Packers Are  ready Shut down the…..

After getting beat up on Thanksgiving Day by the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions are taking another hit on Tuesday morning, this time from the national power rankers.

There are portions of the Lions fan base that are understandably concerned after a few games that were tighter than they should have been, but coach Dan Campbell attributes their struggles to the ebb and flow of the NFL regular season.

“There’s teams that will begin to rise and teams that will fall out of this. And I love our team,” Campbell said. “I love where we’re at and I know the guys that we have in the locker room, I know these coaches, so this will be good.”

While the Lions dropped in all the rankings we track, no surprise after a loss, they still land in the top eight of every list, with some even placing them as high as No. 5 overall—which is still a very good spot to be in entering Week 13.

Let’s take a closer look at this week’s national power rankings to see the rest of the explanations for why the Lions landed where they did on each ranker’s list.

“The disappointing performance against the Bears was not an isolated incident. The Lions are fortunate to have drawn both of their recent home games against losing clubs, when they have performed poorly. Turning the ball over and playing extremely carelessly with it is the first step. The Lions’ chances of winning the NFC North and finishing first in the division are basically over after their loss to the Packers, but they still have an easy schedule ahead of them.

\“I’m not going to penalize the Lions too much for getting sucker punched by a division rival on Thanksgiving. Most weeks, when a team rushes for 140 yards and has its quarterback post a no-interception, 100-plus QB rating game, they’re going to be OK. Of course, it’s when those occurrences are offset by three fumbles—and one gets returned for a touchdown—that those performances result in defeat.