From the “I did it so you don’t have to” department, I spent way too long on Tuesday breaking down the Detroit Lions game film from their Week 7 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
The game did not get any better in a second viewing. The coach’s tape did reinforce my initial takeaway that the Detroit defense played more than well enough to win, but it was still an overall discouraging way to spend a rainy fall day.
Look for the more detailed breakdown of rookie DE Josh Paschal soon, in the spirit of recent film focuses on Aidan Hutchinson and Malcolm Rodriguez. In the meantime, here’s what I took away from the film review of the Lions’ 24-6 loss in Dallas.
Offense and special teams were way too sloppy out of the gate
Give Aaron Glenn’s defense some credit–Detroit’s D came ready to play. They forced 3-and-outs on Dallas’ first two possessions, the first time the Cowboys have not picked up at least one first down in their first two drives in 45 games.
The offense and special teams sandwiching those strong defensive efforts were about as sharp as string cheese, unfortunately.
Detroit’s first offensive possession featured a series of drive-killing errors. There was QB Jared Goff too quickly checking to a predetermined route to TE Brock Wright. It gained 11 and was a solid play, but T.J. Hockenson was uncovered streaking up the same seam. If Goff sees that and throws it anywhere near Hockenson, it’s a gain of at least 30. Then Jamaal Williams fumbled, an anomaly caused when he ran too close to TE Brock Wright and somehow lost the ball. On third down following the fumble recovery, Goff checked into a run but the offensive line clearly did not all get the message. Both tackles, Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell, remained in pass protection mode and RB Craig Reynolds got annihilated in the backfield.
For the most part, the Lions special teams–outside of the placekickers–have been very good all year. But the first drive saw a punt return from Kalif Raymond that gained 13 yards but could have broken for much more with better blocking, a terrible snap (his first error of the year) from long snapper Scott Daly, a too-long coffin corner kick by punter Jack Fox and tardy coverage to down that Fox punt from gunner Chase Lucas. All have shown to be much better than they performed, and it cost the Lions.
Players cannot come out lacking focus and alacrity. Campbell’s offense and special teams had neither early on, letting down a fantastic effort from the defense.
The Dallas defense caught onto Lions OC Ben Johnson
In the first four weeks, the Lions offense under coordinator Ben Johnson was a finely tuned machine. Th Lions lead the league in points thanks to creative aggression from Johnson’s schemes and play-calls, which took advantage of the strong offensive line, decisive run calls, and Jared Goff’s accuracy on intermediate routes.
Beginning with the shutout in New England, it was apparent the opposing defenses were catching on and making adjustments based on Johnson’s success the first four weeks. Dallas built upon what the Patriots did and ruined a lot of play-calls because of savvy film work and smartly attacking Johnson’s tendencies.
There’s a great example on the Lions’ second possession. Johnson likes to have the pre-snap motion from the TE dictate which way the OL has its puller (typically the opposite-side guard–LG to the right/RG to the left) on run plays. Dallas saw the motion and had the LB crash behind the puller instead of taking the bait and trying to get ahead of the block. But they also correctly read the action and had the outside CB crash down before he could be blocked. Craig Reynolds was dead to rights as soon as he got the handoff because Dallas guessed Johnson’s play-calling tendencies and ruined it.
There were several examples of the Cowboys defense preemptively reading plays based on Detroit’s prior down/distance film. It showed in the coverage especially well, knowing exactly what decisions Goff would make when presented with the coverage and pre-snap rush look.
All that is a very long way of saying Ben Johnson needs to adjust to the adjustments teams are making to what he’s now shown on film. In the last two weeks, the defense has been one step ahead–and it showed even more in Dallas than it did in the shutout loss to New England.
Jeff Okudah was indeed all that and a bag of chips
I wasn’t sure cornerback Jeff Okudah could have a better game than he did back in Week 1 against the Eagles. The third-year CB proved me wrong.
Okudah was everywhere in Dallas. Playing in his home state, Okudah racked up 15 tackles, including one TFL that stopped a potential third-down conversion by Dallas. He was reliably on-point in coverage too, allowing completions short of the sticks and quickly terminating the plays.
Give Glenn some credit for how he deployed Okudah, too. Knowing that Dallas likes to run behind a lead block on the wing, Glenn frequently played Okudah as a box safety–even a weakside LB–whenever the Cowboys went to a tight bunch formation or brought in a two-TE set. His ability to knife under the block and aggressively attack the ball worked splendidly all afternoon.
Okudah was free to be more engaged as a run defender in part because this was also the best game in coverage all season from the Lions safeties. The Dallas WRs don’t separate well and the Lions smartly took advantage by letting the safeties do more of the coverage dirty work so Okudah, the team’s best pound-for-pound tackler, could smother the run. Rookie safety Kerby Joseph had his best game of the season, and Amani Oruwariye returned at outside CB and played much better than he did early in the season.
Quick hits
A few quick-hit observations:
–Goff’s late turnovers were absolute killers, but there was a very palpable change to the tone and attitude of the game when Jamaal Williams fumbled at the goal line attempting to score the go-ahead touchdown at 10-6 in the fourth quarter. The inability of the Lions to overcome in-game adversity was glaring. And that’s on Dan Campbell more than the players. Coach sets the tone and the players follow.
—-I had All-Pro LB Micah Parsons with one clean win against Lions RT Penei Sewell as a pass rusher. Two others Parsons probably earned credit for a “win” but didn’t impact the play. That’s a very acceptable outcome for Sewell in the battle of the standout 2021 rookies.
–Center Frank Ragnow was solid, but he does not yet have the explosion out of the blocks he did prior to his toe injury aggravation. It shows when he’s asked to range outside the tackle box in the run game. I noted twice in this game where 2020 Ragnow would make a block but 2022 Ragnow cannot.
–T.J. Hockenson was more available as a receiver than the box score (4 catches, 58 yards) would have you believe. Goff missed seeing him several times; it would not have been the most practical option most times, but when you’re struggling on offense, maybe at least try…
–I watched the Amon-Ra St. Brown play that resulted in his admittance into concussion protocol at least 10 times. I’m no neurologist but I didn’t see any alleged “demonstrative loss of senses” that would necessitate pulling him from the game.
–This was the most poorly officiated game the Lions have been involved in since the Ravens game last year where the crew missed the obvious delay-of-game penalty that directly led to the Lions loss. Bad, bad game in both judgment calls but also procedural work from referee Adrian Hill’s crew. Having said that, Brock Wright was clearly down short of the goal-line and any challenge would have quickly been denied.
–I don’t want to pile on Goff with all the blame (see the Johnson point above), but this game was a very glaring reminder of why the Rams so desperately wanted to trade him away. If Goff isn’t capable of finding better options more often, this offense is doomed.
