Notes: Lions set NFL record in failed fourth down conversion attempts

Detroit broke a 27-year-old record held by the Patriots of all teams.

While in recent weeks the Detroit Lions have broken the good kind of league records, Sunday’s embarrassing loss has led to breaking the bad kind of records.

The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman discovered that in Sunday’s 29-0 shutout loss to former Lions head coach Matt Patricia and the New England Patriots, the Lions broke a league record for the most failed fourth-down attempts without a conversion.

Detroit went for it six times without successfully converting — one of those leading to a fumble that the Patriots recovered for a touchdown. If I have to relive it, you do too:

On top of that, you’ll never guess who they took the record from — the New England Patriots, who won the title in 1997 with five failed fourth-down attempts without a conversion.

For more on what Dan Campbell had to say about these attempts, and how he doesn’t regret them, check out Jeremy’s latest piece.

Don’t expect your notes to get any better from here.

And onto the rest of your notes.

• Unsurprisingly, the Lions made this list of nine teams feeling the most heat — the one’s under the most pressure to shape up before the ship goes entirely off course.

• Then Dan Campbell made this list from The Athletic of coaches who could be on the hot seat, explaining why he may be on shaky footing and why he might be alright. ($)

• Jamaal Williams on stepping it up.

• “Of course, now this is when fans of this team all shout obscenities and remind anyone who’ll listen that it can always get worse and it never seems to get better.” The Detroit News’ John Niyo with some tough words following Sunday’s annihilation. ($)

• Grades are in… and they’re not great, as you can imagine. Here’s what Mlive’s Benjamin Raven had to say.

• “Jared Goff looked like he was having flashbacks to Super Bowl LIII when he also got shut down by a Bill Belichick defense.” More grades — these from CBS Sports’ John Breech.

• A former Lion may have found a new home.

• Looking at data from NFL tickets sold on the secondary market in 2021, FinanceBuzz found that Lions home game tickets sold for the third cheapest.