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Five things to know as Lions face Broncos

Coming off their first win of the season, the Lions (1-10-1) face the Broncos (6-6) at Denver. Outbreaks of the flu and COVID have been the biggest factors in the preparations so far this week.

Still coach Dan Campbell looks to build on the success against the Vikings last week. He’s got a young bunch and he can see them developing on and off the field. 

“Those young guys, they gravitate towards (Michael) Brockers in the D-line room and it pays off, you can see it. They’re more about business. They understand what to look for. They don’t even know what they’re looking at and just how you handle it. Same thing with (Alex) Anzalone and (Jalen) Reeves-Maybin with (Derrick) Barnes,’’ Campbell said. “It’s just kind of, ‘This is the way you do it. This is what you’re looking at. This is how you prepare.’ So yeah, I do. I think these guys are – I think they’re growing because we’ve got some good guys around them that are helping them grow.”

Denver, has lost two of its last three, including last Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs.

Five things to look for against the Broncos:

1. The Lions have to take proactive measures due to Denver’s altitude especially with so many players missing practice this week with the flu and COVID. Hydration and rest are key. Injuries and illness will play a huge role for the Lions. Running back D’Andre Swift (shoulder), LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin (shoulder) and OLB Julian Okwara (ankle) will not play. Tight end T..J. Hockenson (hand) is doubtful. Then a dozen are questionable — eight of them with the flu or COVID which has proven to be a battle this week. 

2. The Lions and the NFL have strict COVID protocols so traveling will not change due to the spread this week. “The beauty of the way we travel anyway because of the COVID restrictions and everything, we’re pretty good about just the way we do it. I mean, everyone has to wear a mask, we all get tested as normal,’’ Campbell said. “I think if anything, what we may do is huddle a few of these guys up that are already feeling like crummy or coming back from it and just make sure they are kind of isolated if you will. But we’ll travel properly and be good.”

3. Campbell continues to improve on his offensive play calling. Jared Goff complimented after the win last week.  The coach said he gets most of his ideas from watching tape. “You just watch and you’re like, ‘Oh man, this looks pretty good.’ And so, you scribble an idea down and most of the time, for me, I’ll have thoughts down, ‘Hey, I want to do this.’ But then, there will be a ton of stuff where I just have a general idea like, ‘Man, look at this. Look at what the corner does on this or the nickel.’’’ Then he brings the ideas to his coaching staff and see if they can make them work. “(New Orleans Saints Head Coach) Sean (Payton) was that way a little bit. He would have real good thoughts, but sometimes you just had to have some direction to it. You needed somebody else’s input to kind of make it the way you wanted it to be or what you thought would really work or that was sound,’’ Campbell said.

4. It is becoming obvious that Jared Goff is more willing to take shots downfield. There’s a reason for that. “I’ve said it, he’s a trust guy. If he trusts you, he will give you an opportunity. I think he’s starting to have more confidence in the people around him and I think you’re going to see more shots down the field because of that, and it’s intentional,’’ offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn said. “We want to push the ball down the field. It’s been taught in the classrooms of pushing the ball down the field. Dan (Campbell), (tight ends coach) Ben Johnson is working with the passing game more and the timing of it, getting the ball out of your hands and not worrying about turning the ball over. Just let it fly. All of those discussions we’ve had.”

5. Game-planning against the Broncos’ offense, led by quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, presents challenges. “I’ll tell you what, when you look at the skill players of this offense, I want to say it is probably better than last week’s, which is crazy because they do have two backs (Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams) that can really cause problems. And then, you look at the stats of those two guys breaking more tackles than any back tandem in the League, that tells you one thing of how we’ve got to make sure we operate,’’ Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. “Then you look at the big receivers that are creating plays down the field and then having (Jerry Jeudy) who came back. He’s a guy that can move the chains for them. He was a really big-time receiver at Alabama and came to this League. And, he’s taking over the slot for the most part. And, I told our guys already, ‘This is a challenge for us. This could be a better offense than we had last week, so we’ve got to make sure we’re up for it.’”

PREDICTION: Broncos 27, Lions 17

Five things to know about the Lions win over the Vikings

While the Lions have excelled at losing games in the waning minutes this season, they had never had the ability to seal a win. Until Sunday.

With four seconds left on the clock, quarterback Jared Goff threw a perfect 11-yard pass to rookie wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown to win the game, 29-27, over the Vikings at Ford Field.

“I’m proud of our guys. I’m happy for them, of course I’m happy. We’re all happy. I’m happy for the coaches, I’m happy for everybody. But it’s like, you want this so bad for the players. Because they’re the ones who put in all the hard work and the sweat and the tears. And yeah, we all do—and so do the coaches,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “But it’s also—that’s what makes this great. When you lose, it hurts. It’s hard, it’s hard. But it’s also why winning is so great in this league. Because it’s not easy to do and when you get them, man, it’s special. I’m just proud of those guys. I’m proud of them.”

The Lions are now 1-10-1, and some weight has been lifted from their shoulders

Five things to know about the win: 

1. Goff operated a 75-yard, 13-play drive with 1:50 left and one timeout remaining. The offense knew its role, knew to get out of bounds when possible, knew that it had to be nearly flawless to get the win. “We made some mistakes and we weren’t perfect. We played well in the first half, but that second half offensively we stalled, I threw the pick, made the fourth down turnover. We weren’t good,’’ Goff said. “We weren’t perfect, but having the ability to overcome mistakes is a sign of a good team and a winning team and that’s something we did today.”

