NFL – Page 13 – Lions Lowdown

Five reasons the Lions lost to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs

Unlike 2023, the Lions could not find a way to win in Kansas City on Sunday night. Playing with a depleted secondary, Detroit lost to the Chiefs, 30-17.
The Lions 4-game win streak was snapped, dropping them to 4-2. The Chiefs, who were coming off a loss to the Jaguars, entered the game with a 2-3 record. So while it wasn’t a must-win situation for Kansas City, it was close to it.

“We just didn’t make the plays we needed to make, we were able to do some things good in phases at times but not enough for a team like that with the pedigree they have, the way they play back at their house,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “We couldn’t complement each other and we weren’t able to really make it a game, we really weren’t.’’

While the Lions did not turn the ball over, their unforced errors on offense were costly. Credit the Chiefs defense for finding a way to stop Detroit’s offense which was ranked tops in the NFL. The offense and defense didn’t play up to the team’s standards.

“I’m disappointed. It’s been a long time since you’re watching somebody kneel it three times in front of you and it’s not even close, you’re down two scores,’’ Campbell said. “We got worked pretty good so yeah, it’s disappointing it’s really disappointing.’’

He said they’ll get back to work and clean up the mistakes. They have no choice. The Tampa Bay Bucs (5-1) are next on the schedule for a Monday night game at Ford Field on Oct. 20.

“It’s not going to get any easier, things get harder and harder as you go. And they’re more meaningful every game we go,’’ Campbell said. “I go back to this, maybe we needed this, maybe we needed to get kicked around a little bit because that’s what happened.’’

Five main reasons the Lions lost:

ONE: The defense could not stop Patrick Mahomes. It’s a tough assignment with a beat-up secondary, but the Lions were just not good enough. Detroit is missing most of its top cornerbacks and safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch are not 100 percent. Still, no excuses. LB Alex Anzalone led the defense with a dozen tackles and a quarterback hit. Jack Campbell had 8 tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit.

TWO: WR Amon-Ra St. Brown dropped a fourth-down catch in the second quarter which eventually led to a Chiefs touchdown right before halftime. Usually, he’s got great mitts so it was uncharacteristic and could not have come at a worse time. St. Brown had nine receptions for 45 yards. Jameson Williams (6 for 66 yards) and Sam LaPorta (4 for 46 yards) each scored a receiving touchdown

THREE: Aidan Hutchinson sacked Mahomes one time, but was whistled for roughing the passer early in the fourth quarter – which gave the Chiefs 15 yards that led to the second Mahomes-to-Hollywood Brown touchdown. It was not close, it was definitely roughing the passer. Hutchinson also finished with a quarterback hit, a forced fumble and 2 tackles. Mahomes was also sacked by Jack Campbell and Al-Quadin Muhammad.

FOUR: Goff had solid numbers and ran more than 9 minutes off the clock on the opening touchdown drive, but Campbell said before the game they would need 30 points to win and obviously they didn’t get close. Goff completed 8 straight passes late in the third, ending with an amazing one-handed touchdown catch by Sam LaPorta. Goff finished 23-29, 203 yards, 2 TDs and was sacked once.

FIVE: The Lions run game worked early, but once they were down by 10 they had to go away from it more. Jahmyr Gibbs had 17 carries for 65 yards with David Montgomery with 4 carries for 24 yards.

EXTRA: Brian Branch initiated a scuffle immediately after the game. Campbell addressed it at the start of his post-game press conference: “I love Brian Branch, but what he did was inexcusable and it’s not going to be accepted here. It’s not what we do, it’s not what we’re about. I apologize to Coach Reid and the Chiefs. That’s not OK.’’

UP NEXT: Tampa Bay Bucs (5-1) at Lions (4-2) at 7 p.m. on Monday Night Football on Oct. 20.

Five things to watch as Lions face Chiefs in prime time action

The Lions are looking for their fifth straight win, while the Chiefs are coming off a 31-28 loss on Monday night to the Jaguars. Kansas City is off to a bumpy start this season but that hasn’t changed how Lions coach Dan Campbell sees them.

