Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions dismantled the Chicago Bears in Week 2, 52-12, leveling their season record to 1-1. Let’s take a closer look at the Lions’ snap counts to see what we can divulge from their personnel usage that may have led to this rapid return to success.
Goff was masterful in his Ford Field debut this season, completing 23 of 28 passing attempts for 334 yards, five touchdowns, and a near-perfect passer rating (156.0). With the game in hand, the Lions turned to their backups for the final offensive series, with Allen running three clock-draining snaps.
The running back splits continue to favor Gibbs, but not as drastically as they did in Week 1. Some of that is likely due to game situations, but there is also a ‘Montgomery getting opportunities against his old team’ factor to consider. Reynolds ran the ball on all three of his offensive snaps as the Lions worked to get to the end of the game.
Saylors didn’t see any snaps on offense, and he didn’t have a return on kickoffs, but he did make one of the best special teams plays of the day, helping to make sure the Bears’ opening kickoff went out of bounds and thus giving the Lions offense great starting field position. Five plays later, the Lions were up 7-0.
With TeSlaa full go—after being limited in Week 1 due to an illness—his snaps increased from three to 17, and as expected, they came from Raymond’s pool of snaps. TeSlaa was heavily used as a blocker, but he also made his second catch of the season, another one-handed masterpiece that set up Amon-Ra St. Brown’s first of three touchdowns on the day. Both St. Brown and Williams went over 100 yards receiving, and each had at least one touchdown.
LaPorta and Wright each caught three passes for 26 and 28 yards, respectively, but their splits were as expected. Zylstra was injured early in the game on special teams, was carted to the field, and was spotted in the locker room in a walking boot. Hopefully, we’ll get an update on his status on Monday.
