Lions Week 3 grades: Everything comes together vs. Cardinals

Handing out position grades after the Detroit Lions’ Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Any objective observer could see that the Detroit Lions weren’t themselves for the first two weeks of the season. But Sunday’s 20-13 win over the Arizona Cardinals was a huge step in the right direction for the team. It may not have been a dominant win, but a lot of their early rust appears to have been shaken off, and this was their best game to date.

Let’s break it all down with our Week 3 Lions report card.

Quarterback: B+

Goff finished the first half as perfect as you could expect, completing all 12 of his passes for 137 yards, two touchdowns, and a near-perfect 153.8 passer rating. Detroit’s offense finally looked like it had rebounded completely, scoring touchdowns on three of their first four drives.

Unfortunately, the well dried up in the second half. Goff wasn’t terrible in the final two quarters, but his interception gave the Cardinals a huge opportunity to pull the game close, and he took a couple of sacks he probably could’ve escaped.

That said, with the game on the line at the very end, Goff clinched the win first with a bullet to Amon-Ra St. Brown on a third-and-12, then with his feet for a rare 8-yard pickup. This was far more like what we’re accustomed to seeing of Goff, and it’s a huge relief after a tough start to the season.

Running backs: A

David Montgomery tallied his first 100-yard game of the season and his fourth as a member of the Lions. He earned every single yard out there, earning an impressive 3.8 yards after contact per carry. Meanwhile, Gibbs nearly reached 100 yards himself, finishing with 83 and 5.2 yards per carry. He had an impressive first down pickup on a third-and-12 draw, plus he ran the hook-and-ladder to perfection for Detroit’s third score of the day.

Tight ends: B-

Blocking continues to be inconsistent from this group, but they were more involved in the passing game than in previous weeks. Brock Wright pulled in four catches for 34 yards (all in the first half), while Sam LaPorta had two catches for 36 yards, including Detroit’s longest passing play of the game—a 24-yard downfield strike.

It’s nice to see the two get a little more involved in the offensive game plan, but it’s hard not to feel like they’re still only scratching the surface of their potential.

Wide receivers: B+

It was pretty much just the Amon-Ra St. Brown show, as the All Pro caught seven of his eight targets for 75 yards and a touchdown. Not only did he have the clutch third-and-goal touchdown grab, but his third-and-12 18-yard snag essentially clinched the game. What’s truly amazing about St. Brown is that when the game is on the line—and everyone knows Goff is looking his way—he’s still unstoppable.

Unfortunately, the rest of the receiving crew didn’t get much involved. There’s still weird chemistry issues with Goff and Jameson Williams that result in at least one “WTF” play per game. And Tim Patrick was targeted just once despite his 34 offensive snaps.

Offensive line: B+

For most of this game, the Lions offensive line was absolutely mauling the Cardinals’ defensive front, particularly in the run game. There’s a reason why Detroit opted to run the ball 43 times. Pass protection was mostly good in this game, as well, particularly early, which played a big part in Goff’s perfect first half.

That said, there were an uncharacteristic amount of mistakes from the offensive line that could be partially attributed to Detroit’s scoreless second half. Here’s a sample of them:

• Graham Glasgow false start turned a third-and-1 into a third-and-6
• Penei Sewell false start turned a second-and-6 into a second-and-11
• Taylor Decker false start turned a third-and-7 into a third-and-12
• Offensive line chemistry issues allowed a sack on a three-man rush

You’re not going to have consistent success on offense if you keep putting yourself behind the sticks with self-inflicted wounds.

Defensive line: A

After allowing Kyler Murray to rack up 34 yards on the opening drive, the Lions defensive line absolutely bottled up the dual-threat quarterback for the rest of the game. They successfully kept him in the pocket, holding him to just 11 rushing yards the rest of the game, and rarely was he able to even make passes outside the pocket. Additionally, Detroit started to really make his life uncomfortable in the second half, forcing Murray to often make inaccurate throws off his back foot. In the second half, Murray completed just 12-of-23 passes for 132 yards, an interception, and a 51.4 passer rating.

Of course, it’s also worth noting that the defensive line continues to dominate the run game. Cardinals backs combined for 13 rushes for 32 yards… or just 2.46 yards per carry.

Linebackers: B-

With no Alex Anzalone and Derrick Barnes leaving early in the first half, it was on the Lions reserves to keep the unit afloat. For the most part, they did a fine job. Again, the run defense was stout, and there weren’t any huge blunders in coverage.

That said, there were too many missed tackles from this group, and the one place Murray did have success against Detroit was right over the middle of the field. Throw in a completely unnecessary late hit from Jalen Reeves-Maybin that essentially spotted the Cardinals three points before the half, and I’d like to see better play next week.

Defensive backs: A-

This was, perhaps, the most pleasant surprise from the game. Yes, both Terrion Arnold and Carlton Davis were tagged with pass interference penalties, but I didn’t particularly like either call, and both responded well the rest of the game.

Davis also had one of the biggest plays of the game, remaining disciplined on a Kyler Murray keeper on fourth-and-1, and tallying the turnover on downs tackle.

When the offense was failing to put the game away, it was on the Lions secondary to make sure Murray didn’t connect on any big plays to give them a fighting chance. He threw a total of seven passes 20 yards or more downfield, and completed just as many to his own team (one) as he did to Lions players (one).

Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch continue to make a very solid case for best safety duo in the league. Joseph added yet another pick on a perfectly executed play, then had a great breakup on a third down. Branch added two more pass breakups to his league-leading seven. And even Arnold logged the first pass breakup of his career.

Special teams: A-

Aside from Montgomery, there may not have been a more important player to Detroit’s win than Jack Fox. When the Lions offense was struggling in the second half, they were still winning the field position battle thanks to Fox. He pinned four of his five punts inside the 20, three of which were inside the 10-yard line. Fox’s only touchback was a 68-yard bomb, and because of a penalty on Arizona, they started at the 10-yard line anyways.

Kalif Raymond also pitched in with 40 punt return yards on four opportunities, nearly breaking out a big return on a couple occasions. The unit get dinged a half point for the extra point miss that could’ve been costly.

Coaching: A-

Some will look at this game and think the Lions took their foot off the gas in the second half, but I don’t view it that way. They simply continued what was working—the run game—and failed to convert key opportunities. In the second half alone, Detroit failed to convert two third-and-2s, and a fourth-and-1. If they convert even one of those—and they typically do—I think we’d have a different outlook of the second half offensive performance. Would Ben Johnson like a couple of those calls back? Yeah, probably, but that happens every game. In reality, Johnson called an excellent game, went back to the basics, then pulled off that crazy, well-designed trick play.

As for in-game decisions, I think Dan Campbell had a pretty clean game. His challenge of the fourth-down spot was essential to their win. I have zero problem with their attempt to go for it on fourth-and-1 instead of attempting a 52-yard kick. Potentially keeping the ball and bleeding more clock was more important that turning a 10-point lead into a 13-point lead at that point in the game, in my opinion. In fact, I wish they would’ve gone for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 47-yard line late in the game, but I understand the risk of not converting there is pretty high.

I also wished they would’ve challenged the spot on a third-down run from Montgomery that appeared to earn a conversion, but Campbell said after the game that it was his understand he was well short.

Of course, we have to commend Aaron Glenn for his game plan, as well. Despite the constant nagging of fans for a QB spy, the Lions’ containment plan absolutely worked on Sunday, with Murray’s only big run of the game coming early—and thanks to a sneaky hold from the left tackle.