2. Keep an eye on St. Brown. They’ve been trying to get the ball to him more often. In fact, three weeks ago they started working on the touchdown play in practice. He knew with 4 seconds left he had to catch the ball in the endzone. He was surprised by the Vikings’ soft coverage and took advantage. We’ll be seeing more of the rookie wide receiver. “I’ll be honest with you, we have a lot of trust in him. We have for a while, it’s just trying to get him the football here a little bit and staying on the field and being able to—we did a good job of first, second down today. We stayed efficient and we were able to continue to gather some drives because our third downs still weren’t good enough. But our first- and second-down efficiency was really good, so we were able to stay on the field and spread the ball around a little bit. But we have a lot of trust in him. He’s one of those guys who has become pretty dependable for us,’’ Campbell said. Goff on St. Brown: “He’s a stud.”

3. The defense kept the Lions in it after they watched their 20-6 halftime lead disappear and fell behind late in the fourth quarter. Also, the Vikings tried and failed on three 2-point conversions thanks to the defense. That could’ve been the difference i the game. “(Aaron Glenn) had a good beat on what they were going to do over there. And it’s just—we were prepared. Our guys did a good job,’’ Campbell said. “You can’t prepare them for every look you’re going to get, you just have to play the odds by personnel and looks that you get and hope that they play their roles. And they did a good job today. We did and it made a difference.”

4. Goff and Campbell shared a big hug in the post-game celebration. It’s been a tough season. Several weeks ago Campbell took over the offensive play-calling and was first to admit he needed some polishing. “I thought he called a great game today. I think today was kind of – we had the Pittsburgh game with the weather and I had the oblique thing, the Cleveland game where I didn’t play, and we also had weather. Last week was kind of our really first shot at like him really kind of trying to dial stuff up,’’ Goff said. “And then this week, I thought he really settled in well and was really good. It was really smooth. You guys saw the operation, it was smooth. I don’t think we had any false starts. I don’t know if we had an offensive penalty outside of the delay-of-game, but it was really good.”

5. The team needs to build on its first win. “Look, I think you acknowledge that this is what it took for us to win. We should all feel good, but man, what about these mistakes that could’ve cost us? We had some of those and you guys know it. So, we’ve got to continue to coach the negative because now, that’s not only how you win, that’s how you get better at winning if you can get to that point,’’ Campbell said. “And so, we just have to coach up those little things and continue to improve. So, Denver is not going to be easy either. None of these are easy, but this was a good start. And, I’m proud of them. They’ve continued to play, they played one more time and now let’s see if we can get them to play again, which they will.”

 NEXT UP: Lions at Denver Broncos, 4:05 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12.

Lions honor the Oxford community following shooting, give them game ball

Dan Campbell said the last-second win on Sunday showed plenty about his team. Indeed when the Lions beat the Vikings 29-27 for their first win of the season it was a big deal.

Afterward, instead of basking in the break-through win, the team’s heart was on full display.

The Detroit Lions coach walked into the media interview room, wearing an Oxford Wildcats hat and carrying the game ball.

“First thing I would start is this game ball goes to the whole Oxford community, all of those who were affected. That being said, I want us to not forget these names.” Then he read names of those who died — Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling, along with the names of those who were injured.

“Those names will never be forgotten, they’re in our hearts and our prayers all the families and not to mention all of those who were affected by all of this – the classmates, brothers and sisters, cousins, teachers, coaches, everybody,’’ Campbell said.

Prior to the game in warmpups, players and coaches were wearing Oxford Wildcats T-shirts and hats. Decals of the block letter ‘O’ were worn on the Lions and Vikings helmets. A moment of silence was held before the national anthem.

Campbell showed the team a news-reel type video in a team meeting on Saturday morning.

“We kind of dove into it, the depth of all of this. I just wanted them to know what we were going to represent today – the shirts, the hats, the decals. Some of our players know of someone who was affected,’’ Campbell said. “To me, my thought was if we can for three hours ease their suffering a little bit, that’s worth it. That’s kind of how I thought of this. We did a great job, the players responded and played well.’’

When quarterback Jared Goff was asked about the Oxford connection, he nearly choked up and had to compose himself.

“I’m trying not to get emotional, sometime special things happen in special circumstances and I think we saw yesterday what Michigan did against Iowa and then us today getting our first win in 12-13 weeks,’’ Goff said. “You never hope for a tragedy like this, but you hope you can be a light for those people, a positive that they can have fun watching today.

“I hope they were watching today and enjoyed that win and we can take their minds off it for maybe three hours. I think anytime we can do that, it’s a lot bigger than sports, a lot bigger than us and today was one of those special circumstances, we were able to rise to the occasion and make something special happen,” Goff added.

Tight end Brock Wright who caught the second touchdown pass from Goff in the win, was wearing his Oxford Wildcats shirt afterwards.

“It’s special for us to be able to do this … We knew that we’d be able to do a little something to try to bring a little joy to the families today. To be a part of that means a lot to me and means a lot to the rest of the team as well,’’ Wright said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of course.’’