What We Learned About the Lions: Detroit survived the 60-minute brawl Dan Campbell promised, and Sunday’s win revealed a few things we weren’t expecting
Detroit moved to 2-1 after a wild fourth quarter at Ford Field, with Jahmyr Gibbs taking over, Isaac TeSlaa finally flashing and Chuck Clark delivering the play that ended it.
Say what you will about the game being a close one, but Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell informed us that this would be a 60-minute brawl earlier in the week, and he wasn’t kidding. The Lions won 31-24 on a big sack-fumble by safety Chuck Clark.
Goff Report
Another solid day for Goff. He went 25-32 for 269 yards and two touchdowns and even ran for eight yards on an elite four yards per carry. He’s been quite steady this season.
Starting to see the vision with Vaki
Look, when you look at the final stat line on the day for Sione Vaki, you’re not going to want to put him on your fantasy team or anything like that. But this was a good day for him, and it showed what his usage could be like. Short-yardage hard runs on third and short. He converted for a first down twice in the first half, and then in the second half he had an 11-yard catch for a first down.
Gibbs was a man possessed
It was as if Aaron Glenn personally called him Sunday morning and told him he couldn’t run on the Jets defense. After all, the Jets had only allowed 131 total rushing yards combined in their first two games. Welp, Gibbs ran like he personally wanted to beat that on Sunday. I mean, look at the play below. That’s the kind of thing he was doing. Gibbs finished the day with 99 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and seven receptions for 65 yards and a touchdown through the air.
Gibbs out here doing things like that. Plus Goff run blocking
I know everyone said it, and I’m going to say it too. With Barry Sanders in the house, Jahmyr Gibbs goes out there and does this Barry-ish like move on a play that looked for sure like a loss of yards for most players. Just unreal. But also, shout-out to Jared Goff for the run-blocking effort. Goff is not one to just chill and let things play out. He’ll do some dirty work.
This is what the Lions needed Isiah Pacheco for
When the Lions signed Pacheco, it was about giving Jahmyr Gibbs a few beats a game to come off the field. But maybe more than that was that Pacheco has shown to be a good pass blocker. Jared Goff was sacked twice early in the first half, and both times it was guys going right at Gibbs and Gibbs struggling to be the last line of defense. I wouldn’t be shocked if they look to draft their next David Montgomery or Isiah Pacheco in April. It won’t stop every sack, but it would help.
Fewer shots to the foot, but they were still there
The Lions just seem to have a knack for penalties at the worst time. A red zone penalty killed a drive early, but the defensive penalties were worse. While it was ticky-tacky and weak, D.J. Reed committed a defensive pass interference on a 3rd-and-17, and it put the Jets in the red zone instead of maybe kicking a long field goal at worst. Then Reed got called again for a weak DPI on 4th-and-6, and that allowed a touchdown. There were a few other penalties, and as I said, the Lions mostly cleaned things up, but there is still cleaning to do. You’ll never play a penalty-less game, but you can at least do your best not to have the back-breaking ones in critical moments.
A Saylor always spots another Saylor or something like that. Basically, I’m saying use Saylors more
Jacob Saylors had a very impressive day as a return man. He had 44 yards on one return and then 37 yards on the next one. Tom Kennedy is fine, but Saylors may be the guy the Lions need to start favoring in that spot more.
Big day for TeSlaa
We’ve been wondering what was going on with him and even wrote about the possibility of trading him this week. He showed up huge in this game with three catches for 66 yards, including a 50-yard reception that set up the Lions’ go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Let’s see if his role continues to grow throughout the season as we expected it would.
D.A.R.E. to be different
Last week Amon-Ra St. Brown got fined $59,704 for a touchdown celebration that looked like he and some other players were passing around a joint. Something that’s totally legal in Michigan, by the way. This week, St. Brown just said no.
Detroit Lions News