The Lions (4-1) and Chiefs (2-3) meet on Sunday Night Football in Kansas City.

“I mean it – to be able to come back year in and year out and stay hungry, stay competitive, do the right things, don’t get complacent, eliminate entitlement when you’ve been a champion over and over, I think that takes a special kind of group, a special kind of coaching staff, special kind of leadership, players, the whole thing,’’ Campbell said.

“They have that winner’s makeup, that champions makeup. But that’s right up our alley, we love this. This is – you want to look back on this in a few years and say that’s what we’ve become,’’ Campbell said.

He sees the same thing building in Detroit.

“Absolutely it’s building. And that’s what we preach here. Our players believe in it. You’ve got to stay hungry and every game is a new game and you’ve got to take it personal,’’ Campbell said. “You’ve got to take it personal.”

The Lions opened the 2023 season with a 21-20 win at Kansas City, a shocker to everyone but themselves.

“You could tell it was the first game of the season. There’s a number of things – they could probably say the same thing too – there were a lot of things you wish you would have done better,’’ Campbell said. “But at the end of the day we hung in there and we really played great complementary football. That’s what won us the game between special teams, offense, defense when we needed it most each unit picked up the slack.’’

It was two years ago, but it kickstarted two solid seasons.

“It was huge. Back then that was kind of a confidence thing, knowing we could go in there and do that,’’ defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said. “Now flash-forward a couple years and we believe we can compete against anybody. We’re going to go in there and try to execute our gameplan to the best of our ability and hopefully come out with a win.’’

Five things to watch:

ONE: Jared Goff is 2-0 in his career against the Chiefs — once with the Rams and then with the Lions in 2023. He’s at the top of his game but knows being up against coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defense is a challenge. “I think that they do a really good job of being very multiple in what they do. And oftentimes you can watch a ton of tape and defenses have certain tells or when they’re in this formation, they do this. They don’t really have much of that,’’ Goff said. “You kind of have to figure it out when you’re out there to some extent. There’s tape we can watch, but they do a good job of making different things look the same and same things look different, type of thing. And they’ve got good players too and that makes it really hard.”

TWO: With the Lions secondary banged up, it’s going to be more of a challenge to defend against the Chiefs’ three speedy wide receivers – Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton and Rashee Rice. “You can do everything right – you can do discipline, you can play the coverage, OK we’ll top some of this stuff, we’ll be disruptive on the releases and all the sudden you missed on one or you didn’t quite get to your landmark in the back end and all of a sudden there’s 60 over the top of your head,’’ Campbell said. “Or you get a catch and run and you miss a tackle and they’re through it.

“The good news is our defense has faced speed. They got a full dose of that in spring and training camp with (Jameson Williams) and (Kalif Raymond) ,and (Dominic) Lovett is not a slouch either. So we’ve got some juice here too and our guys have to face it. You have to be on point when you have that kind of explosiveness. It only takes one play and all of a sudden they’ve got seven out of it,’’ he added.

THREE: Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes even though the Chiefs are 2-3. He’s smart and tough. “You have to do a number of things with him – first of all he can smell a rat from a mile away. If you’re going to disguise it better be worthy of a Grammy, because this guy sees it all, he smells it immediately, he can alter protections, he can get to different things in the pass game,’’ Campbell said. “I think you have to do a number of different things but you have to be careful because you don’t want to become something you’re not either. You still want to hang your hat on what you do well.

FOUR: With Terrion Arnold out with a shoulder injury, expect Amik Robertson to step up. “He’s more than a security blanket, it’s one of the reasons we wanted to get him here as a free agent. He’s so feisty and competitive. One of the things he really majors in is man coverage,’’ Campbell said. “He’s a sticky cover guy, very confident, he’s got great hips movement skills and he’s got ball skills. We’re completely comfortable with him playing outside and in the slot. Thank goodness we’ve got him. We don’t feel there’s a dropoff with Amik.’’

