Pride of Detroit
In their victory against the Colts on Sunday, five Lions players stepped up and positively impacted the game, while three others struggled. Here are my winners and losers from the win.
The Detroit Lions took a short trip down to Indiana to play the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, coming off a dismantling of the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. The Lions made their trip over to Indiana worth it, defeating the Colts 24-6.
It wasn’t a dominant victory for the Lions scoreboard-wise, but overall the Lions had control of the game once they took the lead in the second quarter. The Lions' offense wasn’t as explosive as weeks past, but they leaned on what they do best, running the football to find the endzone. The defense had some struggles learning how to contain Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson early on, but once they limited his chances and the offense got the lead, it became easier for them to win the game.
Check out my winners and losers in the win against the Colts.
It was another dominant performance by running back Jahmyr Gibbs. He took over as the starting running back as fellow running back David Montgomery left the game in the second half with a shoulder injury. Gibbs finished with 21 carries for 90 yards and two touchdowns, along with three receptions for nine yards receiving. With Gibbs scoring the first touchdown of the game, that made it 25 straight games for Detroit to have a rushing touchdown, the longest streak in NFL history.
Gibbs is the third Lion in franchise history with 1,000+ scrimmage yards and 10+ touchdowns in each of their first two seasons. The other two Lions to do that? Running backs Barry Sanders and Billy Sims. Gibbs is in good company so far in his early career and with the pace he is playing, he could be one of the next great Lions running backs.
Last week, Smith got a sack in his Lions debut and while he didn’t get one this week, Smith keeps impacting the defensive line. At one point, Colts guard Quenton Nelson was bulldozed by Smith, who was able to get a hit on Richardson as he was getting rid of the football. The Colts were down their starting left tackle Bernhard Raimann and Smith and Detroit took advantage of it with the pressure throughout the game.
Smith has come in and certainly given the Lions defensive line some much-needed help. Detroit is down defensive ends Aidan Hutchinson and Marcus Davenport, along with linebackers Derrick Barnes and Alex Analzone. Smith finished the game with just one tackle, but he hit Richardson twice and brought pressure throughout the game.
Wide receiver Tim Patrick had his second-best game as a Lion on Sunday. He had four catches for 55 yards and came up big on a few third-down catches. Patrick still hasn’t scored as a Lion but I think that day will come soon....
