Will the Lions ever win a game? Could they become the first 0-16 team in NFL history?

It’s going to be hard for them to win this one, at least. It’s quite likely they will start QB Daunte Culpepper again, although Drew Stanton will also get some time as coach Rod Marinelli tries to find a magic button somewhere to hit.

Culpepper came off the couch to start for the Lions last week in yet another sign of the desperate measures this team is undertaking. Detroit lost, 38-14, to Jacksonville, which is so par for the course that it was at the very bottom of NFL roundups all over the country.

Culpepper still has a huge arm but he can’t run much anymore, so he’ll be a stationary target for DE Julius Peppers. Peppers had three sacks and two forced fumbles last week in Carolina’s 17-6 win over Oakland, which combined a defensive gem with an offensive “ugh.” Panther QB Jake Delhomme had the worst passing stats of his career, throwing four interceptions and going only 7-for-27 on a day when he couldn’t keep the ball anywhere near where he wanted it.

Still, Carolina won because its defense (second in the NFL in points allowed) kept the Raiders out of the end zone. That defense will be licking its chops about facing the Lions, whose coach Rod Marinelli gave an interesting analogy in his news conference this week. Said Marinelli: “You’re in this dark tunnel and you’ve got no way out. You’re waiting for light, and you see that light, what do you do? What do you do? You start digging and getting out. … I’ve always believed you stay in the tunnel and you keep digging when you expect no light.

“You have the same faith when you expect no light. You have the same belief in what you’re doing when you expect no light. … It’s dark and I’m going to dig through. My shovel is sharp and my pick is sharp and my will is outstanding.”

This led to all sorts of jokes in Detroit, of course, about where exactly Marinelli’s will was standing, and whether you could text-message anyone from a tunnel like that.

The Panthers will try to get RB DeAngelo Williams going again — he had a superb game against the Raiders that included a 69-yard TD dash. Williams is headed toward becoming only the second 1,000-yard rusher in the John Fox era. WR Steve Smith (only one catch for nine yards against Oakland) will be back to being a bigger factor this week. Marinelli is just going to have to keep digging with that sharp pick — the light won’t blaze through his tunnel this week.

Carolina by 14