Lions’ injuries become recurring nightmare during dream season (Video)

DETROIT — They’ve waited generations here for a team like this – loaded with talent, armed with creativity and blessed with a blistering offense. For the first time, you could say “Detroit” and “Super Bowl” in the same sentence without causing laughter.

And that was before an 11-game winning streak brought them to 12-1 this season heading into Sunday.

Except here, in Week 15, during a 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the familiar, if haunting, sight of the Lions’ injured cart continued to appear after appearance to keep defensive players away.

Already riddled with injuries, with double taping and substitutions, it’s the recurring nightmare of an otherwise dream season.

First, cornerback Carlton Davis III was lost to a jaw injury and did not return.

Then cornerback Khalil Dorsey was knocked out with a seemingly brutal ankle injury.

Then there was defensive lineman Alim McNeill, a key cog just returning from a concussion, limping off the field, into the blue tent and then onto the cart with a knee injury.

“I don’t feel good about any of these guys (Dorsey and McNeill),” head coach Dan Campbell said. “Normally, if I say ‘not good,’ it’s not good for the rest of the year.”

Forget about losing the game. It happens and Buffalo is a great team with its own Super Bowl aspirations.

It’s what was lost that counts. Again.

“No, I’m not buying it, I’m not buying it,” Campbell said of the defensive injuries that cost the Lions the game. “We can be better. We should have been better. We know how good they are, but we should have been more urgent.

Campbell is an unapologetic guy. He repeatedly said injuries were part of the problem and the job was for anyone on the field to be good enough and prepared enough to perform. This is what you would want and expect from him.

“I just feel like we didn’t play to the same level as this team,” Campbell said. “That’s why I put this on myself. I didn’t have them ready.

However, the facts remain the facts.

The Lions’ injured reserve list was already overloaded with defenders – star defensive end Aiden Hutchinson (broken leg), defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo (knee), linebacker Malcom Rodriguez (torn ACL), cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. (hamstring), safety Ifetu Melifonwu. (undisclosed), linebacker Alex Anzalone (forearm), linebacker Derrick Barnes (knee), linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin (neck), defensive end Marcus Davenport (triceps), defensive tackle David Bada (Achilles ), defensive end John Cominsky (knee) and defensive end Nate Lynn (shoulder).

That’s a dozen, plus three more over the course of the game.

No wonder Allen, who needs little help, led the Bills with 498 yards. He himself completed 362 passes (and two touchdowns) and another 68 (and two touchdowns) on the ground. The Bills punted once.

The Lions defense was so battered and beaten that Campbell, trailing by 10 points, called for an aggressive, if telling, onside kick with 12 minutes left in the game. Many called him reckless, but that was likely a sign of his lack of confidence in getting a defensive stop.

He also failed spectacularly when Buffalo’s Mack Hollins returned it 38 yards to the Lions’ 5.

“I thought we would take possession,” Campbell said. “I thought we were going to get that ball back… Obviously, now looking back, with them taking it all the way to the (5) yard line, yeah, I wish I hadn’t done that. But that’s how it is.

One play later, the Bills scored, to take a seemingly commanding 17-point lead. Yet the Lions kept punching to take another shot (and almost recover) on an onside kick with 12 seconds left.

That’s how good the Lions’ offense is: hooks and laterals, a touchdown pass to an offensive lineman, 494 yards and five touchdowns passing by quarterback Jared Goff.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough, and the Lions could find themselves in a three-way tie atop the NFC record by the end of Week 15.

Buffalo pulled off the hard-fought victory in what was billed by some as a possible Super Bowl preview. Maybe it is. The Bills are an offensive juggernaut. And even though Detroit was defeated, it was the first time since September 15, a full three months.

“No excuses,” Campbell said. “We weren’t good enough. That was the main thing. It was frustrating…but you know what, it’s part of life. You lose and it’s a bad taste in your mouth.

“What are we going to do about it?” he continued. “Are we going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves? We’re going to bounce back and go to Chicago.

For a franchise that hasn’t won anything in the Super Bowl era, goal remains everything. It may be too much, too soon, but NFL fortunes are fleeting and windows of opportunity close quickly.

Campbell says the Lions are made for this. He doesn’t focus on what he doesn’t have, but on what he does.

“I think a lot more about finding ways to win games,” he said.

This is the correct answer and his record gives him the benefit of the doubt. Yet as the casualty wagon continued to be deployed for defense, the underlying question remained.

When is it too much, too much?