The Detroit Lions fell to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football in ugly fashion, but the real story goes deeper than the final score. What the box score didn’t show is how Buffalo forced Detroit into an impossible choice with its personnel groupings, and why this could become a recurring problem for the Lions defense. The Bills used heavy personnel packages featuring multiple tight ends on 65.7% of their offensive plays, and the Lions never found a reliable answer.

This wasn’t simply Josh Allen being Josh Allen. Buffalo came into this game with a specific personnel plan. The Bills used 11 personnel on only 34.3% of their plays. They used 12 personnel on 31.3%, 13 personnel on 26.9%, and 22 personnel on 7.5%. Add that together and Buffalo had at least two tight ends on the field for nearly two-thirds of the game. That is wild in today’s NFL. We’re accustomed to offenses spreading defenses out with three receivers. Buffalo went in the opposite direction. The Bills got big, and Detroit never adjusted.

The impossible choice Buffalo created

Heavy personnel creates a difficult choice for defenses. If Detroit responds with its base defense and puts more linebackers on the field, Buffalo can spread those tight ends out and make those linebackers cover in space. Dalton Kincaid is essentially a big receiver, and that’s exactly what the Bills allowed him to become. Kincaid caught seven passes for 95 yards and a touchdown. Dawson Knox caught a touchdown too.

But if the Lions stay in nickel and keep an extra defensive back on the field, Buffalo can condense the formation and run directly at a lighter box. Running back James Cook ran for 135 yards. Allen added 69 yards and two rushing touchdowns himself.

That’s the problem. The Lions couldn’t find a personnel package that allowed them to handle both parts of the offense. Buffalo could look heavy, force Detroit to react, and then attack whichever matchup Detroit gave them. Every answer created another question, kind of like how Roddy Piper used to say, “As soon as you’ve got all the answers, I change the question.”

The New Orleans Saints already showed the blueprint

This didn’t start with Buffalo. Go back to the Saints game. New Orleans tight ends combined for 15 targets, seven catches, 87 yards, and two touchdowns. Juwan Johnson caught the game-tying touchdown late in the 4th quarter, then made a 27-yard catch that moved New Orleans into scoring range during overtime. Noah Fant finished that overtime possession with a touchdown.

Whether or not the Saints used multiple tight ends as frequently as Buffalo did, New Orleans provided the first warning. Detroit was having trouble defending tight ends in high-leverage situations. The Bills then took that issue and built a much larger part of their offense around it.

These aren’t 3 separate problems

This is where the box score could be misleading. It might look like Detroit got beaten by Allen’s athleticism, Cook’s running, and Kincaid’s receiving. All of that is true. But those weren’t three separate problems. They were all connected. The heavy personnel helped create the running lanes. The threat of the running game created opportunities for the tight ends. Allen’s ability to keep the ball added another gap Detroit had to defend.

That’s what the Bills did. That’s what the Saints did. That’s what the Steelers and Rams did to the Lions last year. That’s what other teams with multiple good tight ends can do to this team.

Not every team can do this, but the ones who can will

The thing is, not every team is like the Bills. Not every team has Kincaid, Knox, and Jackson Hawes, three super capable tight ends. The Lions actually have that kind of tight end depth themselves, and Detroit ran 12 personnel on 19.4% and 13 personnel on 6.5% of their plays Thursday. Otherwise, the Lions were in 11 personnel most of the game, largely because they had to abandon the run.

The whole point of heavy personnel is that you also need a good run game to make it work. So not every team is going to be able to replicate what Buffalo did. But the teams that can do this are going to utilize it against the Lions, and that is going to be a problem.

NFL teams copy what works. The Saints showed that Detroit’s tight end coverage could be attacked. The Bills showed that an offense could combine those tight ends with a physical running game and keep the Lions trapped between two bad choices. Until Detroit finds a package that can defend the run without giving away favorable coverage matchups, every upcoming opponent is going to study this film.

The personnel usage tells you how the Bills made it happen and why this could become a much bigger problem for the Lions. The good thing? It’s only Week 2. Detroit has to figure this out, and they have to figure it out quick.