Detroit Lions grades: Dan Campbell took blame for loss but this was a defensive meltdown
Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett grades the Detroit Lions’ performance after their 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at Ford Field.
Quarterback
Jared Goff threw for 494 yards, the second most in his career, and five touchdowns, but much of that production came in catch-up mode as the Bills scored the first 14 points Sunday and led by 21 in the third quarter. Goff made a nice throw over two defenders to Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 66-yard touchdown and gave the Lions a flicker of hope until the end with his play. He had a huge scramble on third-and-10 to keep alive the Lions’ second touchdown drive and he played turnover-free football, though he fumbled on one sack that guard Kevin Zeitler recovered. Goff and Jameson Williams weren’t on the same page on two early passes and he led St. Brown a tick too far on a missed third-down conversion just before halftime. He wasn’t perfect, and his slow start put the Lions in a hole they couldn’t dig out of. But on a day he threw the ball 59 times, he certainly wasn’t to blame for the Lions coming up short against maybe the best team in the AFC. Grade: B-plus
Running backs
The Lions had their worst rushing day of the season with 48 yards on 15 carries as the Bills controlled the game in the trenches early and game script forced Goff to air it out in the second half. Jahmyr Gibbs injected some life into the offense with perimeter runs of 9 and 13 yards on the Lions’ first touchdown drive and he made a nice move to shake Terrel Bernard in the open field on his touchdown catch. David Montgomery didn’t play much because of a leg injury, and he wasn’t very effective — five carries, 4 yards — when he was in the game. Montgomery did fight for extra yards on two catches in third quarter, but the ground game was a non-factor overall. Grade: C-minus
Receivers & tight ends
St. Brown set career-highs with 14 catches for 193 yards on a day he was targeted a whopping 18 times. He was Goff’s preferred chain-mover in the second half, through he did lose a fumble fighting for extra yards in the third quarter and he couldn’t quite snag a pass over the middle that glanced off his fingertips when the Lions were forced to settle for a long field goal they missed just before halftime. Williams had a quiet day with three catches for 37 yards. He dropped a tough over-the-shoulder catch on a bomb from Goff late in the third quarter, though the play would have been nullified by penalty. Sam LaPorta had a nice day with seven catches for 111 yards and Tim Patrick let Taron Johnson run himself out of the play on his touchdown catch. Grade: B
Offensive line
The Lions gave up two sacks in the first quarter, one to unblocked cornerback Christian Benford on a blitz and one when Ed Oliver drove Graham Glasgow into the backfield with a bull rush. Frank Ragnow made an important peel-back block to give Goff time on his flea-flicker pass that went for 24 yards at the end of the first quarter, and Ragnow and Zeitler had the key blocks on Gibbs’ 13-yard run on Lions’ first touchdown drive. Ragnow got steamrolled by Oliver and Greg Rousseau split Glasgow and Decker for the Bills’ third sack early in the third quarter. The pass protection was solid overall – three sacks on 60-plus dropbacks is nothing to sneeze at — but the Lions didn’t get the push they normally do in the run game. Ragnow also was penalized three times, once for a facemask and twice for holding. Dan Skipper did catch his first career touchdown on a tackle-eligible play. Grade: C-minus
Defensive line
The Lions played far and away their worst defensive game of the season. They couldn’t stop the run — they allowed a season-high 197 yards, and James Cook became the first back to top 100 yards rushing against the Lions since 2022 —and they got minimal pressure on Josh Allen (no sacks), who was able to extend countless plays by escaping the pocket. Josh Paschal missed a tackle-for-loss in the third quarter when Allen ran for 10 yards and a first down, and Cook’s first touchdown came when Al-Quadin Muhammad lost edge contain on a zone read. Alim McNeill drove Connor McGovern into the backfield and finished with a nice spin on a pass rush that led to an intentional grounding penalty on Allen just before halftime, but other highlights for the defensive line were few and far between. Grade: F
Linebackers
It’s tough to fault Jack Campbell, Terrion Arnold and the rest of the defense for the Bills’ third-and-5 conversion on the opening drive, when Allen extended the play for nearly 8 seconds before throwing a 24-yard pass to Ty Johnson. But Allen completed 14 passes to running backs and tight ends Sunday as the Bills attacked the middle of a Lions defense that missed Alex Anzalone. Campbell had 10 tackles, but couldn’t get off a block by David Edwards on Cook’s first touchdown run. Johnson beat Ezekiel Turner for a 31-yard catch on fourth-and-2 when Turner got lost trying to go underneath a pick route, and Allen ran for a first down in the third quarter when he simply out-athlete'd Turner in the open field. Grade: F
Defensive backs
Brian Branch was one of the few Lions defenders who played well Sunday, making 15 tackles, including two for loss, and breaking up one pass. He fought off a block at the line of scrimmage for one of his TFLs. Khalil Dorsey, playing in place of the injured Carlton Davis III, gave up a 64-yard pass to Keon Coleman on a scramble play when he lost his depth trying to cover downfield, and Arnold got beat for a third-and-4 conversion on the final play of the third quarter by Dalton Kincaid. Coleman’s big play aside, the Lions didn’t let any wide receivers beat them for big gains down field despite playing without their best cornerback most of the day. Grade: C-minus
Special teams
The Lions have one of the best special teams units in the NFL, but weren’t great in the kicking game Sunday. Jake Bates missed a 52-yard field goal wide left just before halftime and Dorsey missed a tackle at gunner on Jack Fox’s first punt of the game. Bates did hit two good balls on onside kicks. The Bills nearly returned one for a touchdown when Mack Hollins tipped a high bounce to himself, and Bates and the middle of the Lions’ onside kick team sold out to try and recover the other one after Williams’ touchdown with 12 seconds left. Grade: C-minus
Coaching
Dan Campbell blamed himself for Sunday’s loss, saying he didn’t have his players prepared to match the Bills’ urgency. The Lions did play one of their sloppier games of the season, but I think Sunday’s game was more about Allen being great and the Lions having a decimated defense than it was Campbell not having his guys prepared. Ben Johnson pulled out all the stops on offense to keep the final score close. The tackle-eligible pass to Skipper was well-designed, and the Lions converted a flea flicker off a toss play and their third hook-and-ladder of the year. I thought Campbell made the right decision to onside kick early in the fourth quarter; the Lions weren’t going to stop the Bills offense. Defensively, Aaron Glenn’s magic of patchworking together a front seven ran out against the best quarterback he’s faced all season. Grade: C-minus
Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, "Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.” Order your copy here. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.