What the box score didn’t tell you: The Lions quietly fixed 3 of their biggest problems in Arizona
The 45-21 score was impressive enough, but Detroit’s biggest progress came in three areas Dan Campbell had been demanding the Lions clean up.
The Detroit Lions rolled to a 45-21 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, and the scoreboard tells you plenty. But the box score doesn’t tell you everything. Coming into this game, Lions coach Dan Campbell made it clear what he wanted cleaned up: pre-snap penalties, explosive plays allowed, and third-down defense.
Detroit checked every box.
The Lions finally cleaned up the procedural penalties
Campbell talked about penalties a lot leading up to this game. He wasn’t worried about every flag. He was focused on the procedural stuff, the false starts and delays of game. Those are the little things you just can’t have.
The Lions’ offense was flagged only twice in this game, and both were on right tackle Blake Miller. Only one of them was the pre-snap kind Campbell was talking about. Miller had a false start on fourth-and-2 at the end of the second quarter.
I know a lot of people think the Lions probably weren’t going to snap the ball there. I think they were. Even if they weren’t, Jared Goff has been really good with his cadence at getting defenders to jump, so maybe that’s what they were going for. Either way, Detroit settled for three points instead of a possible seven.
It didn’t matter in this game. It was the difference between scoring 45 points and getting one point away from a 50-burger. Still, that’s the kind of thing you clean up.
Miller’s other flag was for an ineligible receiver downfield. That’s not a pre-snap issue. He was barely out of place, and it’s not a big deal.
On defense, the concern isn’t so much pre-snap penalties. It’s the backbreaking ones. The Lions had one of those when Levi Onwuzurike got called for roughing the passer. To be honest, it was weak. I didn’t like any of the calls in this game.
In the end, the Lions had three penalties total between the offense and defense, plus one on special teams. That’s a much cleaner game.
The defense kept the Cardinals’ explosive plays in check
This is where the box score really doesn’t give you the full picture. The Lions had been giving up a lot of explosive plays, and they allowed only four against Arizona.
Now, there’s some qualifying to do here. The Cardinals are currently last in the NFL in explosive plays, so that’s worth bringing up. But the thought going into this game was that it could be Arizona’s chance to break out with a bunch of big plays against this defense. It didn’t happen.
The big one was a 38-yard pass to tight end Elijah Higgins. Other than that, the explosives were smaller gains of 23, 22, and 18 yards. Nothing crazy.
On the other side of the ball, the Lions’ offense produced 10 explosive plays of its own. That’s huge.
Third down was the biggest step forward
Third down was where the Lions needed the most help, and third-and-long was the scary part. Go back to the games against Buffalo, New York, and New Orleans. All those teams were killing it on third-and-long, to the point where you wondered how long the Lions could keep winning that way.
Against the Cardinals, Detroit held up. Arizona went 2-of-5 on third-and-7 through 9, which is 40%. The Cardinals went 2-of-6 on third-and-10 or longer, which is 33%. Those are the numbers you want. You have to be there.
What stands out even more is that Arizona went just 2-of-5 on third-and-1 through 3. That’s a big win for the defense. I don’t understand some of the Cardinals’ play-calling in those moments, but credit the Lions for getting off the field.
Detroit did exactly what Campbell asked
These are the little things Campbell talked about coming into this game. He wanted to cut down on pre-snap procedural penalties. He wanted to limit the explosive plays opposing teams were hitting against this defense. He wanted the Lions to get better on third down.
They did all of it.
You can’t be upset about this game at all. It was a great performance from the Lions on offense and defense. Now they need to keep it up. We’ll see if they do.
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