Both will be on display Thursday when the winless Detroit Lions host the 10-1 Tennessee Titans (12:30 p.m. ET, CBS).

Defeated in their first 11 games this season, the Lions are approaching a mark that no team has ever reached and that no one in their organization wants to be associated with: 0-16.

"It's humbling and embarrassing," kicker Jason Hanson says. "Everybody feels that way. Without finger-pointing, everybody in here feels pretty ashamed at this point of having to face people with what we put on the field."

Losing has become the culture here. The Lions own the NFL's worst record since 2001 (31-92 ) and have won one playoff game in the last 50 years. They were the first team eliminated from consideration for this year's postseason. And they have lost 18 of their last 19 games.

The Lions fired team president Matt Millen in September after an eight-year run in which he went an NFL-worst 31-84. The effects of nearly a decade of losing decimated the roster's talent level and left this year's team floundering.

The latest loss, a 38-20 defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, was especially painful because the Lions blew a 17-0 advantage, the fifth consecutive week in which Detroit squandered a lead.

"No one is quitting," defensive tackle Shaun Cody says, "but we don't know how to win."

NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci coached the Lions from 2003 to 2005.

"They want to win," Mariucci says. "Their organization works just as hard as everybody else.

"It just hasn't been all put together like some other teams have been."

Years of bad draft picks, particularly in the early rounds, and failed free agent signings have left the roster nearly barren of top-flight talent.

The Lions drafted quarterback Joey Harrington and wide receiver Charles Rogers with the third and second overall picks, respectively, in the 2002 and 2003 drafts. Millen, in 2003, foresaw that: "We can't look back and say we missed with those guys."

But by 2006, the Lions had given up on both. Another first-round selection, wide receiver Mike Williams, chosen with the 10th overall pick in 2005, lasted two seasons. "You've got to get contributions from those draft picks, year in and year out," says Jim Brandstatter, the Lions radio broadcaster.

Harrington was expected to be a cornerstone of a franchise that hasn't sent a quarterback to the Pro Bowl since 1972 with Greg Landry. Instead, Harrington was just one more name in a parade of signal-callers.

It's a problem, Mariucci says, "when you're playing musical chairs at the QB position."

The trend has continued this season. Jon Kitna, who famously predicted the team would win more than 10 games last year, started the first four games before a back injury ended his season. Since then, the team has relied on recycled Daunte Culpepper and untested Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton and, because of injuries to the latter two, have kept Drew Henson on the practice squad or speed dial.

Outside of Calvin Johnson, the second overall pick in the 2007 draft who's blossoming into a dependable receiver (tied for second in the league with eight touchdown catches), and linebacker Ernie Sims (a first-rounder in 2006 and the team leader with 74 tackles), the Lions' nucleus is hard to identify. They traded two Pro Bowlers this year, defensive tackle Shaun Rogers and receiver Roy Williams.

"There's just not enough talent," former Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson says.

Lions officials, who declined multiple interview requests for this article, have acknowledged the damage.

"I think we need to make better decisions," general manager Martin Mayhew said of the team's personnel moves after Millen was fired.

'An amazing letdown'

The winless season stings even more when contrasted with the Lions' early expectations of a playoff spot after they won all four preseason games this year.

They had fostered that kind of hope last year, too, with a 6-2 start but have won one game since, a five-point victory against the Kansas City Chiefs last Dec.23.

"It's been an amazing letdown," left tackle Jeff Backus says. "I thought this was our best chance to get to the playoffs. For the season to be what it is, it's been tough to handle."

With the league's 28th-ranked offense and 31st-ranked defense, the Lions have become a punch line for late-night TV comedians, just as they were when they opened the 2001 season 0-12.

Fans are making their displeasure known. After selling out the first 50 games in the seven-year history of Ford Field, the Lions failed to sell out three consecutive home games this year, which, per NFL rules, meant the games could not be aired in the Detroit TV market.

And now, with Millen ousted, fans are venting their frustration at coach Rod Marinelli, the 11th of the Lions' last 12 head coaches to have a losing record with the team. A career defensive assistant before joining the Lions in 2006, Marinelli, 10-33 since he arrived, has consistently shielded his team from blame.

"My job is to believe in them, to read them, to encourage them and show them how," Marinelli said. "That's what I do. I don't bang on them and throw them in the waste can."

Defensive tackle Cory Redding says Marinelli's demand for accountability has kept players from quitting.

"It's like when you see your kids struggling to ride a bike and they fall off the bike three or four times and kick it to the curb," Redding says. "Well, we could have done that. But no. We get back up on the bike and we keep riding no matter how many times we fall off."

Mounting losses will be a challenge to the team's unity.

"It's in your head, don't get me wrong," says Richard Jordan, a linebacker on Detroit's 3-13 team in 2002. "There's guys that are planning vacation already. There's probably some guys now that have already clocked out."

This season marks the Lions' eighth consecutive losing campaign, a record for futility in the franchise's 75-year history in Detroit.

William Clay Ford has owned the team for the last 45 years. Ford, who declined interview requests, said at the time of Millen's firing that he would "put together a plan that we believe will transform this team into a winner" after the season.

The Lions will have two draft picks in the first round next year, after acquiring the Cowboys' in the trade for Roy Williams, which gives the next GM, be it Mayhew or someone else, an extra tool with which to restock.

"It's going to take more than one year," Jordan says. "It's going to take a Bill Cowher-type guy, Bill Parcells-type guy to say, 'This is what we're going to do. This is the only way I know how to do it. We're going to win.'"

Something to play for

No team has been held winless in a non-strike season since the 1976 Buccaneers lost all 14 games. Hanson says being linked with that team should make every player on the Lions "scared."

"I hope everybody is nervous about it, because that's our spark," Hanson says. "We've put ourselves in position now where, record-wise, we actually have something to play for."

The schedule is challenging. After Tennessee, the Lions' final four opponents are fighting for a playoff spot.

And with every loss, the pressure could increase in a locker room that feels the 0-16 noose tightening.

"When you lose, all the wounds hurt a little bit more," Jordan says. "All the aches and pains start to increase a little bit.

"Guys want to win, and then there's guys that'll say, 'I don't want to be a part of this. Let me get the heck out of here.'"

For now, the players stand united behind their diminished goal: one win.

"There's no excuses," receiver Mike Furrey says. "We've just got to go out and continue to fight."