Lions Home & Road Records: Three Stadiums and a Thanksgiving Problem

Since 1966, the Detroit Lions are 242-221-3 at home (.523) and 152-304-9 on the road (.337). The home number ranks 22nd in our home records rankings. The road number ranks 32nd in the road table — the worst road record of any NFL franchise over the last sixty seasons. No team has lost more road games, tied more road games (nine, also the league most), or gone entire seasons without a road win as often: seven times, including the only three-peat of winless road seasons in league history, 2001 through 2003. The Lions own the longest road losing streak in the sample — 26 straight from 2007 to 2010 — and the third-longest, a 24-gamer from 2001 to 2004. Two of the three worst road droughts of the modern era belong to one franchise.

Which is what makes the newest line in the ledger so improbable: in 2024, the Lions went 8-0 on the road — their first perfect road season, built on a franchise-record eight straight road wins, fourteen years after the 26-game streak finally ended.

Lions Home and Road Records by Decade

Decade	Home	Pct	Road	Pct	Gap
1960s (from '66)	12-14-2	.464	10-14-4	.429	.035
1970s	44-28	.611	22-47-3	.326	.285
1980s	37-38-1	.493	24-52	.316	.177
1990s	52-28	.650	27-53	.338	.312
2000s	29-51	.363	13-67	.163	.200
2010s	41-39	.513	30-47-1	.391	.122
2020s (through '25)	27-23	.540	26-24-1	.520	.020

The road column is a sixty-year weather report of the same storm: five decades below .400, bottoming at the 2000s' 13-67 (.163) — tied with Cleveland's 2010s for the worst decade road record by any franchise in the sample. Even the good Lions teams were homebodies: the Barry Sanders years produced a .625 home record against .350 on the road. The 2020s row is the outlier in every direction — a .020 gap, the Campbell-era Lions winning at nearly the same rate everywhere.

Tiger Stadium, the Silverdome, and Ford Field: Lions Home Records by Stadium

Stadium	Seasons	Home	Pct	Road (same window)	Pct
Tiger Stadium	1966–74	35-26-2	.571	25-31-7	.452
Pontiac Silverdome	1975–2001	116-92-1	.557	63-146	.301
Ford Field	2002–25	91-103	.469	64-127-2	.337

Detroit's building history runs against every franchise instinct in this series: each move made home weaker. Tiger Stadium hosted nine seasons at .571. The Pontiac Silverdome hosted twenty-seven at .557. Ford Field, through twenty-four seasons, sits at 91-103 (.469) — a losing building. The Lions are the first team in this series whose current stadium has a losing all-time record, and their home percentage has declined with each of the two moves.

Ford Field's ledger hides one astonishing split, though — and it's the subject of the next section. It also holds a distinction no other current stadium can claim: it has hosted another team's home game. On December 13, 2010, the Metrodome roof collapsed under snow, and Giants–Vikings was played at Ford Field — a Minnesota "home" game, final score Giants 21, Vikings 3.

Lions Thanksgiving Record vs. Every Other Home Date

The Lions have played 60 Thanksgiving games since 1966 — every one of them at home — and gone 25-35 (.417). On every other home date over the same sixty years they are 217-186-3 (.538). The one game Detroit is guaranteed to host every season is the one it historically loses.

Building	Thanksgiving	Pct
Tiger Stadium (1966–74)	3-6	.333
Pontiac Silverdome (1975–2001)	16-11	.593
Ford Field (2002–25)	6-18	.250

The stadium splits sharpen it further. The Silverdome was the franchise's one good Thanksgiving home. Ford Field is 6-18 (.250) — and here is the astonishing part: on every date other than Thanksgiving, Ford Field is exactly 85-85. A perfectly average .500 building, dragged to a losing record entirely by one November afternoon per year. The modern droughts explain it: nine straight Thanksgiving losses from 2004 to 2012, a four-game win burst from 2013 to 2016, then seven more straight losses from 2017 to 2023. The traditional guests have feasted unevenly — Detroit is 6-6 against Chicago on Thanksgiving, 2-3 against Minnesota, and 3-7 against Green Bay, the rivalry we covered in our Lions–Packers Thanksgiving history.

Lions Month-by-Month Home and Road Records

Month	Home	Pct	Road	Pct
September	56-46	.549	35-63-3	.361
October	56-52-1	.518	43-81	.347
November	75-65-2	.535	31-80-4	.287
December–January	55-58	.487	43-80-2	.352

Two things stand out. November is Detroit's biggest home month — 142 games, inflated annually by Thanksgiving — and its worst road month, at .287. And the December–January home row is a losing record: .487, indoors. Set that against the Packers deep dive, where Green Bay is .743 in December at outdoor Lambeau, and the dome-comfort theory of winter football takes a beating: the team that never feels the cold at home has a losing record there in the cold months, while the team that always does barely loses. In the dome era (1975–2025), the Lions are 36-73 (.330) on the road in December and January.

Lions Home and Road Records vs. the Packers, Bears, and Vikings

Rival	Home	Pct	Road	Pct
Packers	32-27-1	.542	18-39-3	.325
Bears	36-23	.610	24-35-1	.408
Vikings	24-36	.400	14-44-1	.246

Green Bay: 32-27-1 hosting, 18-39-3 in Wisconsin — and one enormous mirror across the two deep dives: Detroit's largest road shutout, 40-0 at Green Bay in 1970, is the worst home loss in Packers history.

Chicago: Detroit's best rival split — 36-23 (.610) at home — against 24-35-1 on the road, with the Thanksgiving series dead even at 6-6.

Minnesota: the one rival with the full sweep — the Lions have losing records both hosting the Vikings (24-36) and visiting them (14-44-1, .246, their worst venue record against anyone).

Biggest Lions Wins, Worst Losses, Streaks, and the 2024 Road Turnaround

Category	Score	Opponent	Date
Largest home win	52-6	Jacksonville	Nov 17, 2024
Largest road win	45-3	at San Francisco	Oct 29, 1967
Largest road shutout	40-0	at Green Bay	Sep 20, 1970
Worst home loss	7-47	Tampa Bay	Dec 26, 2020
Worst road loss	13-59	at Dallas	Sep 15, 1968

The extremes lean modern in both directions: the largest home win in sixty years came in 2024, the worst home loss in 2020, while the road bookends are older. The longest home winning streak is 10 (1990–92, the peak Sanders stretch around the perfect 8-0 home season of 1991).

And then there is 2024, the strangest single-season reversal in this series: the franchise with the worst road history in football went 8-0 away from home — its only perfect road season, on its longest road winning streak, by the same team that a decade and a half earlier lost 26 road games in a row.

What the Home/Road Split Means for a Lions Mock Schedule

For most of sixty years, no schedule could save Detroit — when a team goes winless on the road seven times, road-trip sequencing is rearranging deck chairs. The modern calculus is inverted twice over: the Campbell-era Lions are venue-proof (a .020 decade gap), which means their schedule risk now lives in exactly one place — the only fixed date in football. Every Lions schedule for sixty years has contained a guaranteed home game on Thanksgiving, and it has been their most dangerous home date the entire time. When you build a Lions schedule in the MockSlate builder, that Thursday is already on the board before you place a single game. History says it's worth less than any home date you'll add after it.

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Data: all Lions regular-season games, 1966–2025 — 466 home, 465 road; two neutral/international games excluded (London 2014 and 2015); records list ties separately, and win percentages count a tie as half a win, the NFL's standard method. Companion pieces: Every NFL Team's Home Record Since 1966, Every NFL Team's Road Record Since 1966, and the Broncos, Raiders, Chiefs, Chargers, and Packers deep dives.

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