6 winners, 2 losers from the Lions’ 52-14 BLOWOUT win against Titans

Six winners showed up for the Lions over the Titans, while a couple of areas need some work before next week’s game against the Green Bay Packers.

The Detroit Lions returned home on Sunday to play the Tennessee Titans as they came off a big victory over the Minnesota Vikings the week before. Tennessee was the best defense the Lions have played this season, but looking at the final score you wouldn’t believe that. Detroit was able to put up 52 points on the Titans, but it wasn’t because the offense was on point as the defense forced four turnovers and special teams were setting up the offense for easy drives where the offense didn’t need to do much in the end.

Check out my winners and losers in the 52-14 win against the Titans.

Winners

Jahmyr Gibbs

The first quarter was a back-and-forth matchup between the two teams and after the Titans answered back on the first Lions touchdown, running back Jahmyr Gibbs decided that the game wouldn’t be tied for long. Gibbs got free and ran a career-long 70-yard touchdown run to retake the lead and shift the momentum back into their favor.

That play was the most explosive play the Lions offense would have all day, and when it came to running the football, that was the only big play by both Gibbs and running back David Montgomery. Gibbs would finish with the better stats, getting 11 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown.

David Montgomery

After not scoring against the Vikings last week, Montgomery wanted to find the end zone this week and he did it twice technically. He would have nine carries for 33 yards with a touchdown, and he completed his lone pass attempt of the afternoon on a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Sam LaPorta. While it wasn’t Montgomery’s best game either, he still contributed and helped the offense put up over 50 points.

Kick/Punt returners

This was the best game the kick and punt returns have had all season. Kick returner and cornerback Khalil Dorsey started the fiasco with a 72-yard kick return that was close to being a touchdown if not for a Titans defender pushing Dorsey out of bounds. Wide receiver and punt returner Kalif Raymond didn’t just have one good punt return, but three. While his best was for a 90-yard touchdown, he finished with five returns for 190 yards, making Titans players miss left and right as he averaged 38 yards per return.

Those returns helped the offense continue to be successful with the short field of play. The Lions offense is already a strong unit, one of the best in the league, so making their job even easier is perfect. Detroit hasn’t had many solid returns this year, but when going up against the worst-ranked special teams unit according to DVOA in Tennessee, it makes it easy to do.

Discipline

For weeks, the Lions have struggled with getting penalties—sometimes giving their opponents a fresh set of downs or extending drives. Against the Titans this week, the Lions only committed three penalties for 29 yards. This was the cleanest game Detroit has had all year long and it was the Titans who were playing undisciplined: Tennessee had eight penalties for 60 yards.

Cornerback Terrion Arnold, one of the players who has struggled the most with penalties, played another clean game with no penalties, having one of his best games of the season, finishing with the second-most tackles on the team with seven and a pass deflection. When this team doesn’t beat itself up, it can play some clean football and it showed in this game.

Turnovers

Not only were the Lions playing clean football, they were forcing turnovers and making the Titans play sloppy football. It started with an interception on the first drive by linebacker Trevor Nowaske, which would set up the Lions to score and take the early lead, 7-0. With Tennessee still in the game, only down by seven, Rudolph threw his second interception of the game, this one to safety Kerby Joseph.

It wasn’t just Rudolph turning the football over, as wide receiver Calvin Ridley and tight end Chig Okonkwo both fumbled the football on catches. On the Ridley fumble, Detroit would take advantage of the short field and score to make it 49-14. Detroit scored on three of the four possessions from the turnovers the defense created, not wasting the opportunity for more points.

Sam LaPorta

With the team down wide receiver Jameson Williams, a question was who would step up in the passing game and it turned out to be tight end Sam LaPorta. LaPorta led the team in receiving, getting six catches for 48 yards and a touchdown. The passing game had its worst game of the season, as quarterback Jared Goff had a season-low 85 passing yards. If you were to say that the leading receiver had 48 yards, you would assume a loss for that team, but not this week.

On National Tight Ends day, LaPorta showed up and showed out for his position, reintroducing himself to the rest of the NFL. LaPorta getting involved with the offense again is good to see as he has been quiet after his explosive rookie season in 2023. If he can be more involved in the future, the Lions already dangerous offense can be even more explosive.

Losers

Taylor Decker

Lions left tackle Taylor Decker has not had his best few weeks. Against the Minnesota Vikings last week, Decker allowed six pressures, five quarterback hits, and a sack. The woes continued this week on the first play of the game, Decker allowed a sack on the first play of the game and continued to struggle in pass blocking. Titans linebacker Arden Key had two sacks, both going up against Decker.

Decker hasn’t had his best year in the NFL—he has a 67.7 PFF offensive grade. That grade is the lowest he’s had since his second year in the NFL in 2017, when he had a 65.3 grade. His pass-blocking grade is 69.7, the lowest of his career. His run-blocking grade is 63, the third-lowest of his career.

I am not sure what has happened to Decker this season, but seeing him regress isn’t what you want to see. Decker just turned 31 back in late August, so age could be a factor, but 31 isn’t that old for an offensive lineman. He will have to figure out what is going on soon because if Goff keeps taking hits, he could get banged up like today where he injured his ankle on a sack.

Pass coverage

With Titans starting quarterback Will Levis missing the game with a shoulder injury, backup quarterback Mason Rudolph came in and did better than expected. Despite throwing his two interceptions, Rudolph threw well against the Lions’ secondary with ease at times.

Rudolph finished the game going 22-for-38 for 266 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Going up against a backup quarterback, those numbers aren’t acceptable for a secondary that held the Vikings to just 259 passing yards last week with their starters. Thankfully, the defense created four turnovers to limit the Titans’ offense from scoring and making it more difficult to move the ball down the field. This was the worst offense Detroit has played this season, so seeing them pass the ball with ease wasn’t a good sight to see.