The best thing about Detroit’s Week 7 trip to Baltimore is that it’s over. The actual game between the Lions and the Ravens could not end soon enough.
Baltimore won 38-6 in a game that wasn’t nearly as competitive as the final score would indicate. It was 21-0 Baltimore before Detroit picked up its initial first down. The Lions didn’t score until the fourth quarter and already down 35-0 on the road to the AFC North leaders.
Here’s what stood out from the 38-6 shellacking after watching the game broadcast in real-time.
Defensive execution was dreadful
Early in the game, before the outcome was decided, the defensive execution was a bigger issue than the defensive scheming from coordinator Aaron Glenn. That’s not to absolve Glenn from blame, but his players — way too many of them — were just not doing their jobs well.
Rookie LB Jack Campbell stood out, and not in a good way. Playing more of a SAM role than being a straight off-ball backer, the rookie simply wasn’t ready for the Lamar Jackson challenge. Being snookered in coverage and a step late in reading the run is understandable for a rookie, but it was one of many fatal flaws for the Lions defense in Baltimore.
It’s not Aaron Glenn’s fault when cornerback Will Harris, playing in emergency duty for late injury scratch Jerry Jacobs, sprints away from the point of attack on passing plays. Twice. Or when Tracy Walker and Campbell both stick to the same player in coverage instead of properly identifying their man. Twice.
I’m not saying that Glenn’s approach to trying to defeat the Ravens was a good one, because it wasn’t. But his players, plurally and darn near-unanimously, couldn’t execute their assignments either. That was the primary issue in the early part of the game.
The Ravens D took away the middle of the field and the Lions were lost
Some of the beatdown was a case of the Lions offense needing to win in the exact area where the Ravens defense is elite. The Ravens defense is naturally designed to take away the middle of the field. It’s true in the run and pass defense but especially the passing game. That’s where Jared Goff is at his best, where Amon-Ra St. Brown thrives and where OC Ben Johnson loves to exploit matchups and holes.
Between a shaky line that struggled all day to pick up the Ravens’ stunts and blitzes, the absence of power back David Montgomery to keep the safeties honest and some accuracy issues from normally pinpoint Jared Goff, the Lions offense had no real answers to threaten Baltimore. St. Brown didn’t have a great day despite the gaudy box score (13 catches, 102 yards); he dropped a pass and struggled to find openings in the middle-of-field crowd. The Ravens effectively erased all yards-after-catch YAC from everyone, and that’s a staple of the Lions offense.
The obvious solution to having the middle of the field and the short outside eliminated by defensive design is to attack outside and down the field. Other than a couple of nice plays by Josh Reynolds and one sweet Sam LaPorta catch, that element never really showed for Detroit. Goff had issues with both pressure and accuracy. Jameson Williams wasn’t in sync with Goff, either.
Chalk all that up to the Ravens augmenting a matchup advantage and the Lions offense having a collective bad day, from the coordinator on down.
Lamar Jackson was phenomenal
Jackson played like an MVP. His passing to all levels of the field has improved under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken. But it’s the little things, the attention to detail, that have made Jackson take the proverbial next step–no easy feat for a guy who has already won an NFL MVP.
There was a play in the second quarter where Jackson’s command shone. On a handoff to Justice Hill, Jackson held the ball an extra count on an option read. The patience and execution froze LB Derrick Barnes from getting to the hole designed (and well-blocked) for Hill to hit. It gave the wide receivers on the outside more time to run the CBs and safeties down the field and away from trying to help. Jackson’s excellent sell of the fake kept Aidan Hutchinson from crashing down and potentially impacting the play. Hill ripped off a 27-yard gain on the play, but it was Jackson’s smooth execution and the Lions’ defensive focus upon No. 8 that made the play.
Jackson was better in this game than I’ve ever seen him before. He was better than Patrick Mahomes in Week 1, better than Geno Smith has been in either of Seattle’s wins over Detroit in the last two years. My (hypothetical) MVP vote changed from Goff to Jackson on Sunday afternoon, with apologies to Tua Tagovailoa and maybe Myles Garrett too.
Top 3 stars of the game
Finding three Lions players who excelled is a bit of a challenge this week.
3rd star: WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, with 13 catches on 19 targets, topping 100 receiving yards
2nd star: P Jack Fox, four punts with a 46-yard average and two ending inside the Baltimore 20.
1st star: RB Jahmyr Gibbs, rushing for 68 yards on 11 carries and scoring Detroit’s only touchdown. Also caught nine of his 10 passing targets for 58 yards.
Quick hits
–Halapoulivaati Vaitai showed some rust in returning to the starting lineup at right guard. Graham Glasgow had a rough game in moving to left guard after filling in (pretty well) for Big V the past few weeks and taking over LG for an injured Jonah Jackson. Bad week to have moving pieces/parts on the offensive line.
–Related to that:
Kyle Van Noy with his 2nd sack on Jared Goff. Graham Glasgow helped him get free by running into Taylor Decker trying to block him. One of those days…
— Jeff Risdon (@JeffRisdon) October 22, 2023
–I like the inventiveness to try reserve LB Malcolm Rodriguez at fullback. Alas, the use of a fullback, any fullback, continues to be a hefty anchor on the Lions offense. The sooner Ben Johnson realizes this, the better.
–The Ravens TD where Jackson bought 9.8 seconds in the pocket and was pressured by both Aidan Hutchinson and John Cominsky and nobody ever touched him was one of the most demoralizing plays in recent memory.
–Goff was 0-for-6 when targeting Jameson Williams. One of them was a pretty clear case of defensive pass interference not being called, but the duo are just not on the same page. Like, ever…
–Feel horrible for Mohamed Ibrahim, who was carted off with an apparently serious hip injury on his very first NFL touch. The undrafted rookie RB was just signed back to the team this week.
–The Lions fans at the stadium were very visible on the broadcast feed, and even in a loss it was pretty cool to see the support.
–Detroit’s defense had been tackling very well recently, but that went out the window in Baltimore too. Kerby Joseph, Will Harris, Tracy Walker, Jack Campbell and John Cominsky all had bad misses where they normally terminate the play.
–The Ravens got away with a cheap shot when RT Morgan Moses was guilty of both a late hit and throwing a punch after a play. While up 35-0. Way to stay classy…
–Greg Olsen was outstanding on the FOX broadcast. His early castigation of the Lions DBs giving way too much cushion was spot-on. Thought the FOX crew did a good job of explaining the “why” as well as covering what was happening, both good and bad.
–Even in the brutal loss, the Lions maintained their 3-game lead in the NFC North thanks to the Packers losing to the previously 1-win Broncos. Black clouds can have silver linings.
