Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions’ 37-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals felt somewhat unsatisfying after the way the game ended. Headed into the fourth quarter with a 28-3 lead, the Lions looked like they were about to cruise to victory. But a 21-point fourth quarter from the Bengals had some feeling uneasy about Detroit’s overall performance. Was it really that bad, or are some overreacting to a game that was really never out of hand?
Let’s take a closer look in our Week 5 report card.
Jared Goff’s statline was outstanding. He finished 19-of-23 for 258 yards (11.2 yards per attempt), three touchdowns, and a 153.0 passer rating. He was accurate and decisive for pretty much the entire game. He only gets minorly dinged for turning the ball over and running himself into a sack on a different play. But this is nitpicking because Goff is on a heater right now. Per RBSDM.com, Goff finished the game with an impressive 15.9% completion percentage over expected.
It wasn’t a wildly successful day for the backs, as Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery combined for 30 carries, 119 yards (3.97 YPC), and a single rushing touchdown. That said, I think both did a relatively good job getting the most out of their carries, and Gibbs also added a 20-yard touchdown catch where he gave tremendous individual effort.
Of course, I’m not going to forget David Montgomery’s passing touchdown, either. Call it a gimmick, but Montgomery has legitimate chops as a passer, and that was both a well-designed play and perfect execution from the veteran back.
Sam LaPorta finished with five catches for 92 yards and a score—the third-highest receiving total of his career. Brock Wright added a touchdown of his own, as well, on the aforementioned Montgomery throw.
While both were valuable in the receiving game, it didn’t seem quite as good when it came to blocking. Wright gave up a sack to Trey Hendrickson, although he was put in a tough spot on the play. That said, you could see the value in this crew’s protection skills, because when they were helping out Giovanni Manu, things seemed steady. When Manu was left on an island… well, we’ll get to that.
Not much to complain about here. While it was mostly Amon-Ra St. Brown doing the damage from this group (eight catches, 100 yards), the contributions of the others shouldn’t be overlooked. On a big play to St. Brown, it was Jameson Williams’ route that drew two defenders and left the All-Pro receiver wide open. Isaac TeSlaa was thrown into the game late after Kalif Raymond’s injury, and beat his guy on the game-sealing touchdown.
Giovanni Manu’s debut looked like the debut of a long-term developmental project. On first viewing, there was more bad than good—and it’s certainly concerning to see Jared Goff take some wicked blindside hits at Manu’s expense. This wasn’t completely unexpected, though,...
