Pride of Detroit
Make it three straight AFC North matchups for the Detroit Lions, as they went back on the road to play the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Lions offense scored on their opening drive, and for the first time this season, the defense stopped the opposing team from scoring on their first drive. Detroit was up 14-3 at halftime, with the defense getting takeaways, but the offense was not finishing the job every time. Entering the fourth quarter, the Lions were up 28-3, but suddenly the Bengals cut the lead to 11, making it 28-17. Detroit reinforced that it was the better team and scored to go up 35-17. The Bengals didn’t give up and made it 35-24 before Detroit finished with a safety to win 37-24.
While it was a victory, this game had a lot of highs and lows. I’ll explain in my eight takeaways from the Lions’ victory against the Bengals.
For weeks, Lions starting left tackle Taylor Decker hasn’t practiced, but has played in every game. After missing another week of practice, Decker was expected to play until Sunday morning when the Lions downgraded him from questionable to doubtful. Decker was a scratch, meaning second-year tackle Giovanni Manu got the start. Making your first-ever start against a top edge rusher in Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson is a tough challenge.
After doing well on the opening drive, Manu made his first crucial mistake on the next drive. The Lions were moving with ease once again, and Manu got beaten quickly by Hendrickson, leading to him strip-sacking Lions quarterback Jared Goff and the Bengals recovering the football. After that, Manu did well until late in the fourth quarter, as he was beaten cleanly by Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai.
Both sacks were at the worst times, once stopping the offense that was moving down the field with ease, giving the Bengals the ball back. The second forced the Lions out of field goal range in the fourth quarter to make it a two-touchdown game and gave the Bengals life. Thankfully, the defense got a game-clinching safety to eliminate any chance of a comeback for the Bengals. Manu was a tough watch for those plays, but besides those, he did as well as he could.
Lions wide receiver and punt returner Kalif Raymond took a nasty hit on his first punt return of the day and left the game with a neck injury. Raymond didn’t return, so that meant rookie wide receiver Dominic Lovett filled in for him for the rest of the game. Neck injuries can be scary, and I hope Raymond can return from it. As of now, though, it seems like the news is promising.
If Raymond misses time, Lovett should be his replacement, but I’m sure Detroit will try a few others out to see if they could fill the role. Raymond being down doesn’t affect just the punt returning job, though. Rookie wide...
