Losing Lions have 2 24-game road skids since 2001

ALLEN PARK, Mich (AP) - No one loses quite like the Detroit Lions.

Especially on the road.

The Lions lost last week to the New York Giants, dropping a 24th straight game on the road to match their own sorry NFL record set back in 2003.

"The reason you have long losing streaks is you're not good," said kicker Jason Hanson, who was a part of both skids because he's in his 19th season with the Lions. "End of story."

Not quite.

The Lions were the first team to have an 0-16 season in 2008 and are now the first to pull off a pair of 24-game skids on the road.

They've been pretty bad everywhere since 2001 - when the Ford family handed the franchise's keys to Matt Millen - winning just 34 of 150 games. Detroit's 22.7 winning percentage is the second-worst over a 10-season span in NFL history, barely better than the Philadelphia Eagles' 21.9 winning percentage from 1933-42, according to STATS LLC.

Remarkably, the Lions have had almost the same statistics for points and turnover differentials during both 24-game winless stretches as visitors. They have scored 383 points and have a minus-23 turnover margin during the current malaise away from Michigan; they scored 382 points and had a minus-22 turnover differential on the road from Sept. 9, 2001, through Dec. 21, 2003.

Both had memorable moments, missed opportunities and a relatively equal number of routs.

Former coach Marty Mornhinweg infamously chose to have the wind at his team's back after winning an overtime coin toss. The Chicago Bears took the ball and set up a field goal for the win Nov. 24, 2002.

During the current streak, former quarterback Dan Orlovsky obliviously took several strides before knowing he was out of bounds - behind the end zone - when he was rolling out to pass at Minnesota. The safety helped the Vikings win by two points on Oct. 12, 2008.

Millen, who was finally fired as team president and general manager by Lions owner William Clay Ford during the team's bye week two years ago, turned a mediocre franchise into a laughingstock with first-round busts such as Joey Harrington, Charles Rogers and Mike Williams, and so many other misses in the draft that not one of his selections from 2002-06 is still on the team.

Millen identified a problem with the franchise - a losing culture - but he failed to fix it.

"What stands in our way is the here-we-go-again attitude that starts in the city, in the streets and carries over into our locker room," Millen said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press. "We can't escape it unless we win. And even when we do win, people will say, 'Give them time, they'll screw it up,' so we've got to win a lot."

Center Dominic Raiola said Millen's assessment five years ago was accurate.

"I think there was a losing culture here in the past," said Raiola, who Millen drafted in 2001 along with tackle Jeff Backus. "During the last losing streak on the road, guys checked out and were simply overmatched. It's not a talent issue anymore.

"What's stopping us from winning now is mental errors like penalties."

Defensive end Cliff Avril agrees, lamenting the fact that he made a costly mistake between his ears that helped the Giants beat Detroit 28-20.

Avril took a swing at a player he was tangled up with after a third-down stop and was flagged for it, letting New York keep a drive alive that led to a touchdown.

"I was not a professional on that play," Avril said.

Detroit coach Jim Schwartz started holding the players to a higher standard when he was hired before the 2009 season. He banned the practice of parking in handicap spaces at team headquarters, gave assigned spots in the lot and made it clear being late was not acceptable.

Changing a culture, though, Schwartz insisted wasn't his intention.

"It's not on our checklist of things to do," Schwartz said. "The checklist of things to do is to win games. We haven't done a good enough job of that."

Hanson said until Detroit does start winning - perhaps at home Oct. 31 against Washington or Nov. 14 at Buffalo to avoid an NFL-record 25-game road skid - the skeptics will outnumber the believers.

"The organization bottomed out like in a recession, and we're not at the bottom anymore, but we're trying to prove where we are now," Hanson said. "The organization is tied to the losing streak. This team isn't. But until we prove it, nobody is going to believe us."