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Lions versatile safety Brian Branch one of defensive standouts in win over Bears

ALLEN PARK — When Dan Campbell listed the outstanding defensive players from the 52-21 win over the Bears, safety Brian Branch was at the top of the list.

Branch had a standout game with a pretty nice stat line — he forced a fumble, had a sack and made six tackles.

On Monday, Campbell said Branch makes life much easier on the pages because of his versatility.

“We bring it up all the time, he’s a safety that has cover ability like a corner, he can blitz like a linebacker and tackling and fill in the run gaps,’’ Campbell said. “There’s so many different things he can do. The guy is a major asset for us.’’

After Sunday’s game the Lions are 1-1, the Bears 0-2.

It was a huge bounceback for Detroit after a lackluster loss at Green Bay in Week 1.

“It showed us what we’re capable of doing. We know how good we are when we execute what coach Shep (DC Kelvin Sheppard) calls,’’ Branch said. “Coach Shep called a great ball game … Just moving forward we re-established our brand of football

Facing Ben Johnson, Bears head coach and former Lions offensive coordinator, was down-played leading up to Sunday, afterward Branch wasn’t afraid to share his feelings.

“Really, all these games are personal, but this one we felt like we’d been betrayed from the staff to players,’’ Branch said. “And we love Ben, we still love Ben. He’s a great coach. He’s a great mastermind but, yeah, it was time to get after him.”

Branch explained they felt betrayed because Johnson went to an NFC North opponent.

The Lions won’t face the Bears again until the final game of the regular season. Date to be determined but likely Jan 3 or 4.

INJURIES: Marcus Davenport left the game early with a shoulder injury. Campbell doesn’t have all the test results in yet, but he’s hoping he won’t be out too long.

UP NEXT: Lions (1-1) at Baltimore Ravens (1-1), 8:15 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22.

Five reasons the Lions bounced back and routed the Bears, 52-21

DETROIT — For the Detroit Lions, the train might have nearly gone off the track a week ago in Green Bay, but the boys were back on Sunday in a 52-21 rout of the Chicago Bears at Ford Field

“I’ve said this all along, this train keeps rolling and it’s always going to start with the players,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “We have players, we have playmakers, and they’re made the right way. They’re the right kind of guys. They know how to get in the ditch and just start digging. They don’t worry about the other stuff.’’

The fact they were facing former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, now the Bears head coach, did not play a huge role in their turn-around. Moreso it was just motivation to win a division game.

Both offensive and defensive lines stepped up their games.

“I knew we would play better because our guys came into work and we knew what we needed to clean up and we worked at cleaning it up,’’ Campbell said. “They had the right look and they came out fighting – that’s what they do.”

The Lions came out and scored the first touchdown on a 5-play, 60-yard drive ending with a Jahmyr Gibbs 6-yard touchdown run.

They were up 28-14 at the half and held the Bears to just one touchdown in the second half. The Lions moved to 1-1 while the Bears dropped to 0-2.

Five of the reasons the Lions won:

ONE: Jared Goff pitched a near-perfect game, passing for five touchdowns and completing 23 of 28 passes for 334 yards. He got plenty of help from WR Amon-Ra St. Brown who caught nine balls for three touchdowns and 115 yards. “He’s a stud. He’s as good as they get in our league, he’s a stud, he does everything in the run game, everything in the pass game,’’ Goff said. “As reliable of a player as I’ve ever thrown to in my life. We have a pretty good chemistry going on in our fifth year. We push each other really hard.’’

TWO: Explosive plays were huge. Goff threw five passes of 29 or more yards. Jameson Williams had just 2 catches — one for 64, the other a 44-yard touchdown. He wasn’t alone. “It always starts with the O-line here, it does, probably most teams but for sure us. When they play well it allows us to do a lot,’’ Campbell said.

THREE: The defense made huge stops, none better than stuffing the Bears on back-to-back plays of third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 early in the second quarter. Safety Brian Branch was all over the field finishing with a sack, a forced fumble, a pass defense, two tackles for loss and six tackles. Bears QB Caleb Williams was sacked four times with Aidan Hutchinson getting first sack of the season and Branch, Al-Quadin Muhammad and Marcus Davenport also pitching in. “Just moving forward we re-established our brand of football,’’ Branch said.

FOUR: The Lions created two turnovers with a Kerby Joseph second-quarter interception that led to a Brock Wright TD catch. Earlier Branch forced a fumble with Jack Campbell recovering. Terion Arnold’s interception with 12:15 left was negated by a roughing the passer penalty. “It’s huge in this league, that’s what it’s all about getting takeaways, coach Campbell and coach Shep (DC Kelvin Sheppard), all our coaches preach that — no matter what the offense is doing the defense has to force turnovers,’’ Branch said, “We force turnovers then it gives our offense another chance to score.’’

