Some Detroit Lions film reviews are more fun than others. That’s certainly the case for the Week 5 review of Detroit’s 42-24 demolishing of visiting Carolina.
Watching the broadcast feed for a second time as well as poring over the coach’s tape of the Lions win was incredibly encouraging. The Lions dominated the Panthers despite playing without three important starters, sweet retribution for the debacle Detroit experienced when last the two teams met on Christmas Eve.
Here are some notes and observations from the film review of the Week 5 tape.
The defense was incredibly sharp from the opening drive
On the opening drive of the game, Carolina came out with its scripted play list. They’re set on attacking what they think are the vulnerabilities of the Detroit defense.
They had a little success on the first couple of plays, and then it was lights out. Aaron Glenn’s defense was one step ahead of what Panthers OC Thomas Brown and head coach Frank Reich were throwing at them.
There were two separate plays where Bryce Young’s primary option was a delayed pass to the running back. The premise was to let the DBs clear ou and get the back isolated in space to make a play. Except Lions LB Alex Anzalone completely eliminated the back from being a viable option by sniffing out the play before it even got flowing.
Anzalone had a monster game with his disciplined aggression at LB, arguably his best game in a Lions uniform. Safeties Tracy Walker and Kerby Joseph were also assignment-sound and effective in both phases. On the rare plays where the Panthers effectively blocked the Lions defensive front, the LBs and DBs were in a position to prevent anything bad from happening.
Planning and execution both earned massive checkmarks. I know the scoreboard says the Panthers scored 24 points. Through three quarters, it was 35-10 Lions and Carolina’s offense had one legitimately solid drive. The dominance of a well-prepared Detroit defense shone even brighter upon further review.
David Montgomery is, in fact, The Man
David Montgomery had a great game as the workhorse running back. In fact, he was the only Lions RB to touch the ball in the first half. It’s easy to see why–he was too effective to sit down, especially with primary No. 2 RB Jahmyr Gibbs out with an injury.
After the first couple of runs, including his 42-yard touchdown scamper on Detroit’s third offensive play of the game, I decided to keep track. How often did Montgomery go down on first contact?
In 19 carries and two receptions, I counted twice where the first tackler was the only one Carolina needed to get him down. Behind a line that played very well, especially RG Graham Glasgow and C Frank Ragnow in the run game, having a back like Montgomery who can augment the fine blocking by maximizing what’s there for him, that’s a lethal combo. It sure was for Carolina, which has a pretty solid core front on defense.
Quick hits
Because the game was so lopsided, I’ll cut out a couple of regular sections and just jump straight to the one-hit observations…
–Loved seeing the coordination on the punt coverage unit. Lions cover men stayed disciplined to their lanes, beat blocks and gave no room for the Panthers to get anything successful. Malcolm Rodriguez embraced being a strictly special teams player in this game.
–Rookie LB Jack Campbell had a relatively rough afternoon. He fell victim to something that showed periodically on his Iowa game tape: impatience. It’s great that he tried to get downhill quickly, but there were a couple of plays where he ran forward right off the snap without a clear reason to do so. Hadn’t seen much of that from the rookie prior to this game. I expect Lions LB coach Kelvin Sheppard will help correct that.
–In the initial watch, I didn’t really notice Romeo Okwara much. In the film review, he showed a lot better. Okwara was physical on the edge and also quick enough to cleanly beat Panthers LT Ikem Ekwonu for a couple of QB pressures. It just so happened that when he won in the pass rush, Alim McNeill and/or Aidan Hutchinson also won.
–Aidan Hutchinson “only” sacked Bryce Young once and it was still an utter domination by No. 97. Panthers RT Taylor Moton probably had nightmares about the diverse barrage of moves Hutchinson unleashed on him. Hutchinson doesn’t get enough credit for his ability to set up moves for the next rush.
–Frequent readers know I’m a frequent critic of Will Harris’ play in the secondary. Other than one blown coverage on Adam Thielen, Harris played quite capably in place of injured rookie Brian Branch. Darn good game from No. 25!
–Detroit’s defense got loose in coverage in the fourth quarter. First three quarters were much sharper, as noted above. Byrce Young’s numbers through those quarters and Detroit’s 35-10 lead: 15-of-28, 146 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions. Cam Sutton and Jerry Jacobs playing off and the pressure being more unschemed allowed Young to find his late-game success. A couple of really suspect officiating calls helped Carolina, too.
–Jared Goff’s touchdown throw to Josh Reynolds had such a small window in both time and space to work. The confidence in one another that created the touchdown is the only way it happens. Fantastic touch throw and toe-tap reception.
–Goff probably merits a much longer write-up here, but I’ll offer the abridged version: his play in this game reflects someone who should be in the MVP discussion. From decision-making to accuracy and leadership, Goff had it all working vs. Carolina.
