since 2011 Rams-Packers.

— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) November 17, 2014"

Arizona's strong start to the game was enough to sustain them. The Cardinals scored on their first two possessions and then unleashed an outstanding defensive effort. Detroit's defense rose up to match, but the Lions offense had no answers for what Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles threw at them. 

With the loss the Lions fall to 7-3 and in a first-place tie with the Green Bay Packers in the NFC North. Detroit still technically leads the division by virtue of its earlier 19-7 win over Green Bay, but the Packers can even that ledger in Week 17 in Wisconsin. 

It doesn't get much easier for Detroit, which must travel across the country for a date in New England next Sunday. While it's not a must-win game, a road victory over the Patriots would do wonders for the Lions' confidence going forward. 

Another Anemic Start

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Detroit's offense apparently got lost in the shuffle of the unusual 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff. The Cardinals jumped all over the slow-starting Lions, racing out to a quick 14-0 lead before Detroit finally started playing football. 

"

Cardinals offense has 14 points. Lions offense has 9 yards.

— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) November 16, 2014"

The first-quarter box score is downright painful to peruse...

	Lions	Cardinals
1st Downs	1	9
Passing	21	156
Penalties	3-15	0
Yards	57	178
Time of Poss.	5:34	9:26

Detroit did manage a Matt Prater field goal late in the first quarter to cut the lead to 14-3, but Arizona's early surge was more than enough to sustain them for the entire game. 

In recent weeks, notably the Atlanta and New York Jets games, the Lions have been able to overcome the slow starts. That works against those sub-.500 teams. It is not good enough to handle a viable playoff contender, and the Cardinals proved beyond a shadow of any doubt they are capable of multiple playoff wins this year. 

The Officials Dropped the Ball

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Let me state this unequivocally: The Lions did not lose this game because of Jerome Boger (pictured) and his crew's gross incompetence throughout the game. The slow start, a stagnant offense and a very good opponent are far higher up on the list of reasons. 

But it can be argued that Boger's crew is the reason the Lions did not win the game. Judging by social media, that argument is vociferous.

Two indefensible poor spots went against the Lions. Both are captured in this tweet:

"

Explain these to me @JeffRisdon pic.twitter.com/VtbXQePSNk

— Brandon Semma (@BSem1113) November 17, 2014"

The first picture is Eric Ebron clearly getting the ball past the first-down marker on the sideline before going out of bounds inside the 9-yard line. That ball wound up being spotted with the back end touching the 10, and that's after a challenge. 

"

I think the ball gets moved to the 9-yd line in #DETvsARI - so few of these get overturned though.

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) November 16, 2014"

The former vice president of officiating has a point that it's hard to overturn a spot, but this sure seemed obvious. 

The second spot in question came on Arizona's final play before the two-minute warning. On third down, Arizona needs to get to the Detroit 49 to ice the game. 

Larry Fitzgerald jumps backwards from the Detroit 49 to catch the ball. He completes the process—two feet down with control—of the catch on the wrong side of the 50, but the officials give him a spot beyond where he ever was before even touching the ball. Detroit could not challenge because they were out of timeouts, and the ballgame was over.

There were other officiating controversies throughout this game. I'll let Pereira explain the infuriating ruling on what appeared to be a huge punt return by Jeremy Ross:

"

VIDEO: My take on Justin Bethel's play at the goal line in the #DETvsAZ game (via: @kfc) https://t.co/PcWCtzHgpx

— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) November 17, 2014"

This is the second game in a row where the officiating crew has not been up to acceptable NFL standards. In the Miami game, the sword of officiating ineptitude sliced both ways. In this one, it cut the legs out from under any chance for yet another Detroit comeback. 

Joique Bell Ran Well

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Detroit's running game entered this game as one of the worst in the league:

• 31st in yards per game at 77.8
• tied for 31st in yards per carry at 3.1
• just two games with more than 88 rushing yards

Strangely, the Lions had their best running game in weeks against an Arizona team ranked third in yards per game allowed (78.6) and fourth in yards per carry (3.4). Joique Bell accounted for almost all of it, netting 85 yards on just 14 carries. 

