Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions’ performance against the New York Giants was as frustrating as it was awe-inspiring. For much of the game, the Lions defense struggled and the offense sputtered. But when it came to the most important points in the game, individual players stepped up and delivered a much-needed win to Detroit.
Here are the positional grades for the Lions in my Week 12 report card.
There was certainly more good than bad from Jared Goff on Sunday. Though he was sacked three times against the Giants, he was actually pretty evasive in the pocket, avoiding another few tackles for loss on the day. His accuracy was up-and-down, but he wasn’t helped by a handful of drops from his receivers.
If there’s anything frustrating about the passing game’s performance, it’s the overreliance on Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs. Those two accounted for 25 of Goffs 42 targets and 20 of his 28 completions. Even Goff admitted he probably checked to Gibbs too often.
“I probably went to him a couple too many times, honestly, on some of those balls to the sideline,” Goff said. “But sometimes you are playing quarterback, you’re trying to be a point guard, and he’s the hot hand. If I’m in between (reads), just kind of give it to him. Again, probably one too many times.”
The interception falls mostly on St. Brown, but the ball certainly could’ve been delivered better, so I’m only going to ding him a little—even though it came in an absolutely critical moment. Detroit was driving to take their first lead of the game and were already in field goal range to at least tie it. Previous in that drive, too, Goff had overshot St. Brown on a crossers he could’ve housed.
Still, Goff managed the game fairly well, and deserves some credit for an offense that drive at least 50 yards on six different drives.
If that’s not an A+ performance from Jahmyr Gibbs, I don’t know what is. The Lions’ running back was absolutely electric against the Giants, tallying three different rushes of 40+ yards. Obviously, those splash plays were critical for Detroit’s win, but it’s worth noting that Gibbs was getting it done between those rushes, as well. Of his 15 rushes, 11 were considered a “success,” giving Gibbs the second-highest success rate (73.3%) of the week. His +9.6 rushing yards over expected per carry was obviously first in Week 12. Second closest was James Cook… at +2.6.
I could create an endless list of jaw-dropping stats from Gibbs’ performance, but wouldn’t it just be more fun to watch his highlights from the game?
It’s obvious this team misses Sam LaPorta, particularly as an option on third-and-medium and third-and-long. Brock Wright managed just three catches for 29 yards on the afternoon. I don’t have a good feel for how he was in blocking based on the live view, but he certainly had one of the key...
