No intro necessary. Let’s just get into the grades for the Detroit Lions’ loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving.
Quarterback: B+
I was not prepared for a shootout between the two teams, but Jared Goff was. On a day of solid quarterbacking from both teams, Goff was matching Jordan Love with big throw after big throw. And after losing his favorite target in the first quarter, Goff didn’t blink. He was patient with his reads, delivered mostly accurate balls, and did it while taking a few vicious hits. Hell, he even had the second-longest run of his career (24 yards).
My only complaint from Goff’s game was that his internal clock was sometimes a bit too relaxed, and the fourth-down pass to Jameson Williams was too far behind him, even if the receiver still should have come up with it.
Running backs: C
After a record-setting game last week, Jahmyr Gibbs fell back down to mortal status against the Packers. He finished with just 68 yards on 20 carries (3.4 YPC), and on a couple of occasions, he turned bad situations into worse ones by trying too hard to make something out of nothing. Of course, there were a few situations in which he actually did make something out of nothing, so maybe you just take the good with the bad. Gibbs also gave up a quick pressure on a poor blitz pickup early in the game that nearly led to a strip sack.
David Montgomery was mostly good, particularly in short-yardage situations, where he converted a third-and-1 and scored a red-zone touchdown.
Tight ends: D
Expectations were low when we knew that Detroit was going to have to trot out third and fourth-string tight ends Ross Dwelley and Anthony Firkser, and unfortunately, those expectations were met. While I can’t be completely sure it was on the tight ends, Detroit was called for two illegal formations with multiple tight ends on the field in both cases.
Beyond that, both Dwelley and Firkser were liabilities out there, both in the run and pass game. It was a tough ask for both on a short week with only walkthrough practices, but it unfortunately cost Detroit a lot on Thursday.
Wide receivers: B+
It’s hard to complain about this unit’s performance, particularly because of how Jameson Williams, Isaac TeSlaa, and Tom Kennedy all stepped their game up after Amon-Ra St. Brown went down. Williams set a career-high in receiving yards, and his touchdown was a great individual effort—breaking the initial tackle and finding the open field to sprint through.
TeSlaa only saw two targets, but turned them into 35 yards and a score. And Tom Kennedy—who entered the game filling Kalif Raymond’s role, but ended it filling St. Brown’s role—was as reliable as anyone out there.
I’m only dinging the unit for Williams’ fourth down drop and some uncharacteristically poor blocking in the run game.
Offensive line: C
Despite allowing three sacks and seven quarterback hits, I actually thought pass protection was somewhat decent. Goff’s 2.75 seconds to throw was the fourth-longest of his season, and that protection helped him complete six different passes that traveled at least 13 yards downfield.
Unfortunately, not much was working in the run game, especially on critical downs. Come back soon, Frank.
Defensive line: F
I’m having a tough time coming up with a single good play made from this unit. The Packers controlled the line of scrimmage in the run game, with Josh Jacobs rushing for well over (4.9) his 3.9 yards per carry average.
More harmfully, the Lions continued their struggles in getting any sort of quick pressure. Jordan Love’s 3.09 seconds to throw was the third-longest of the season for the Packers quarterback, and he used that time to pick apart Detroit’s exhausted secondary.
To make matters even worse, DJ Reader committed an offside penalty on a third-and-4 that kept the drive alive. The stop would’ve forced Green Bay into a long field goal attempt. Instead, they scored a touchdown four plays later.
Linebackers: D
Detroit’s linebackers were largely erased in the run game; they struggled in coverage—including Alex Anzalone allowing a 23-yard pass to backup tight end Luke Musgrave—and Jack Campbell committed a brutal facemask penalty that erased a third-down stop in the red zone. That’s another self-inflicted Lions penalty that directly cost them four points.
Secondary: D+
It feels like the rest of the defense (and some play calling) hung the defensive backs out to dry. On a normal day, five pass breakups between Amik Robertson (three) and Brian Branch (two) would be considered a pretty outstanding day. Unfortunately, this unit again gave up too many big plays when little pressure was applied to Love.
Unfortunately, this is the life of a defensive back in this Lions defense. Pressure is put upon you to cover for 3-4 seconds, and they largely weren’t up for the task. The frustrating part was that they were often in position to make a play, but they were outmuscled, outsmarted, or outraced by Packers receivers time and time again.
That said, Brian Branch was a big force in the run game, leading the team with 10 tackles.
Special teams: B
Special teams were largely a non-factor in this game, as the Packers kicked several touchbacks, and the Lions didn’t attempt any field goals. Tom Kennedy did have a couple of solid returns in both the kickoff and punt game, and Jack Fox pinned another punt inside the 20.
So it was a fine day for special teams.
Coaching: D
I’m going to get this out of the way right off the bat: I had no problem with the decision to go for it on fourth down on either attempt. Against the Eagles, you could make the argument the Lions offense wasn’t operating well—and the defense was—so a more measured approach may have fit that game. But against the Packers, the Lions knew they were in a shootout by the time they made both attempts. The offense was largely rolling, and they were even doing well on important downs, converting on 8-of-13 third downs on the day. It’s just unfortunate that it didn’t carry over into fourth down.
That said, there were a lot of things I was not a fan of from Campbell and company. Obviously, the play calling on the series of the first fourth-down was atrocious. Running Gibbs straight up the middle on four straight plays is pretty indefensible considering how poor the offensive line was run blocking.
Additionally, I don’t agree with Campbell’s explanation for the lack of tempo on Detroit’s final offensive drive. You can read his full explanation here, but in short, he wanted to bleed the clock so that if/when they got their defensive stop (which never happened), they would get the ball back with enough time to score but not enough time for the Packers to get another possession. Personally, I believe the Lions could have controlled the tempo to their liking on their theoretical game-tying drive, but by taking too much time, they gave themselves essentially no margin for error on defense.
Finally, I didn’t like the defensive game plan. Jordan Love thrives against man coverage and blitzing, and the Lions had high percentages of both in this game. The Lions’ 46.7% blitz rate was the third most Love has faced this year. On top of that, the Lions had both too few men and too many men on critical third downs in this game. Both are inexcusable mistakes.
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