Pride of Detroit
No intro necessary. Let’s just get into the grades for the Detroit Lions’ loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving.
I was not prepared for a shootout between the two teams, but Jared Goff was. On a day of solid quarterbacking from both teams, Goff was matching Jordan Love with big throw after big throw. And after losing his favorite target in the first quarter, Goff didn’t blink. He was patient with his reads, delivered mostly accurate balls, and did it while taking a few vicious hits. Hell, he even had the second-longest run of his career (24 yards).
My only complaint from Goff’s game was that his internal clock was sometimes a bit too relaxed, and the fourth-down pass to Jameson Williams was too far behind him, even if the receiver still should have come up with it.
After a record-setting game last week, Jahmyr Gibbs fell back down to mortal status against the Packers. He finished with just 68 yards on 20 carries (3.4 YPC), and on a couple of occasions, he turned bad situations into worse ones by trying too hard to make something out of nothing. Of course, there were a few situations in which he actually did make something out of nothing, so maybe you just take the good with the bad. Gibbs also gave up a quick pressure on a poor blitz pickup early in the game that nearly led to a strip sack.
David Montgomery was mostly good, particularly in short-yardage situations, where he converted a third-and-1 and scored a red-zone touchdown.
Expectations were low when we knew that Detroit was going to have to trot out third and fourth-string tight ends Ross Dwelley and Anthony Firkser, and unfortunately, those expectations were met. While I can’t be completely sure it was on the tight ends, Detroit was called for two illegal formations with multiple tight ends on the field in both cases.
Beyond that, both Dwelley and Firkser were liabilities out there, both in the run and pass game. It was a tough ask for both on a short week with only walkthrough practices, but it unfortunately cost Detroit a lot on Thursday.
It’s hard to complain about this unit’s performance, particularly because of how Jameson Williams, Isaac TeSlaa, and Tom Kennedy all stepped their game up after Amon-Ra St. Brown went down. Williams set a career-high in receiving yards, and his touchdown was a great individual effort—breaking the initial tackle and finding the open field to sprint through.
TeSlaa only saw two targets, but turned them into 35 yards and a score. And Tom Kennedy—who entered the game filling Kalif Raymond’s role, but ended it filling St. Brown’s role—was as reliable as anyone out there.
I’m only dinging the unit for William’s fourth down drop and some uncharacteristically poor blocking in the run game.
Despite allowing three sacks and seven quarterback hits,...
