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For 54 minutes of game time on Monday night, the Detroit Lions offense could do nothing at all.

Matthew Stafford's bunch had produced just three points, only afforded a last-ditch attempt at a tying drive while down 13-10 because of a strip-sack touchdown from the defense -- and my goodness, was the Detroit defense marvelous all evening -- earlier in the fourth quarter. The Lions' 43 offensive plays to that point had yielded just 166 yards, an average of 3.86 per play. Stafford was 18 of 29 for 130 yards, a paltry average of 4.48 per pass attempt.

And then, all of a sudden, the Lions came to life.

On a drive that began at their own 9-yard line, the Lions marched straight down the field against the NFL's best defense. Stafford zipped the ball around to Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate, Lance Moore and Tim Wright. Ameer Abdullah and Zach Zenner ran through tackles and picked up chunks of yardage.

For a moment, the Lions looked as though they were about to tie the game or even take the lead and force a desperate drive from Seattle. Facing third-and-1 from the Seahawks' 11, Stafford dropped back to pass. He found Johnson on a pinwheel route, and completed the pass. First down, and possibly more.

Megatron, all 6-foot-5 and 236 pounds of him, barreled toward the end zone. He was going to run through Cary Williams and Earl Thomas near the goal line and the Lions were going to take the lead. And then Kam Chancellor did what Kam Chancellor does: He barreled into the play and delivered the knockout blow.

And just like that, the improbable Lions victory was no more.

More than that, the comeback apparently shouldn't have been over right there. As our own Pete Prisco pointed out on Twitter immediately after the play, and as former NFL referee Gerry Austin explained on the postgame show on ESPN, what K.J. Wright did after Chancellor forced the fumble -- intentionally knocking the ball out of bounds -- was not a legal play. (It should be noted that it is apparently a judgment call and not reviewable, according to VP of officiating Dean Blandino.)

The Lions should have been given the ball at the spot of the fumble, plus half the distance to the goal. Essentially, on the half-inch line.

Another angle of the ball being knocked loose into the end zone.(USATSI)

It's honestly hard to believe this wound up being such a heartbreaking loss for the Lions, now 0-4, given how lifeless they looked for most of the evening. The defense showed up well and hounded Russell Wilson all night, but the offense was so impotent that it didn't seem like the defense's performance would matter at all.

It took one of the strangest confluences of events I can ever remember to set up a loss that no one -- least of all the Lions and their fans -- will soon forget.

Here are four more things to know about the Monday night game:

2. Dreadful offensive line play: Russell Wilson was running for his life for much of the evening. He was sacked six times in all, and the only reason that total didn't reach double digits was because he pulled a rabit out of his hat four or five times, scrambling all over the field and avoiding Jason Jones, Ezekiel Ansah and the rest of the Detroit defensive line in the process.

Stafford wasn't sacked, but he was under plenty of pressure and had to throw the ball away multiple times. Running backs on both sides were contacted in the backfield seemingly every time they touched the ball. There were seven runs for negative yardage and at least a few more where players broke tackles behind the line of scrimmage and finished with either no gain or a short gain.

The defensive lines dominated the proceedings entirely, at least until the last six minutes or so.

3. The hits just keep on coming: It happened in just about the weirdest way imaginable, but the Lions continued their 21-year streak of not getting a road win on Monday Night Football.

Additionally, we have this tidbit from Ryan Field of Fox Sports 1.

That one would have been true even if they'd won the game, but it's still pretty incredible. The Lions have been around for a long time, of course, but that's still an ignominious distinction to hold.

4. When will anyone score on the Seattle defense? Here's how the Detroit Lions' 10 offensive drives went tonight:

(CBS Sports)

That's eight punts, a field goal and that fumble. Last week against the Bears, the Seahawks forced a punt on all 10 of their defensive drives. That means that in the 20 drives on which Seattle has had Chancellor on the field this season, they've forced 18 punts and allowed just three points. Pretty impressive stuff.

5. Next up: The Seahawks (2-2) will take their two-game winning streak to Cincinnati and take on the 4-0 Bengals next Sunday, while the Lions host the 3-1 Cardinals and attempt to avoid dropping to 0-5.