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Lions still cling to hope they can fix bad defense after loss

Ten games into the season, there’s no mistaking what the Lions are: A below-average team with one of the worst defenses in the NFL that’s on the brink of another disastrous year. The Lions allowed a season-high 509 yards of offense Sunday and squandered another good-enough-to-win performance by backup quarterback Jeff Driskel, losing to the Dallas Cowboys at an oddly Cowboys-friendly Ford Field, 35-27 . Wearing their road whites in their home stadium for the first time in 48 years, the Lions lost for the sixth time in their past seven games, and for the second straight week without Matthew Stafford . The Lions were serenaded by chants of “Let’s Go Cowboys,” “De-fense” when Dallas needed a big third-down stop, and “Cooop” every time Cowboys receiver Amari Cooper caught a pass, and at 3-6-1 their faint playoff hopes have all but been dashed. “I feel like a broken record at this point, but another game I feel like the offense played well enough for us to win but we got to figure it out collectively as a defense,” linebacker Devon Kennard said. “We got to play better and we can play better.” The Lions have to play better, no doubt, but whether they’re capable of doing so remains up for debate with six games left in the regular season – three of them against teams with three or fewer wins. The Lions have allowed more than 400 yards of offense six times this season and more than 30 points on four different occasions. They entered Sunday with the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense, then watched as Dak Prescott shredded them for 444 yards and three touchdowns and Ezekiel Elliott scored touchdowns rushing and receiving. “I feel like we just need to be consistent in everything we do,” Kennard said. “I feel like last week we came out and played one of our better games defensively overall and we needed to build on that and not take a step back, and defensively I think we took a step back today.” The Lions had one of their most complete defensive efforts of the year in last week’s loss to the Chicago Bears, when they played three bad series at the end of the first half and into the third quarter that accounted for all 20 of the Bears’ points. But while the Bears have one of the NFL’s most inept offenses, the Cowboys are explosive and balanced, and it showed Sunday. Prescott led three second-quarter touchdown drives of 70, 75 and 83 as the Cowboys took control of a close game, and Elliott scored the game-clinching touchdown on a 17-yard pass with 7:56 to play. Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay said after the game he can’t pinpoint why the Lions have been so bad defensively this year. “If you can’t, I can’t, either,” he said. “I don’t sit down and examine the whole defense.” Lions coach Matt Patricia continued to talk broadly about a lack of consistency while insisting things still can be fixed. “I think for us we’re always trying to improve every week,” Patricia said. “So I don’t think we just kind of sit back and say, ‘That’s it. We’re good.’ Or, ‘We’re not good.’ I think we try to get better.” Driskel, making his seventh career start, completed 15 of 26 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns and added 51 yards rushing on eight carries. He scored on a 2-yard run in the first half, threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Jones in the third quarter, and, with the Lions trailing 35-21, led a five-play 75-yard touchdown drive with just under six minutes to play. The Lions failed on their two-point conversion attempt , forced a punt on the ensuing possession and moved into Dallas territory on their final drive before a penalty on Kenny Wiggins and sack by Michael Bennett left them punting from fourth-and-31. Dallas started its final drive at its own 13-yard line, and Prescott put the game away with a 23-yard play-action pass to Blake Jarwin for a first down. Bo Scarbrough, signed off the practice squad Saturday, ran for 55 yards on 14 carries and opened the scoring for the Lions with a 5-yard touchdown run five plays after Jarrad Davis recovered an Elliott fumble in the first quarter. Jones caught two touchdown passes for the Lions, giving him eight on the season, but the Cowboys always seemed in control of the game. Elliott had 45 yards rushing and a 1-yard touchdown run, Michael Gallup added nine catches for a game-high 148 yards, and Randall Cobb had four catches for 115 yards and a touchdown for the Cowboys. “There’s positives out there for both units and some of the things that we did, offensively and defensively and even special teams,” Patricia said. “But in the end, we’re trying to play a better team game from that aspect of it. There’s certain points all the way across the board that just have to be better, offensively, defensively, and special teams.” Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter .