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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford wanted to make one more play, extend one more drive to try for another improbable comeback. Stafford was pressured on fourth-and-10 from the New England Patriots' 25-yard line with 11:36 left. He kept looking downfield. With nothing available, Stafford scrambled. He headed toward the sideline and had enough room to get the first down. Instead he slid, starting a yard short. Instead of extending the drive, his decision to slide ended it, giving the ball back to the Patriots again in a 34-9 loss Sunday. It was another poorly performed play in a litany of them Sunday against New England, a day so bad that Detroit's perpetually level-headed coach Jim Caldwell couldn't even find a bright spot when he addressed the media after the game. "This is one of the few times that we've kind of stood here in front of you and didn't have at least some bright spots to talk about," Caldwell said. "We didn't have many in this game." On offense, that has been the problem for a series of games now -- almost every one this season. This -- against Miami, Arizona and New England -- was a stretch of games where Detroit could have established itself as a contender in the NFC. What this game -- along with the lackluster offensive showing against Arizona -- showed is the Lions are still far from being one of the league's elite teams. Instead, they went 1-2 and have scored only field goals the past two games. They were picked apart on defense for the first time this season by a future Hall of Famer in Tom Brady. Touchdowns have also disappeared from Detroit. The Lions haven't scored a touchdown in eight quarters and counting. They haven't had a rushing touchdown in four games. "It's one of those games, we just ... it's embarrassing," receiver Golden Tate said. "We've got to chalk it up and have a short-term memory. That's the most important thing, not to lose our swagger, not to lose our confidence. "Just come out with a mission, come out on a mission to really take it out on our next opponent, which happens to be Chicago, who is also another good team regardless of what their schedule says." Detroit could easily be a playoff team, even though Sunday's loss combined with Green Bay's win over Minnesota pushes the Lions a game behind the Packers in the NFC North. And for now, it throws Detroit into a murky wild-card mix with Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle and San Francisco -- essentially four teams fighting for two spots. Reaching that goal starts with rehabilitating an offense that has not looked consistently sharp since the opening week of the season. While Detroit may have put up more yards and points than a week ago in Arizona, larger issues once again showed up. Dropped passes, which had not been an issue this season, hurt the Lions. At least six of Stafford's passes were dropped -- three of which would have been touchdowns. "Everybody has one of them games," receiver Jeremy Ross said. "We just weren't executing, weren't playing Detroit Lion football, the football that we know we are capable of playing. Whenever there's dropped passes, there's just lack of focus on our part." That lack of focus crushed drives Sunday -- or at least kept the Lions from finishing them with touchdowns. The lack of offensive cohesion sums up where the Lions are right now as their true identity slowly comes into focus: a good defense with an offense still struggling to find itself with five games left. "We were scoring three," center Dominic Raiola said. "They were scoring seven. Can't do it. We got to score six, you know." Whether Detroit starts to score with more consistency the remainder of the season will be the difference between the Lions being a playoff team or watching at home again in January.
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