When does a dominating win by the Detroit Lions feel a little like a loss? When Aidan Hutchinson, the heart of the defense, goes down in the third quarter with a broken tibia.
Still the Lions kept punishing the Cowboys and high-tailed it out of Dallas with a 47-9 win on Sunday.
“I thought we played the most complete game we’ve played here in a long time, if not the most since we’ve been here,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “I thought all phases stepped up particularly offensively and defensively, we applied pressure, we finally got a multiple take away game. They come in bunches.’’
Campbell said Hutchinson underwent immediate surgery and was staying in a Dallas hospital overnight. He said they’ll know more Monday, but obviously he’ll be down for a while.
“These are hard moments, that’s hard for everybody,’’ Campbell told reporters afterward. The team surrounded Hutchinson on the field after he went down before he was hauled away on a cart
Still the team stayed strong without Hutchinson.
The Lions are now 4-1 and face the division rival undefeated Vikings (5-0) next week at Minnesota. Detroit has now started at least 4-1 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1970-71.
With a bye week coming up, the Cowboys (3-3), who were coming off two straight wins, will look to heal their wounds and regroup. They have lost all three home games so far this season.
It was total domination from the get-go for the Lions who were rested and ready after their bye week.
“I expected us to come in and play well. It’s the tightest I felt about our crew and we answered,’’ Campbell said.
Five of the main reasons the Lions won:
ONE: Quarterback Jared Goff was well Jared Goff, finding guys downfield for chunk plays – a 42-yard pass to Tim Patrick, a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Williams, a 52-yard flea-flicker TD pass to Sam LaPorta and a 38-yard pass to Kalif Raymond. Goff completed 18 of 25 attempts for 315 yards and threw three touchdowns. He is one of only three QBs in Lions’ history who have thrown three 50-yard plus passes within the first five games of a season. He’s right there with Greg Landry and Earl Morral.
TWO: The Cowboys’ defense had no clue about how to stop the Lions on the ground. The Lions rushed for 184 yards. David Montgomery, who is like a freight train pushing down the field, finished with a pair of touchdowns and 80 rushing yards. Jahmyr Gibbs found success too with a dozen runs for 63 yards. The offensive line gave Goff plenty of time to throw and the running backs room to run.
THREE: The Cowboys could not get much going offensively thanks to Detroit’s stingy defense. Dak Prescott, the NFL’s highest paid player, just didn’t look like it. He completed 17 of 33 passes for 178 yards and threw two picks. The Cowboys had just 3 points on their first six possessions. They never scored a touchdown even with Hutchinson out of the game. It didn’t help that they turned the ball over five times – three interceptions (a late one by Cooper Rush) and two fumbles lost. Entering the game, the Cowboys owned the NFL’s second-best passing offense. That makes the Lions’ effort look even more amazing.
FOUR: Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson went deep into his playbook with a flea-flicker touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta, a pass to left tackle Taylor Decker in the end zone that wasn’t complete and a trick TD play to right tackle Penei Sewell that was negated by a penalty. He made offensive lineman Dan Skipper eligible on the first play, a nod to the whole mess at the end of the game last December which the Lions lost.
FIVE: Dan Campbell had his bunch ready to play. The game plan was solid. It looked like the best game for the offense and defense this season. A big nod also to defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn who is playing without a few key injured players. Campbell didn’t make much of it during the week to the media, but he grew up in Texas and played three seasons for the Cowboys. At practice Friday one of the tunes blaring from the speakers was from the Texan band, Whiskey Myers. It was called “Bury My Bones” and seemed to fit in with the theme of the week.
BONUS: Brian Branch came up with two interceptions of Prescott and was stopped just short of a touchdown on the return of the second one early in the fourth quarter. On the next play Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown in the end zone for a score to give Detroit a 47-9 lead. Branch is the second player in franchise history to record two interceptions and a forced fumble in a single game, joining DB Drè Bly.
BONUS TOO: Kerby Joseph intercepted Cooper Rush, who was in for Prescott, in the end zone in the fourth quarter. It was Joseph’s fourth interception this year and all four have been in Detroit’s end zone. He is the Lions’ first safety to produce an INT in four of the team’s first five games since 1981.
Lions Lowdown 