FIVE: The offensive line settled down and was much improved from Week 1. RBs Jahmyr Gibbs (12-94 yards, 1 TD) and David Montgomery (11-57, 1 TD) got the run game in gear averaging 5.9 yards per carry – much improved over 2.1 in the Green Bay opener. Gibbs scampered 42 yards to set up another Goff-St. Brown touchdown late in the third. Goff could see the line really jell. “In particular, Tate (Ratledge) and (Christian) Mahogany as younger players were able to get last week out of the way and settle in a little bit today,’’ Goff said. “More Tate than Mahogany who had experience last year. I thought Tate played great today. I haven’t seen the tape but at least in pass pro I felt firm there, you felt strong, it felt like he was pushing downhill.’’

UP NEXT: Lions (1-1) at Baltimore Ravens (1-1), Monday, Sept. 22 at 8:15 p.m.

Lions’ critical, untimely errors costly in opening loss to Green Bay Packers

A breakdown of 5 main reasons for the disappointing opener

Carrying big expectations and back-to-back NFC North titles, the Detroit Lions opened the season with a thud, a big one.

Detroit snapped a 3-game win streak at Lambeau Field with a 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

“We didn’t play good enough, we didn’t coach good enough, including me, and we didn’t play good enough,’’ coach Dan Campbell said.

The coach told the team it’s tough to go in and certainly not play close to your best game.

“You hate starting the season out with a loss and as bad as that is, it’s not what it appears to be,’’ Campbell said. “So like I told them, let’s clean up the tape. We made some critical errors at the worst times possible. You don’t do those, you take those out of the equation; it looks different . you feel like it’s going to be a totally different scenario but we did make those critical errors at the worst time.’’

The offense, which didn’t score a touchdown until the waning minutes, could not get in gear.

“We never really got in a rhythm. We did for a couple of drives where we got it down there, then we didn’t finish. We weren’t able to finish with 7. We had to settle for 3, then we had an interception,’’ Campbell said. “Other than that we never got into a rhythm.”

The coach said he thought they would play cleaner but the mistakes are all correctable.

“Our players are accountable, they’re ready. Nobody takes it worse than they do,’’ Campbell said. “That’s the good news, we’ve got the right dudes.’’

FIVE REASONS FOR THE LOSS:

ONE: The new-look offensive line did not get the job done. Not only is the standard high for this unit, but they faced newest Packer Micah Parsons who moved along the line when he was in the game. As expected, he was a huge presence. It was a lot to handle for rookie right guard Tate Ratledge and left guard Christian Mahogany. Center Graham Glasgow was adjusting to taking over at center too. The line’s play was a big reason the run game could not get in a rhythm, averaging just 2.1 yards per rush. “When your run game is not quite clicking the way you want it to, that affects your play pass and then your’re down two scores then those guys are going to pin their ears back and that’s hard on any offensive line,’’ Campbell said.

TWO: On the other side, the Lions defensive pass rush was not effective and the secondary gave up too many big plays. Aidan Hutchinson was in the mix at times but did not record a sack or tackle. In his defense, he is always double-teamed but last season he had 7.5 sacks in five games. Linebacker Derrick Barnes’ pick-six was negated by a holding penalty.

THREE: Jared Goff has had better games, but he’s used to having better protection and more time to throw. He was sacked four times — including a late one by Parsons — and pressured early and often. Goff actually passed for more yards (31-38 for 225 yards) than Jordan Love (16-22 for 188) but Love threw a pair of TD passes. Goff had a late TD pass, but also a critical interception.

FOUR: The offense did move the ball at times and ate up the clock, but couldn’t finish when they got to the Red Zone. New coordinator John Morton can certainly take part of the blame but the players need to look in the mirror.. They were just 1-of-4 in the Red Zone which is not good enough and, worse yet, they were 5-of-15 on third downs. “I thought they had a good plan but that doesn’t take away from us doing what we needed to do,’’ Campbell said.

FIVE: Before the game, Campbell said mistakes were key to the outcome. Six penalties were costly. Mistakes made on both sides of the ball. More was expected. He mentioned “critical errors” several times in his post-game presser but was confident they are correctable.

BONUS: Lions rookie WR Isaac TeSlaa made an amazing touchdown catch late in the game. It was the offensive highlight and a sign of things to come from the Pride of Hudsonville. If you haven’t seen the video, check it out.

UP NEXT: Chicago Bears at Lions, 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14 at Ford Field. The Bears face the Vikings on Monday Night Football in their season opener.