FIVE: Another corner expected to get more playing time is veteran Rock Ya-Sin. Running backs coach Scottie Montgomery liked what he saw from him in training camp. “He does provide a tremendous amount of conflict at the line of scrimmage, not only there but at the top of routes where you usually can lean on guys, get heavy leans on people, maybe give them a little something at the top,’’ Montgomery said. “He’s done a really good job of staying close, staying sticky. And then he has an understanding of safety play and corner play so he knows exactly where he can take some of these chances.’’

BONUS: In 2024, the Chiefs were 10-0 in games decided by 7 points or less. This season so far they are 0-3 in those situations.

INJURIES: OUT for the Lions: LT Taylor Decker, DT Alim McNeill, CB Terrion Arnold, LB Zach Cunningham, RB Sione Vaki, DB Avonte Maddox and OL Gio Manu. … QUESTIONABLE: DB Brian Branch, S Kerby Joseph and WR Kalif Raymond

PREDICTION: Lions 28, Chiefs 27.

Lions Dan Campbell can’t put a value on DE Aidan Hutchinson

ALLEN PARK — In the Lions’ first five games, defensive end Aidan Hutchinson had proven two things: He has no rust after missing the final 12 games last season with a broken leg, and he is one of the best – if not the best – at his position.

Hutchinson leads the NFL in pressures (31) and is second in sacks (5) and forced fumbles (3).

Along with that, his consistency in the last four weeks (all wins) has been solid: Week 2 — 1 sack, 5 pressures; Week 3 — 1 sack, 9 pressures; Week 4 — 2 sacks, 7 pressures; and Week 5 — 1 sack, 8 pressures.

“I’ve really got a marathon view on this season and I’m taking it one week at a time and I’m putting every single preparation into every week and we see how the cards lay at the end of the week and we do it all over again,’’ Hutchinson said.

Coach Dan Campbell said he doesn’t know if he can put a value on Hutchinson because he doesn’t know if there’s a big enough number.

“He’s extremely valuable. The number of things he’s able to do for us in the run and pass game, he pulls a lot of slack – you talk about pulling your weight he pulls his weight and then some,’’ Campbell said of the guy who is routinely double-covered if not more.

“He requires a lot of resources offensively which helps everybody else out,’’ Campbell said. “Guys like him, he’s in that rare world of – you don’t get the easy way out. He’s got to beat the nudges, beat the back chip and the tackles on him or he’s got to beat the nudge, sometimes the back and the tackle and the slides coming to him with the guard – sometimes three, sometimes four — but if that’s the case somebody else is winning, they’ve got to win.’’

The Lions (4-1) face the Chiefs (2-3) on Sunday night football on the road.

Two years ago in the season opener the Lions shocked the NFL world (but not themselves) by beating the Chiefs, 21-20. The Chiefs went on to win the Super Bowl.

Hutchinson had three quarterback hits and 4 tackles in that win. He’s a different player today – older, savvier and possibly more effective.

“What he does is not easy,’’ Campbell said. “I go back to this he’s a complete football player he does it all — he’s disruptive, he’s viral, he’s a big motor, he’s crafty, he’s explosive, he’s tough, he’s competitive — he does it all.’’

Hutchinson is not alone, the defensive line has been solid and will be better with Alim McNeil returning in the next few weeks.

INJURY UPDATE: CB Terrion Arnold’s second opinion on his shoulder was good news although Campbell still doesn’t know how long he’ll be out. It appears he will not need surgery. “The second opinion came back. It sounds like he could be promising, but that’s no guarantee either,’’ Campbell said. “We’re kind of in this wait-and-see, we’ll hold off a little bit and see where he goes.’’

ROSTER MOVES: OL Dan Skipper has been elevated from the practice squad. If LT Taylor Decker (shoulder) can’t play again Sunday, Skipper might get the call. Giovanni Manu started at left tackle in Cincinnati. … CB Khalil Dorsey has been placed on injured reserve.