Monday night’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders was a weird one for the Detroit Lions. It might have been the most dominant performance by the Lions all season in improving to 6-2, yet some critical mistakes prevented it from being a blowout on the scoreboard.
The Lions beat the visiting Raiders 26-14 on Monday Night Football, breaking out the new blue helmets. Detroit dominated everything but the scoreboard in the first home MNF game since 2018.
Here’s what I took away from watching the Lions rough up the Raiders in real-time.
Defense was ready, willing and able
Quite simply, this is one of the best defensive performances I’ve ever seen from a Lions team. Aaron Glenn needed a good rebound game as a coordinator and he got the best performance of his coaching career.
The Lions were all over Jimmy Garoppolo. Glenn gambled that Garoppolo couldn’t, or wouldn’t, attack them over the top and it paid off. The Lions pressured the Raiders QB on over 70 percent of his dropbacks and sacked him six times.
Garoppolo completed just three of his eight pass attempts in the first half, not counting the one he also threw directly to Kerby Joseph for an interception. The Raiders wide receivers didn’t catch a pass until Davante Adams snagged the first throw of the second half. That was Adams’ only catch of the night, a reflection of a healthy mix of pressure, good coverage and knowing thine enemy by Glenn. Detroit took away the easy and short passing game with physical coverage from the line and good safety alignment.
The players deserve credit too. The tackling was great all night, notably Alex Anzalone ending the Raiders’ first drive with a fantastic open-field stop on third down. Anzalone played like a Pro Bowler, as did Alim McNeill and Kerby Joseph. Outside CBs Cam Sutton and Jerry Jacobs were brilliant in coverage, as well. No exploitable mistakes.
Las Vegas converted one 3rd down all night. They ran just 45 plays and held the ball for just 20:27 of a 60-minute game. The Raiders, notably Garoppolo, were not good. The Lions defense had a whole lot to do with that.
Too many mistakes on offense
Detroit blew several opportunities in this one. Be it preventable giveaways, ponderous play-calling decisions or dropped balls, the Detroit offense was not sharp and it cost them on several drives.
Josh Reynolds’ fumble after the catch on Detroit’s second drive set an unfortunate tone of sporadically sloppy execution by the offense. Goff’s pick-six is as bad of a decision and throw as he’s made in a Lions uniform, a very ugly blemish on an otherwise impressive evening from No. 16.
Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson made some unsavory decisions on play calls, too. Intentionally not blocking the Raiders’ only threat on the defensive front, All-Pro DE Maxx Crosby, on at least four plays was a ridiculous choice. Maybe try it once, okay, but Johnson got too clever for his own good more than a few times. It led to a woeful red zone performance by the Detroit offense: one touchdown in five red zone possessions against a Raiders defense that was 30th in the league entering the game in the red zone.
Detroit’s offense moved the ball very well. Converting the 486 yards and 29 first downs into just 26 points is a very disappointing outcome.
The Jahmyr Gibbs breakout game
The rookie running back had himself quite a night. Gibbs ran for 152 yards on 26 carries, including a 27-yard touchdown. He also caught five passes for 34 yards.
#Lions rookie RB Jahmyr Gibbs has the most scrimmage yards in the #NFL over the last two weeks
pic.twitter.com/rOBMoGHezl— Logan Lamorandier (@LLamorandier) October 31, 2023
The advanced stats for the game aren’t available yet, but Gibbs undoubtedly will be one of the “forced missed tackle” leaders for the week, too. His ability to accelerate through contact and the vision and quickness to avoid hits in small areas was outstanding.
Gibbs is keeping some pretty impressive company with a game like this one,
.@Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs is Detroit's first rookie RB to produce a game with 100+ rushing yards and 30+ receiving yards since RB @BarrySanders in 1989.#OnePride pic.twitter.com/nbJn89ZvN9
— Detroit Lions PR (@LionsPR) October 31, 2023
Fans had been waiting for the monster game like this from the No. 12 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. They didn’t have to wait long, but this should definitively end the ridiculous “bust” talk.
3 stars of the game
Tough one to call!
3rd star: TE Sam LaPorta – 8 catches on 10 targets (both team-highs), 57 yards and a touchdown
2nd star: LB Alex Anzalone – 7 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 TFLs
1st star: RB Jahmyr Gibbs – 189 total yards and a touchdown
Honorable mentions to QB Jared Goff, DT Alim McNeill, WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, Kerby Joseph and K Riley Patterson, who would’ve made it if not for missing a 26-yard FG.
Quick hits
–I thought Graham Glasgow played very well at center in place of injured Frank Ragnow. He looked good in engaging run blocking targets in space, something he’s struggled with while playing guard.
–Need to watch the tape on rookie Colby Sorsdal in his first career start, but the first impression was that the moment wasn’t too big for him at right guard. Not a perfect outing, but he held up decently enough.
–Amon-Ra St. Brown got sacked on a gadget play where he had an easy TD throw if he threw it anywhere close to the back of the end zone. For some reason, he chose not to throw it. One of several red-zone plays where the Lions offense quit doing what was working to get them into scoring position and squandered points.
–I’ve never seen a referee wave off a holding call from an umpire before, but Clete Blakeman did that early in this game. In personally waving it off, Blakeman was acknowledging that he wasn’t paying attention to his zone of responsibility on the play; if he had a clear enough focus to determine that Alim McNeill wasn’t being held, he clearly wasn’t watching the QB or the offensive tackle to his side. Oops.
–Riley Patterson made a 52-yard field goal that might have been good from as far as 55. That’s got to be a huge confidence boost for the Lions kicker, who does not have great range. Good on Dan Campbell for letting Patterson try it, too. That 26-yard miss though: sigh…
–Brodric Martin made his NFL debut. The Lions used the third-round DT from Western Kentucky and left vet Isaiah Buggs a healthy scratch. Martin was key in giving Anzalone a clean shot for a third-down stop in the backfield on one series. He also exploded past his man on another but couldn’t make the play himself.
–I don’t know the rationale behind Buggs being inactive, but shortly after he was announced as being a healthy scratch, beat reporters from two different teams messaged me wondering if it was a sign he was on the move by Tuesday’s trade deadline. Perhaps something to monitor?
–Dan Skipper came in at left guard when Kayode Awosika left with an injury. Gibbs scored his TD on the very next snap. Think about that for a second; the Lions scored a rushing touchdown with their second-string center and No. 5 and No. 6 guards on the depth chart on the field.
–Josh Reynolds did not see the ball again after his early fumble
–Love how well Dan Campbell managed the clock at the end of the first half. Didn’t panic, didn’t rush, didn’t give Las Vegas extra time by calling a timeout.
–The TD pass from Goff to LaPorta is as good of a tight-window throw as Goff has made in a Lions uniform. Perfect throw, great route and catch and all with a high degree of difficulty and precision.
–Happy Halloween!
