Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme refused to take the bait.</p><p>A few days before the Panthers were to play Detroit last week, Delhomme was asked if the Lions were the worst team in football.</p><p>&#8220;No,&#8221; Delhomme said on a conference call. &#8220;I honestly would say no. I don&#8217;t want to get into saying who I would think, because I&#8217;d rather not have that out. But I would say emphatically no.&#8221;</p><p>The Panthers&#8217; 34-0 waxing of the Chiefs on Oct. 5 must have been in the back of Delhomme&#8217;s mind.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, I promise you,&#8221; Delhomme said, &#8220;there are a couple I have in mind.&#8221;</p><p>At least the Chiefs have won a game this season, a 33-19 drubbing of AFC West-leading Denver a week before the Carolina debacle.</p><p>If the Lions don&#8217;t win today at home against Tampa Bay, there will be a first-ever matchup of perfect 11s on Thanksgiving Day, assuming the Tennessee Titans can beat the Jets and take an 11-0 record to Detroit.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve got a lot of talented guys,&#8221; Delhomme said before Carolina beat Detroit 31-22 last week. &#8220;It&#8217;s just some things haven&#8217;t kind of gone their way. Sooner or later, things are going to go their way.&#8221;</p><p>A year ago, Miami started 0-13 before beating Baltimore for its only victory in a 1-15 season. The Lions&#8217; final four games after Thanksgiving include three 5-5 teams: Minnesota and New Orleans at home and at Green Bay in the regular-season finale. The Lions also visit Indianapolis on Dec. 14.</p><p>Head coach Rod Marinelli, who is 10-32 in his two-plus seasons with the Lions, is headed out the door once the club hires a new general manager to replace the deposed Matt Millen. The specter of coaching the first 0-16 team in NFL history and first winless team since the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 0-14 in 1976 does not rattle Marinelli, a former Marine drill sergeant.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just really upbeat with what I&#8217;m doing today; that&#8217;s all I can tell you,&#8221; Marinelli said. &#8220;My job is to lead these men. I don&#8217;t look for disaster. I don&#8217;t look for speculation. I look to lift these men up and get them ready to play Tampa Bay.&#8221;</p><p>The next head coach of the Lions will be their <em>seventh</em> this decade, and therein lies the problem with the franchise. The lack of coaching stability &#8212; coupled with some major busts in the draft, including quarterback Joey Harrington, the third overall pick of the 2002 draft; wide receiver Charles Rogers, the second overall pick in 2003; and wide receiver Mike Williams, the 10th overall pick in 2005 &#8212; has turned Detroit into a league laughingstock.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen some pretty good coaches struggle in this league because they didn&#8217;t have enough talent,&#8221; said Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson when asked about the Lions. &#8220;It filters through the entire organization. When they make mistakes &#8230; they had a bunch of first-round picks they didn&#8217;t recover from. The No. 1 (factor) is not having an outstanding quarterback to build around.&#8221;</p><p>The Lions are now on their third starting quarterback of the season (sound familiar, Chiefs fans?) in retread Daunte Culpepper. Culpepper, 31, is following the injured Jon Kitna and the ineffective Dan Orlovsky.</p><p>Just a year ago, the Lions appeared to have turned the corner after six straight losing seasons. They started 6-2 before tumbling to six straight losses and a 7-9 record, still a four-game improvement over 2006.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think anybody would&#8217;ve thought that we&#8217;d be in this situation,&#8221; said Lions linebacker Ernie Sims, one of the club&#8217;s few productive first-round picks (2006). &#8220;I definitely thought, from the season we had last year, we were going to start making progress.</p><p>&#8220;But &#8230; obviously not.&#8221;