Lions had just 10 defenders on the field twice in loss to Colts

The Lions had an unwanted flashback to the Jim Caldwell era

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An old problem for the Detroit Lions reared its ugly head once again in the team’s humbling 41-21 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. One of the banes of the Jim Caldwell coaching tenure in Detroit made an unwanted appearance in the game.

The Lions defense played with just 10 men on the field. Twice.

It happened twice in the loss to the Colts, a repeat of the damning critique that was commonly held against Caldwell at the end of his coaching run with the Lions. One incident even saw Caldwell’s defense play with just nine players on the field while surrendering a key third down conversion in a close loss. It happened multiple times in Caldwell’s tenure.

Chris Burke of The Athletic captured screenshots of the incidents and posted them to his Twitter account.

It’s another embarrassing gaffe for a team and a coaching staff that cannot afford it.