| Detroit Free Press
Debating Detroit Lions at midseason; what’s on line vs. Washington?
Debating the Detroit Lions’ good and bad at midseason, and what’s on the line vs. Washington this week? Filmed Nov. 12, 2020.
Homefield advantage is not what it used to be in the NFL, not with mostly-empty stadiums due to COVID-19 restrictions.
But the Detroit Lions still are on a rather remarkable streak that they will try and end Sunday against Washington, when they reach 385 days since their last home victory.
“It’s definitely important, cause teams are coming to our city and our place,” Lions receiver Marvin Jones said Friday. “So we got to get the ball rolling in terms of winning at home and this is a good time to do it.”
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The Lions have lost seven straight home games dating to Oct. 27, 2019, when they beat the New York Giants, 31-26.
They lost their final four home games last season — all of them after Matthew Stafford suffered a season-ending back injury — and are 0-3 at Ford Field this year with losses to the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts.
The 0-9 New York Jets are the only other team that’s yet to win a home game this season, but they did win four times at home in November and December last year.
“It’s definitely something very hard to try to overcome, but we got to do it,” Lions safety Tracy Walker said. “We can’t sit here and make excuses and can’t sit here and just feel bad for ourselves. We got to go out there and just do our job. Everybody’s got to do their job so we can come forth with the victory.”
Home teams have fared worse this season than at any point in modern NFL history — they’re 65-68-1 and have been outscored by 19 points, according to the Baltimore Sun. But even with Ford Field limited to 500 fans instead of its usual 65,000, Walker said the Lions still must protect their home turf.
“I feel like the only homefield advantage is understanding that you got to protect your home,” he said. “There ain’t really no fans in there so it ain’t that much of a homecourt advantage. So honestly, we just got to go out there and do our job, period, and win. Like, that’s bottom line. Regardless if we got fans out there or not, we just got to go out there and win the game. I don’t care if it’s one fan or thousands of fans, so that’s the bottom line. And right now, we just haven’t been doing that.”
All the president’s men
Walker and his wife, Bella, are expecting this first child later this month, and Walker said Friday the boy will be named Tracy Leonard Walker IV, after his grandfather.
“Hell of a man,” Walker said. “Definitely changed a lot of lives. Definitely was very inspirational to a lot of people, including myself. He’s a hell of a man and he’s where I got my gentle heart from. So I definitely know how to treat people well because of him.”
Walker said his grandfather spent more than 30 years as captain of a ferry that took people to and from Sapelo Island, Georgia, where Walker spent much of his childhood.
While working that job, Walker said his grandfather befriended President Jimmy Carter.
“First time President Carter met him, the first thing he said was, ‘This is a hell of a guy,'” Walker said, “My granddad met him and became good friends with him, so that’s the type of effect he had.”
On the field, Walker has not had the kind of effect he hoped this season, and for that reason he said Friday he did not feel comfortable answering questions about what has plagued the Lions defense.
“I honestly don’t want to answer that question simply because that’s a question that I don’t need to be answering,” he said.
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Walker lost his starting job before the season to Will Harris and has been inconsistent since he returned to the starting lineup in Week 3.
He does not have a takeaway this season, and missed last week’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings with a foot injury.
“I haven’t played well at all, honestly,” Walker said. “I feel like I’ve been having my ups and downs. There’s been times I’ve played good and there’s times I’ve been playing bad, so I feel like I have a lot to correct. And so that’s why I said I don’t want to really speak on it because I got to fix myself first. I’ve been making mistakes out there, so before I can talk about us as a whole, I got to fix myself individually.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.