Bell ran through arm tackles. He consistently made the first tackler miss. He showed vision and patience in reading his blockers. He even hurdled a defender (pictured above) for good measure. 

"

.@JoiqueBell bursts through the middle for a gain of 33 to send the Lions into AZ territory. That's longest run of the year for #Lions

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 16, 2014"

The most vocal leadership presence on the offense, Bell also caught three passes for 30 yards. He wasn't immune from bad plays; Bell did fumble once and dropped an easy swing pass late in the game. Yet he often appeared to be the only offensive player on the Lions really trying. 

"

Joique Bell strapping the Lions on his back.

— Justin Rogers (@Justin_Rogers) November 16, 2014"

If his resurgence, which started to spark in the Miami game, can sustain going forward, it will greatly help a Lions offense which has become overly reliant on receivers making spectacular plays to keep the chains moving. 

The Defense Recovered from the Slow Start

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Arizona scored touchdowns on its first two drives of the game. Drew Stanton guided them all over the field with relative ease, shocking the top-ranked Lions defense with smart schematics and excellent execution.

After those two impressive drives, the Lions turned the Arizona offensive faucet to the off position. They had only one other drive which even threatened to put points on the board, and Detroit snuffed that out with a Josh Bynes interception.

Plays	Yards	Result
6	66	INT
8	19	Punt
2	4	INT
1	-1	Half
9	27	Punt
3	0	Punt
6	55	Punt
4	18	Punt
6	7	End of Game

Michael Floyd caught both touchdown passes on those first two drives. He did not catch another ball. After converting its first six third downs, Arizona succeeded on just two of the remaining eight third-down attempts. 

Much of the credit goes to the back end of the defense. The front line, which terrorized opposing quarterbacks in recent weeks, did not register a sack. Stanton often had ample time to survey his options as the Cardinals offensive line largely held its own against Ndamukong Suh and friends. 

After the explosive first quarter, the Detroit defense got back to its dominant ways. The Cardinals gained 156 yards in the first quarter. They gained 150 in the other three combined. 

The Offense Has to Improve

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

The No. 1 culprit for this loss was Joe Lombardi's stagnant, predictable offensive scheme. It is arguably the most underachieving unit in the entire league. 

It's baffling to think an offense with all this talent is struggling so badly, so consistently. No team with Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, two of the best wide receivers in the league, should struggle so much to move the chains. 

No offense with record-setting Matthew Stafford at the controls should have so many problems getting the ball down the field or into the end zone. 

"

With that pass, Matthew Stafford becomes the fastest QB to throw for 20,000 yards (71 games). #Lions

— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) November 16, 2014"

Joique Bell ran well, as mentioned earlier. The patchwork line held up reasonably well considering the barrage of blitzing from Arizona's hyper-aggressive defensive scheme. Yet the offense once again sputtered like a snow blower with last year's gas and a frayed ignition cord. 

Stafford diplomatically tipped his hat to Arizona's defense:

"

Lions QB Matthew Stafford on the Cardinals defense: " That's one of the best secondaries, if not the best secondary we've seen all season."

— Mike Jurecki (@mikejurecki) November 17, 2014"

He is 100 percent correct in his assessment of Arizona's outstanding defense. However, Detroit's offense has way too much firepower to rank in the bottom 10 in both scoring and yards per play. The Lions were already down in those depths before this humbling loss to the Cardinals. 

Lombardi needs to change things. Opponents are on to his slow-developing run plays, his layered route concepts and his conservative play-calling. He's a rookie coordinator, so some growing pains are to be expected. But part of growing pains is visible growth, and right now we're not seeing that from Detroit's anemic offense. 

All statistics are from NFL.com. All rankings are from Team Rankings. You can interact with Jeff Risdon on Twitter @JeffRisdon