The Detroit Lions (5-1) and Tennessee Titans (1-5) are set to face off Sunday afternoon for Detroit’s first contest of the year against an AFC opponent. The Lions have lived up to their Super Bowl contender status through the first two months of the season, but they’re experiencing their first real turbulence of the season. They’re down their top four edge defenders, with Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport, and Derrick Barnes on injured reserve and Josh Paschal out this week with an illness.
Additionally, 2022 first-round pick Jameson Williams is out, serving a two-game suspension for violating the league’s Performance Enhancing Substances policy. While the Lions have plenty of other weapons in their passing arsenal, none of them are capable of impacting how defenses play Detroit more than Williams and his speed.
And while the Lions are clearly the better team on paper, this league operates by the mantra “Any Given Sunday” for a reason. The Titans may have only won a single game, but they’ve held an early lead in five of their six games. If they can put together a full four quarters, they could be more dangerous than their record suggests.
We’ll be tracking the Week 8 matchup right here in this post. When the game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET, come back to this post, and hit that refresh button for the next three hours for drive-by-drive analysis, score updates, and highlights. When the game concludes, this post will turn into a recap.
First quarter
The Titans won the toss and deferred. Jared Goff and the Lions offense didn’t last long, though. On the very first play, Arden Key beat Taylor Decker around the corner for a sack, and Detroit couldn’t work their way back—going three-and-out quickly.
Mason Rudolph, in for Will Levis, completed his first pass of the day to Calvin Ridley for 13 yards. But on his very next pass, Rudolph felt pressure from Levi Onwuzurike and threw it right to linebacker Trevor Nowaske.
It only took the Lions two runs to cash in, as a pair of David Montgomery runs plowed Detroit to a 7-0 Lions lead.
The Titans were able to get to midfield, that’s it. A tackle for loss by Alim McNeill set up third down, and then Rudolph tried to hit
At some point around here, linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez went down with an ankle injury. He was originally listed as questionable to return, but was downgraded to out by the end of the first quarter.
The Lions were able to pick up a first down, but only went backwards after that. Goff took a coverage sack for a 13-yard loss on a second down, and as he attempted to go deep on third down, he was sacked again, fumbling the ball. Thankfully for Detroit Kevin Zeitler was there to jump on the ball.
Tennessee caught the Lions off-guard with a play-action rollout, as Rudolph found tight end Josh Whyle for a 33-yard gain to kick off their next drive. A few plays later he hit Ridley all the way down to the Lions’ 11-yard line. Then Rudolph had a quarterback keeper where he juked Nowaske for an 11-yard scamper and a 7-7 tie.
The Lions quickly struck back, as Jahmyr Gibbs took the first play of the ensuing drive untouched for a 70-yard touchdown run. 14-7 Lions.
The Titans continued to challenge Detroit’s defense, though. After getting into a second-and-18 hole, Rudolph found Ridley for a 47-yard gain after he had gotten by Amik Robertson.
They kept feeding Ridley all the way down into the red zone, as the game moved into the second quarter.
Second quarter
Two plays into the quarter, Rudolph found Westbrook-Ikhine for a 5-yard touchdown and a 14-14 tie.
Detroit, again, had a quick response, this time via special teams. Khalil Dorsey returned the kickoff all the way to the Titans’ 25-yard line. A facemask penalty pushed Detroit into first-and-goal, and from there Goff found a wide open Brock Wright for an 8-yard touchdown. 21-14 Lions.
Detroit’s defense finally made a quick stand, as Kerby Joseph jumped in front of a Rudolph deep shot, and returned it all the way to the Titans’ 12-yard line.
Three plays later, Sam LaPorta kept the Tight End Day celebrations going with a 9-yard catch that was overturned from a touchdown down to the 1-yard line. Detroit hit the Titans with a play-action on the next play and found Amon-Ra St. Brown for an easy touchdown. 28-14 Lions.
The Titans offense wasn’t rattled by the turnover, as Rudolph went right back to work. Tennessee faced a fourth-and-inches at midfield, and Rudolph barely picked it up with a play-action rollout. However, they went backward from there. Alex Anzalone picked up a sack, then the Titans were called for a hold, putting them in a second-and-28.
A Rudolph scramble got erased half of that, but on third down, Terrion Arnold batted the ball away to force a punt. On that punt, Kalif Raymond made the first man miss, changed directions and took it down to the Titans’ 22-yard line with a 64-yard return.
The Lions quickly worked their way into a goal-line situation, and that’s when Ben Johnson dug right back into his bag of tricks. This time, with David Montgomery celebrating National Tight Ends day with a pass to Sam LaPorta for a 1-yard touchdown. 35-14 Lions.
Tennessee would nearly cut into the lead before the half. Aided by a pass interference and a deep shot to Westbrook-Ikhine, the Titans would get all the way down to the 1-yard line. However, they inexplicably threw the ball four times from there and Rudolph was incomplete every time, so the half would end 35-14 Lions.
Third quarter
The Titans started with the ball, hoping to dig into Detroit’s three-touchdown lead, but they quickly went three-and-out after a nice open-field tackle from Anzalone on Ridley stopped him a yard short. And on the ensuing punt, Raymond finally housed one. 42-14 Lions.