The Detroit Lions’ 37-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals felt somewhat unsatisfying after the way the game ended. Headed into the fourth quarter with a 28-3 lead, the Lions looked like they were about to cruise to victory. But a 21-point fourth quarter from the Bengals had some feeling uneasy about Detroit’s overall performance. Was it really that bad, or are some overreacting to a game that was really never out of hand?
Let’s take a closer look in our Week 5 report card.
Quarterback: A-
Jared Goff’s statline was outstanding. He finished 19-of-23 for 258 yards (11.2 yards per attempt), three touchdowns, and a 153.0 passer rating. He was accurate and decisive for pretty much the entire game. He only gets minorly dinged for turning the ball over and running himself into a sack on a different play. But this is nitpicking because Goff is on a heater right now. Per RBSDM.com, Goff finished the game with an impressive 15.9% completion percentage over expected.
Running backs: B+
It wasn’t a wildly successful day for the backs, as Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery combined for 30 carries, 119 yards (3.97 YPC), and a single rushing touchdown. That said, I think both did a relatively good job getting the most out of their carries, and Gibbs also added a 20-yard touchdown catch where he gave tremendous individual effort.
Of course, I’m not going to forget David Montgomery’s passing touchdown, either. Call it a gimmick, but Montgomery has legitimate chops as a passer, and that was both a well-designed play and perfect execution from the veteran back.
Tight ends: A-
Sam LaPorta finished with five catches for 92 yards and a score—the third-highest receiving total of his career. Brock Wright added a touchdown of his own, as well, on the aforementioned Montgomery throw.
While both were valuable in the receiving game, it didn’t seem quite as good when it came to blocking. Wright gave up a sack to Trey Hendrickson, although he was put in a tough spot on the play. That said, you could see the value in this crew’s protection skills, because when they were helping out Giovanni Manu, things seemed steady. When Manu was left on an island… well, we’ll get to that.
Wide receivers: B+
Not much to complain about here. While it was mostly Amon-Ra St. Brown doing the damage from this group (eight catches, 100 yards), the contributions of the others shouldn’t be overlooked. On a big play to St. Brown, it was Jameson Williams’ route that drew two defenders and left the All-Pro receiver wide open. Isaac TeSlaa was thrown into the game late after Kalif Raymond’s injury, and beat his guy on the game-sealing touchdown.
Offensive line: D+
Giovanni Manu’s debut looked like the debut of a long-term developmental project. On first viewing, there was more bad than good—and it’s certainly concerning to see Jared Goff take some wicked blindside hits at Manu’s expense. This wasn’t completely unexpected, though, and hopefully it’ll be part of the growing process for the 2024 fourth-round pick.
What was more disappointing to see was the rest of the offensive line failing to open up rush lanes. Going into this game, the Bengals defense was allowing an averaged of 136 rushing yards and 4.5 yards per carry. The Lions managed just 118 at 3.6 per carry. It was even worse in the first half, where Detroit managed just 40 rushing yards on 15 carries (2.7 YPC).
This game simply wasn’t up to the offensive line’s standards.
Defensive line: C
Aidan Hutchinson continues to be a disruptive force, even if half of his splash plays continue to get negated by penalties. Per NextGenStats, he is the only player in the NFL with three games of seven or more pressures and a sack.
Not much to say about the rest of the defensive line, though. Tyleik Williams did have another batted pass, which seems to be a calling card for the rookie defensive tackle. However, the Lions didn’t get much pressure from anyone else on the line. Al-Quadin Muhammad did officially log three quarterback hits, but not other lineman had one.
The main reason for the average grade here is the run defense. The Bengals entered the game with the worst rushing attack in football, averaging 2.6 yards per carry and they were without a single game over 53 rushing yards. They had 85 in this game at 5.3 yards per carry. Some of that is carried by Jake Browning’s 31 yards on four scrambles, but they were also finding some surprising success in the traditional run game. If the game was closer, it could have made a difference, but because the Bengals were down all game, they only had 12 traditional carries.
Linebackers: A+
This may have been the best collective game from the Lions’ linebacking corps, which is saying something, because they’ve been balling out lately (they’ve gotten an A or higher in each of the last three games).
Jack Campbell tallied a game-high 11 tackles, one for a loss, and had one of the most impressive effort plays I’ve seen with a QB pressure turning into a forced fumble after the ball was complete. Alex Anzalone was outstanding in coverage, tallying three passes defended on the day, including an impressive interception (His pass interference penalty was a garbage call. I will not ding him for it). Derrick Barnes put the game on ice with a sack in the endzone for a safety, and he added six more tackles on the day.
I am continually impressed with this unit, and it may only get better once Malcolm Rodriguez is back.
Secondary: B-
This is a tough one to grade, because through three quarters, they were outstanding. At that point, Bengals quarterback Jake Browning was 18-of-30, for 118 yards (3.9 Y/A) and three interceptions. That’s a passer rating of 28.9. But in the final quarter, he went 8-of-10 for 133 yards, three touchdowns, and a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
Do we chalk that up to the Lions’ going into a prevent defense? One big mistake by Amik Robertson on Ja’Marr Chase’s 64-yard touchdown? A litany of injuries at the cornerback position that briefly had Tre Flowers on the field?
It’s certainly a mixture of all of them, but I came away far more encouraged than discouraged in this game. The truth of the matter is that when the game was competitive, the Lions secondary essentially shut down both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Detroit’s secondary finished with two of the three interceptions and seven of the team’s 11 pass breakups. Kerby Joseph, Rock Ya-Sin, Terrion Arnold, and Amik Robertson all got their hands on the ball Sunday, providing some hope in the team’s depth there.
Special teams: A
Jack Fox had his best game of the season, pinning three of his five punts inside the 10, and four of them inside the 20. Kudos to both replacement gunners (Isaac TeSlaa and Dominic Lovett) for downing the ball, as well. Jacob Saylors continues to give the Lions consistently good field position on kick returns, and I think Jake Bates has really gotten the kickoff down. His kickoffs were fielded at the 0, 0, 1, 1, 3, and 4-yard line. All six kickoffs inside the 5. That’s both precision and accuracy.
Coaching: B
Let’s start with the things I didn’t like. I didn’t like the rushing game plan, as it felt like the Lions were hand-feeding Montgomery for emotional reasons when Gibbs was the more efficient runner on the day. While I loved that the Lions started with two tight ends to Manu’s side early in the game, I thought they left him on an island far too many times later. Defensively, they may have gone into a shell a little too early, and it allowed the Bengals to threaten a comeback.
That said, Detroit put their foot back on the pedal when they needed to, and Detroit’s 61-yard drive in the fourth quarter was a beautifully-called series to put the game away. And the defensive game plan was clearly outstanding for three quarters.
I didn’t have any real complaints about game management from Dan Campbell. The challenge was not close to winning, but it was probably worth it anyways, given he had no time to think about it or consult a replay. I didn’t love when he punted on fourth-and-6 from the Bengals’ 41-yard line in a 14-o game, but given how bad the Bengals offense was at the time, I can understand his thinking there.
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