The Detroit Lions manhandled the Tennessee Titans to move to 6-1 on the season, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Check out our Week 8 stock report.
The Detroit Lions manhandled the Tennessee Titans by a score of 52-14 to move to 6-1 on the season. The final score tells a story of a beatdown, but the first quarter and a half didn’t look like that would be the case. There’s still a lot to work on for Detroit entering a tougher stretch of their season. Here are your movers for the week:
Stock down: Taylor Decker, OT
Taylor Decker’s rough season continues. After what was arguably his worst game of the year last week against the Vikings, Decker picked up right where he left off with a rough start to Sunday. He gave up two sacks in the first quarter alone to Titans EDGE Arden Key, who has just one sack in six previous games this season. Then, he gave up a third in the third quarter to Justin Simmons. To make matters worse, two of those three sacks caused fumbles from Jared Goff, and the Lions were lucky that the offense was able to recover them.
Stock up: Kalif Raymond, WR
Stats: 2 rec, 14 yards, 1 TD; 5 punt returns, 180 yards, 1 TD
You couldn’t write a better revenge game for Kalif Raymond. He didn’t see much action on offense, but did catch both of his targets for 14 yards and a touchdown. His real magic came on punt returns, averaging 38 yards on five returns, including a 90-yard return for a touchdown. Those numbers would’ve been even higher had it not been for a penalty that took 20 yards off his last punt return. Oh, and he also made history:
The only player in @Lions history to produce a receiving & punt return TD in the same game:
– Kalif Raymond (2024)#OnePride pic.twitter.com/K9zQDXjVMV
— Detroit Lions PR (@LionsPR) October 27, 2024
Stock up: Graham Glasgow, OG
It was a nice rebound game for Glasgow after a tough outing last week against Minnesota. Glasgow sharpened up against a stout Titans defensive line, paving the way in the run game for the Lions to average 6.8 yards per carry. He climbed to the second level for a pivotal block on Jahmyr Gibbs’ 70-yard rushing touchdown. Glasgow wasn’t perfect in pass protection, but Sunday was an improvement over last week to trend in the right direction again.
Stock neutral: Kerby Joseph, S
Stats: 6 tackles, 2 passes defended, 1 INT
Kerby giveth, and Kerby taketh. Sunday was no different. It was a brutal start to the game for Joseph, confusing his assignments and playing out of position when deep in coverage. At one point, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn chewed out Joseph after he left a man wide open in the end zone on Mason Rudolph’s rushing touchdown.
However, Joseph redeemed himself in classic Joseph fashion, with a timely interception that he returned deep into Titans territory to pull the Lions out of reach of the Titans. Had it not been for that pick, Joseph would be firmly in stock down territory. But turnovers are the name of the game, and he showed up to play on Sunday.
Stock up: Amik Robertson, CB
Stats: 2 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 forced fumbles
It was almost the same narrative as Joseph for Amik Robertson Sunday. He looked brutal in coverage and constantly found himself a step behind. Mason Rudolph picked on Robertson for the entire time in which the Titans offense looked decent.
However, like with Joseph, Robertson came up huge with two forced fumbles. They did come in the third and fourth quarter, respectively, when the game was pretty much over, but turnovers are turnovers. Had we just been looking at Robertson’s coverage today, it would have been a stock down. A forced fumble put him at neutral on the day. Two forced fumbles? That’s an honest day’s work by Amik.
Stock down: Brian Branch, S
Stats: 6 tackles, 1 QB hit
Are you seeing a trend yet? Similar to Kerby and Amik, Brian Branch had a rough day on the back end. It was only a matter of time for Branch to come down to earth after playing like one of the best defenders in the entire NFL this past month. Lucky for the Lions, Branch hit his rough patch in a game where they didn’t need him to come up big.
It was a tough day in run and in pass for Branch. He, like almost every other Lions defender, struggled to bring down Tony Pollard in run defense. Then Branch got tagged with two defensive pass interference penalties on the same drive from the Titans’ last possession of the half. It was uncharacteristically poor performance from Branch, and without the turnovers to annul that bad performance like his peers in the secondary, he gets a stock down.
Quick hits
Stock up
Dave Fipp, Special teams coordinator: I gave Fipp a stock down two weeks ago for the special team unit’s poor performances in coverage and returns. Boy, did the Lions turn that around. It was against one of the worst special teams units in the league, so I’m not sure this level of play will be sustained, but it was a very impressive day from top to bottom by Fipp’s units.
Jack Fox, P: Speaking of special teams units, Fox had an unreal day with an average of 61 yards on five punts, including three inside the 20-yard line.
Stock down
Alex Anzalone, LB: Anzalone had an uncharacteristically slow day, looking lost in coverage early and whiffing on several tackles. He did come up with a sack in the second half and sharpened up as the game went on, but not his finest performance.
Carlton Davis III, CB: Davis got abused early and often by Calvin Ridley, as did many Lions secondary players. Davis also struggled in run defense in the first half, including one play where a bad pursuit angle gave up the edge and an additional 10+ yards to the Titans offense.
