The

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

season was the franchise's 72nd

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL).

Marty Mornhinweg Marty Mornhinweg (born March 29, 1962) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently a senior offensive consultant for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He was the offensive coordinator for th ...

was named the 21st

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

in franchise history on January 21, 2001, after owner William Clay Ford Sr. controversially fired

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

interim coach

Gary Moeller Gary Oscar Moeller (; January 26, 1941 – July 11, 2022) was an American football coach best known for being head coach at the University of Michigan from 1990 to 1994. During his five seasons at Michigan, he won 44 games, lost 13 and tied 3 fo ...

. The season began with much optimism, with the Lions hoping to improve on their 9–7 record from 2000; however, the Lions were extremely disappointing and had the worst start to an NFL season since the 1986 Indianapolis Colts began 0–13. They were widely believed to be likely to suffer the NFL’s first 0–16 season“Infamy Awaits the Lions” in '' The Free Lance Star'', Sunday December 16, 2001; p. C11 before they defeated the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

. Prior to that, they had lost an NFL record nine consecutive games by eight points or less. Seven seasons later, the Lions went 0–16 after a week 17 loss to the Green Bay Packers. This was the final season that the Lions played at the Pontiac Silverdome before moving to Ford Field the following season, as well as the final season for the

NFC Central Division The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and toug ...

, which would dissolve following the NFL's realignment in 2002, although all NFC Central teams except the Tampa Bay Buccaneers formed the new NFC North Division. The Lions closed the Silverdome by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 15–10 in the regular season finale. Coincidentally, the Cowboys defeated the Lions 36–10 in the first regular season game at the Silverdome (then known as Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium) in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. This would also be the first season under new general manager

Matt Millen Matthew George Millen (born March 12, 1958) is an American former professional football player and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Millen played as a linebacker for 12 years for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Franci ...

, as he would be the team's general manager for the next six seasons and first 3 games of the 2008 season. This would start a stage of futility for the Lions, as they would fail to post a winning record with Millen as general manager.

Offseason

NFL draft

Undrafted free agents

Staff

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

Game summaries

Week 1: at Green Bay Packers

Week 2: at Cleveland Browns

Quarterback Ty Detmer made his first start for the Lions, ending the game with seven interceptions. Despite this, the Lions' defense kept the game somewhat close, picking off Cleveland quarterback

Tim Couch Timothy Scott Couch (born July 31, 1977) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He played college football for the ...

twice, including a 26-yard pick six by cornerback Terry Fair.

Week 4: vs. St. Louis Rams

Standings

Notes

References

External links

2001 Detroit Lions
at Pro-Football-Reference.com {{2001 NFL season by team

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Detroit Lions seasons

2001 in Detroit