# 1978 Detroit Lions season

The 1978 Detroit Lions season was the franchise's 49th season in the National Football League. Under new head coach and former NFL player Monte Clark, the Lions continue to struggle with mediocrity finishing in third place again with a less than stellar record of 7–9.
This season would also be the swan song for starting quarterback Greg Landry's stellar ten-year career in Detroit, as in the offseason Landry was shipped to the Baltimore Colts for a 1979 fourth round pick (#88—Ulysses Norris), a 1979 fifth round pick (#131—Walt Brown), and a 1980 third round pick (#62—Mike Friede), in a rebuilding process begun by head coach Monte Clark.

## Offseason
### NFL draft

1978 Detroit Lions draft :
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | College | Notes |
| 1 | 11 | Luther Bradley | CB | Notre Dame | |
| 2 | 40 | Al Baker * | DE | Colorado State | |
| 4 | 94 | Bill Fifer | OT | West Texas State | |
| 4 | 107 | Homer Elias | G | Tennessee State | from Baltimore |
| 4 | 109 | Larry Tearry | C | Wake Forest | from Denver |
| 5 | 121 | Amos Fowler | G | Southern Mississippi | |
| 5 | 123 | Dan Gray | DE | Rutgers | from San Diego |
| 6 | 150 | Dwight Hicks * | S | Michigan | |
| 6 | 153 | Tony Ardizzone | C | Northwestern | |
| 6 | 165 | Jesse Thompson | WR | California | from Denver |
| 7 | 177 | Bruce Gibson | RB | Pacific | |
| 8 | 206 | Jim Breech | K | California | |
| 10 | 262 | Fred Arrington | LB | Purdue | |
| 11 | 289 | Richard Murray | DT | Oklahoma | |
| 12 | 318 | Mark Patterson | DB | Washington State | |
| Made roster * Made at least one Pro Bowl during career ||||||
Notes
* Detroit traded its third-round pick (67th) and seventh-round pick in 1979 to Cleveland in exchange for the rights to K Tom Skladany.
* Detroit traded DT Herb Orvis to Baltimore in exchange for the Colts' fourth-round pick (107th).
* Detroit traded P Herman Weaver to Denver in exchange for the Broncos' fourth- and sixth-round picks (109th and 165th).
* Detroit traded LB Jim Laslavic to San Diego in exchange for the Chargers' fifth- and sixth-round picks (123rd and 153rd).
* Detroit traded its ninth-round pick (233rd) to San Francisco in exchange for K Steve Mike-Mayer.

## Regular season
### Schedule

| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Record | Venue | Attendance |
| 1 | September 3 | Green Bay Packers | L 7–13 | 0–1 | Pontiac Silverdome | 51,187 |
| 2 | September 9 | at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | W 15–7 | 1–1 | Tampa Stadium | 64,445 |
| 3 | September 17 | Chicago Bears | L 0–19 | 1–2 | Pontiac Silverdome | 65,982 |
| 4 | September 24 | at Seattle Seahawks | L 16–28 | 1–3 | Kingdome | 60,040 |
| 5 | October 1 | at Green Bay Packers | L 14–35 | 1–4 | Milwaukee County Stadium | 54,601 |
| 6 | October 8 | Washington Redskins | L 19–21 | 1–5 | Pontiac Silverdome | 60,555 |
| 7 | October 15 | at Atlanta Falcons | L 0–14 | 1–6 | Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium | 51,172 |
| 8 | October 22 | San Diego Chargers | W 31–14 | 2–6 | Pontiac Silverdome | 54,031 |
| 9 | October 29 | at Chicago Bears | W 21–17 | 3–6 | Soldier Field | 53,378 |
| 10 | November 5 | at Minnesota Vikings | L 7–17 | 3–7 | Metropolitan Stadium | 46,008 |
| 11 | November 12 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | W 34–23 | 4–7 | Pontiac Silverdome | 60,320 |
| 12 | November 19 | at Oakland Raiders | L 17–29 | 4–8 | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 44,517 |
| 13 | November 23 | Denver Broncos | W 17–14 | 5–8 | Pontiac Silverdome | 71,785 |
| 14 | December 3 | at St. Louis Cardinals | L 14–21 | 5–9 | Busch Memorial Stadium | 39,200 |
| 15 | December 9 | Minnesota Vikings | W 45–14 | 6–9 | Pontiac Silverdome | 78,685 |
| 16 | December 17 | San Francisco 49ers | W 33–14 | 7–9 | Pontiac Silverdome | 56,674 |
| Note: Intra-division games are in bold text ||||||

### Game summaries
#### Week 9: at Chicago Bears

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| • Lions | 7 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Bears | 3 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 17 |

### Standings

NFC Central :
| viewtalkedit | W | L | T | PCT | DIV | CONF | PF | PA | STK |
| Minnesota Vikings$^{(3)}$ | 8 | 7 | 1 | .531 | 5–2–1 | 7–4–1 | 294 | 306 | L2 |
| Green Bay Packers | 8 | 7 | 1 | .531 | 5–2–1 | 6–5–1 | 249 | 269 | L2 |
| Detroit Lions | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 4–4 | 5–7 | 290 | 300 | W2 |
| Chicago Bears | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 3–5 | 7–5 | 253 | 274 | W2 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 5 | 11 | 0 | .313 | 2–6 | 3–11 | 241 | 259 | L4 |