Sean Payton Offers Underhanded Compliment to the Victorious Lions

Even if the Denver Broncos win their three remaining games, it wouldn't guarantee a playoff berth for the suddenly bruised and beaten-up squad. Picking themselves up off the mat isn't going to be easy either, coming hot on the heels of such a brutal beat down in the Motor City.

The manner in which Dan Campbell's Detroit Lions mauled the Broncos on Saturday night has sounded the alarms at Dove Valley, reopening several critical wounds that Broncos head coach Sean Payton perhaps believed he had managed to heal.

Such is the nature of the NFL; it's now a guarantee that other NFL head coaches will look to exploit the deficiencies the Lions starkly exposed. Perhaps topping Payton's list of woes as he prepares to face the guru Bill Belichick might be how badly his outfit lost the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

Payton's issues don't end there, though, not with a total of 10 chunk plays gashing the previously impressive Denver defense for serious yardage. Furthermore, not getting nearly enough pressure on one-dimensional pocket passer Jared Goff meant the Lions' veteran was able to feat on the early downs, creating manageable third-down situations.

By snuffing out the Broncos' pressure looks on third down, Goff looked like a spectacular precision passer once again. All of which led to Payton's strange compliment to the Lions when he compared Campbell's offense to a top-tier Canadian Football League team post-game. Remember, the CFL is a three-down version of football.

"They're a good Canadian CFL team," Payton said of the Lions. "Most of your top offenses are real good on those first two downs, so it's hard to get them to third down. And they had quite a bit of chunk plays, so listen, it's a good offense, and we struggled with it tonight."

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Payton surely didn't mean to insult the Lions, as it was a compliment to illustrate how productive they were offensively on first and second down. But it was underhanded, even if inadvertently, delivered on the heels of a big loss, not a win. Meanwhile, Payton has the Herculean task of picking up the pieces quickly.

The true artists of the coaching world are able to dig deep and transfer resilience to a team through osmosis in order to bounce back in short order. It only took Payton the time it takes to walk from the sideline to the locker rooms at Ford Field to prepare such a sermon for his beaten-down team.

"Look, this is a tough league, and like I said to the—I said this to the players afterwards, 'You're going to play in these games once in a while. It's difficult to swallow,'" Payton said post-game in Detroit. "Certainly, as coaches, it starts with us. We've got to be better, but man, we've got to be able to shake it pretty soon here and then get ready to play New England."

Payton planted his flag, but time will tell whether it will resonate with his players after events conspired against the Broncos so poorly at Ford Field. When you add Payton's sideline tirade directed at quarterback Russell Wilson which has triggered a backlash of media criticism, the coach's ability to fight fires will be tested this week.

As the dust settles, the early signs are that Payton will galvanize his troops to ride out this gathering media storm, but that's his only viable option. Beyond the low-hanging fruit of the Wilson/Payton tropes, the myth that somehow the Broncos can survive on smoke-and-mirrors football spearheaded by wild statistical outliers (see: takeaways) has been brutally exposed.

They say a week is a long time in politics, and the very same adage also applies in the world of pro football.

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