Pride of Detroit
The margin of error is gone.
The Detroit Lions were facing a tough task against the Los Angeles Rams, and the NFC West titan showed why they are presently a Super Bowl favorite. The Rams offense was nigh unstoppable, churning out 41 points in a beatdown of the Lions defense. However, the Lions offense did their best to keep the game within striking distance. Unfortunately, a dreadful third quarter gave the Rams they never relinquished.
With three games left to go, the Lions are in must-win territory. If Detroit wants to make the playoffs, they need to play at an elite level—my list of winners needs to grow and my list of losers needs to shrink.
The Lions did not lose because of Jahmyr Gibbs, but he was certainly a reason why they did not win. The star running back gained a mere 38 yards on 13 carries, while only corralling four catches for 20 yards through the air (15 of which came on one catch in the dying minutes). Gibbs is a home run hitter, but this was a game in which the Lions would have been fine with a base hit. It’s rare for Gibbs to finish a game with a long of 6 yards, but that illustrates how little impact he was having on this game. At best, his runs were neutral. At worst, they were wasting precious down.
A running back is only as good as his blocking, and the offensive line gave Gibbs very little room to operate. Trystan Colon, fresh off a good start last week, was subpar in every blocking facet. Against the Cowboys, the Lions trotted out Dan Skipper as a sixth lineman on 23 snaps, yet that plummeted to just nine against the Rams. The line was simply struggling to create a trench for Gibbs to operate. Interestingly, it was another week in which the Lions were finding more success rushing to the right side of the offensive line than the left—rush directions are not the be-all, end-all of analysis, but at some point you have to acknowledge the trend.
In arguably the most important game of the season for the Lions, Gibbs was invisible. The Lions need to put him into successful situations, sure, but the Lions needed a spark from him. Dan Campbell said it best:
With three touchdowns and nearly 300 yards combined, St. Brown and Williams put up one hell of an effort in a losing battle. St. Brown’s ankle injury is firmly in the rearview mirror, as the All-Pro looked unhindered while making mince meat of the Rams coverage. His receiving total of 164 yards was a season-high (and second-most of his career) as he utilized his patented agility and route running to burn the defense.
As for Williams, he added yet another 100-yard game to his season tally, and he has become a feature of the offense. Over...
