AP Photo OAKLAND WIDE RECEIVER Hunter Renfrow catches a touchdown pass against the Detroit Lions in the fourth quarter Sunday.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Detroit’s defense couldn’t come up with the late stop the Lions needed on one end of the field. Matthew Stafford couldn’t convert the fourth-down play at the other end.

It added up to another loss for the Lions, who are quickly falling out of contention in the NFC playoff race after a promising start to the season.

Matthew Stafford’s pass to Logan Thomas from the 1 was broken up in the end zone with 3 seconds remaining Sunday, sending the Lions to their fourth loss in five games with a 31-24 defeat to the Oakland Raiders.

“We didn’t convert, we didn’t score, we didn’t win the game,” Stafford said. “You can look at it all you want. Had we scored there I wouldn’t be fielding these questions. We just have to execute the play better and score.”

Stafford did plenty of good things against the Raiders but it was a few missed opportunities that proved to be the difference.

There was a botched handoff to J.D. McKissic on the opening drive that denied Detroit (3-4-1) a scoring opportunity, an interception in the end zone in the second quarter when the Lions had a chance to take a two-score lead and then problems on both sides of the ball in the closing minutes after Stafford’s 26-yard TD pass to McKissic tied the game with 5:16 to play.

The Raiders managed to move the ball 66 yards on the next four plays to get inside the 10 with help of two long passes to backup running back Jalen Richard.

Then after two stops by Detroit, Derek Carr managed to scramble on a third-down play and find Hunter Renfrow on a 9-yard TD pass with 2:04 remaining to give Oakland the lead.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” linebacker Devon Kennard. “The last few weeks have been on us defensively. I feel like if we’d play better defensively we’d be in a much better position right now. But you can’t panic. We’ve got eight more games left, a lot of ball to be played. I believe in the guys in this locker room. We have to get this fixed. It starts with defense, controlling what you can control.”

Stafford tried to find Thomas in the back of the end zone in the final seconds, but the play was broken up, sealing another loss for Detroit.