Detroit Lions had 'off day,' still dropped 52 points. Yes, this team is something special
The Detroit Lions won by 38 points Sunday. And they weren’t particularly sharp.
Ridiculous to say, I know, but football is like that, eh? And this is what teams that are beginning to look special do.
Look at the final score – 52-14 – and you’d think one team dominated in the trenches or had record-breaking performances from a running back or a quarterback.
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Actually, the Lions did make history against the Tennessee Titans. They started four drives inside an opponent’s 25-yard-line in the first half. That hadn’t happened since 2002, according to ESPN.
The great field position was helped by a kick return, a punt return, and two interceptions. The regular offense, outside of an impressive 70-yard touchdown run by Jahmyr Gibbs struggled to find much rhythm in the first half.
Again, this sounds like crazy talk but look at the numbers: the Lions had just 225 total yards but by halftime, they had more points (35) than Jared Goff had passing yards (28). And while the rush yards were impressive – 124 yards by the break – 70 of those came on the Gibbs run.
What a run it was, by the way. For weeks, Dan Campbell had been saying Gibbs was so close to taking one to the house. That he needed one more block, or one more cut, and he’d be gone.
Late in the first, Gibbs got the block on the left side of the line, slipped through the hole between Taylor Decker and Graham Glasgow, hit the sideline, hit the gas, and was gone.
And while explosiveness is critical to this offense, what makes it special is the combination of physicality and precision, which beat Minnesota a week ago on the road. The Lions had half the combo early, running behind David Montgomery and Gibbs.
But the Titans threw off Goff’s timing and pressured him often. He was sacked on the first play of the game. Hit from behind by Arden Key, who blew past Decker. A couple series later, Key beat Decker again, and took Goff down.
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Defensively, meanwhile, Mason Rudolph lit the Lions’ defense up. Wait, Mason who? Yeah, that’s right, the Titans’ backup threw for 221 yards ... in the first half. Calvin Ridley, who came into the game with 186 receiving yards in six games, had 118 yards in the first quarter.
Mason and Calvin?
Not even Joe Montana and Jerry Rice looked like that. Or Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison if you want an example from this century.
Rudolph had plenty of time to throw, and when the Lions managed a little pressure, Ridley sat down in yawning gaps in the Lions’ zone. Sometimes, the pair connected against solid defense.
Still, Tennessee scored 14 points in the first half and ended the half with four fruitless plays from the Lions’ 1-yard-line. So, there is that I suppose, a goal-line stand. Oddly, it felt important, given how the Titans had moved the ball in the first half; it helped that Tennessee’s coaches thought it would be a good idea to throw four consecutive times from the one.
Hey, take what you can get in this league, right?
Even the worst teams can have good days, and the good teams can have off days, and when the good teams have weirdly good days despite having an off day?
Something has to be up. Or maybe not. Maybe the Lions special teams are great and the Titans’ special teams are not and when Kalif Raymond kept returning punts in the Titans’ territory, it was a matter of time before he broke free to the end zone – he had 195 yards total in the return game.
He did, on a 90-yarder to start the scoring in the second half. That made it 42-14 and the Lions had fewer than 200 yards of offense.
How do you make sense of that?
Well, again, turnovers – the Titans four – is partly to explain. And special teams. Oh, and trick plays, or just simply clever plays.
It’s one thing for Montgomery to take a pitch from Goff, stop running, plant, and throw a perfect spiral to Sam LaPorta – he rifled the ball between two defenders, thank you very much – for a touchdown. It’s another thing for Goff to take the snap, drop back, look one way, wait for the receiver to change direction, then hit that receiver for a 7-yard touchdown.
Raymond caught that pass, by the way. No one was within ten yards of him. Which is to say when it mattered, the Lions were as savvy as they needed to be, and Ben Johnson had Tennessee’s defensive coordinator trying to hold onto air.
Special teams and turnovers can create a mirage, yes, and make us think a 52-14 score is something it wasn’t quite. Goff threw for 85 total yards, his lowest – by far – of the season. And, for a while, the Lions struggled to give him a relatively clean pocket.
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Yet in the end, the Lions didn’t need it, and that’s a sign of a special team, too. Win however you can. That’s the mantra in this league.
If the defense is a little shaky and the offense is a little out of synch, run the ball back on special teams, or create a turnover. Or both.
And when the chances come, take advantage. Roll out a trick play. Or execute a conventional one. Johnson and Goff and the Lions offense did both, and darn near set a franchise scoring record.
Fifty-two points on an off day?
Yeah, something is happening. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.