ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — The Detroit Lions were not expected to match the success they had last year when they won a franchise-record 15 games to earn the NFC’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs and claimed consecutive division championships for the first time since they were an NFL powerhouse in the early 1950s.
Detroit lost two veterans on one of the league’s best offensive lines and two coordinators, including Ben Johnson, who left to lead the Chicago Bears, and did not address its desperate need for pass-rushing help.
Click to Gallery
Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson reacts after sacking Pittsburgh Steelers' Aaron Rodgers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Detroit Lions' Jared Goff (16) waits for a call on the final play of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell wipes his face during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Pittsburgh Steelers' Joey Porter Jr. (24) reacts after breaking up a pass for Detroit Lions' Amon-Ra St. Brown (14) in the endzone during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Rey Del Rio)
The schedule also was tougher than it was a year ago.
No one, though, envisioned the Lions sputtering as they have since starting 4-1 this season.
Detroit (8-7) has not won two games in a row in more than two months. And after losing two straight games for the first time in three-plus years, including Sunday's wild 29-24 setback to Pittsburgh, the Lions face long odds to make the playoffs.
Detroit's only chance to rally into a third straight postseason is to win road games against the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night and the NFC North-leading Bears on the last weekend of the regular season — and for the Green Bay Packers to lose at home against Baltimore and at Minnesota.
Undaunted, coach Dan Campbell's message to his team was clear.
“Move forward,” Campbell said he told players Monday when they met to kick off a short week of preparation. "We’ve got three days here of practice for these guys to get the mental work, to recover. Make sure they get rest when they leave here and get back to work.
“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. Nobody cares. We got a game plan ready for them. They’ve got to go out there and digest it as fast as they can and be ready to go, man — emotionally, psychologically, physically by the time Thursday hits.”
The Lions are throwing the ball effectively to running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who had 10 catches for 66 yards against the Steelers, because they're struggling to get him going in the run game.
Detroit was held to 15 yards rushing — its lowest total since 2016 — in the latest sign that a once-powerful running game is weak because a banged-up offensive line isn't opening holes for Gibbs and David Montgomery.
The Lions had just 70 yards rushing in their previous game, a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and they are 0-6 when held to fewer than 100 yards on the ground.
Aidan Hutchinson sacked Aaron Rodgers twice in the first half in a 10-all game against the Steelers, giving him 11 1/2 sacks. Hutchinson has matched his career high set two years ago and showed he has bounced back from his season-ending knee injury in 2024.
Amon-Ra St. Brown had just four catches on nine targets for 54 yards and his pass-interference penalty on the final play against Pittsburgh negated his lateral and Jared Goff’s go-ahead touchdown run on the final play.
St. Brown showed up to work Monday with a knee injury.
“This was just something that just popped up when he came in,” Campbell said.
Defensive back Avonte Maddox (back) was hurt against Pittsburgh, another hit for a banged-up secondary that has three starters on injured reserve.
7% — That is Detroit's playoff probability, according to the NFL.
The Lions need to focus on what they can potentially control — winning at Minnesota — and hope the Packers lose to keep their playoff hopes alive for another week.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson reacts after sacking Pittsburgh Steelers' Aaron Rodgers during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Detroit Lions' Jared Goff (16) waits for a call on the final play of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell wipes his face during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Pittsburgh Steelers' Joey Porter Jr. (24) reacts after breaking up a pass for Detroit Lions' Amon-Ra St. Brown (14) in the endzone during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Rey Del Rio)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The funding lapse for the Department of Homeland Security will likely stretch into next week as the House contemplates passing a Senate plan it had previously rejected to fund the bulk of the agency, but not its immigration enforcement operations.
There was no resolution Thursday to the standoff, now in its 48th day, after both chambers met for just a few minutes in pro forma sessions. Nonetheless, the Republican leadership and President Donald Trump have coalesced around a plan to fully fund DHS as part of a two-step process. The agreement puts the congressional leaders on the same page for ending the impasse after they had pursued separate paths that resulted in Congress leaving Washington last week for its spring recess without a fix.
During the brief sessions, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put aside the House plan to fund the entire department for 60 days. Then the House met briefly without taking up the bipartisan Senate plan that had been worked out with Democrats, though Thune is looking toward eventual passage.
“I don’t know the particulars around what the House will do with it,” Thune told reporters. “My assumption is, at some point, hopefully, they’ll move it.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Thune, announced Wednesday that they would return to the Senate measure, which funds most of DHS with the exception of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. Republicans will try later to fund those agencies through party-line spending legislation that could take months to finish.
Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the strategy could potentially still face opposition from the GOP’s own ranks even though Trump has given his support.
Johnson’s embrace of the two-track plan marks a sharp reversal from less than a week ago, when he derided it as a “joke” and said he was “quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”
He now appears to be on board. But securing support from his own conference could prove more difficult after a sizable group of House Republicans blasted the Senate-passed bill last week.
House Republicans were expected to hold a conference call later Thursday to discuss the next steps.
Thune pointed to a “number of conversations” when he was asked how the Republican leadership and Trump aligned to move ahead after their apparent divisions a week earlier.
“The thing that some people want to do, we can’t do,” said Thune. “And so you have to figure out what’s in the realm of the possible. And you have to just continue to define reality for people.”
Democrats in both chambers were aligned last week with the Senate funding plan passed with bipartisan support. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Wednesday blamed Republicans for not acting more quickly.
“Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction,” Schumer said.
Even with the progress, the most conservative lawmakers are likely to seek full funding for all of Trump’s immigration and deportation operations.
“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., posted on X. “If that’s the vote, I’m a NO.”
Meanwhile, the budget package that Trump wants prepared for later this year is expected to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the remainder of Trump’s term, as a way to try to ensure those agencies are no longer at risk from Democrats objecting to his immigration enforcement agenda. Trump said he wants that legislation on his desk by June 1.
Thune acknowledged the potential hurdles to that route, such as efforts to expand the scope of the bill. He said the goal is to keep it “as narrow and focused as possible” to speed passage.
“We need to kind of move with haste,” he said. “It’s probably not a likely magnet for all these other issues.”
The vast majority of DHS employees have reported to work during the shutdown, but many thousands have gone without pay. As more Transportation Security Administration agents called out from work, there was increasing frustration for air travelers confronted by long waits at some airport security lines. Those bottlenecks appeared to be clearing this week as agents began receiving backpay after Trump signed an executive order.
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters outside the chamber after passing a measure by unanimous consent that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, if the House agrees, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., gestures as he speaks to reporters outside the chamber after passing a a measure by unanimous consent that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security if the House agrees, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill,Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
