Amon-ra St. Brown – Lions Lowdown

Five reasons the Lions lost, 41-34, to the Rams; still a chance for playoffs but it’s slim

It certainly wasn’t the outcome the Lions wanted. After they were beaten, 41-34, by the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday their playoff chances took a hit, a big hit.

“We’ve got to get better, we have to move on. We can’t sulk about it, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we make the corrections and move on,’’ coach Dan Campbell said.

The loss dropped their chances of making it into the playoffs to around 40 percent. They would have to win their final three games to have a chance. A win over the Rams would have boosted that to 73 percent. The Lions dropped to 8-6 and remain third in the NFC North and out of the playoffs.

“My message is don’t go numb when you get these losses – win, lose, win lose,’’ Campbell said. “We have to get out of that rut – it can’t be OK. It should burn at you, it should eat you up, do not go numb to the losing. It’s as simple as going back to work and we have to play better with Pittsburgh coming to town.’’

The coach said he doesn’t believe for a minute that any of his players have lost confidence. He said they’re frustrated because they don’t like losing.

“I go back to this, the core of this group, they’re the right guys. They’ve been through this,’’ Campbell said. “Most of those guys know what the dumps look like and we’re not in the dumps. They know what that was like – back to back to back to back losses. You don’t ever want to even get a taste of that again.’’

Five reasons why the Lions lost:

ONE: The third quarter did not go well for the Lions on either side of the ball. The defense gave up 24 points and 272 yards in the second half, while the offense could manage just 10 points in the second half, all in the fourth quarter after amassing 24 first-half points. “The third quarter we have to be able to stop the bleeding offensively and we weren’t,’’ Campbell said. “We never got our run game going. I thought (Jared) Goff, (Amon-Ra St. Brown and (Jameson Williams) played their tails off. I thought they played at a really high level to give us a chance.’’

TWO: Detroit’s defense just couldn’t stop the explosive plays from Matthew Stafford and the Rams’ offense. Stafford was 24 of 38 for 368 yards, a pair of TDs, one INT and he was sacked twice. Puka Nacua had 9 catches for 181 yards while Colby Parkinson had 5 catches for 75 yards and two TDs. The Rams run game was effective with Kyren Williams (15-78, 2 TDs) and Blake Corum (11-71, 1 TD). “We knew that team didn’t make mistakes, it cost us. We couldn’t do enough,’’ Campbell said.

THREE: The Lions could not get the run game going which is usually key to the offense. On the plus side, Jared Goff had a solid game finding A,on-Ra St. Brown (13 catches, 163 yds, 2 TDs) and Jameson Williams (7 for 135 and 1 TD). Goff finished 25 of 41 for 338 yards, 3 touchdowns and was sacked once. “When you can’t get the run going, it limits what you can do and what you can do off of it,’’ Campbell said. “I don’t regret for one minute getting the ball to St. Brown and Jamo but we’ve got to get the run game going.’’

FOUR: Aidan Hutchinson intercepted Stafford early in the first, but it was the defense’s only takeaway of the game and it wasn’t enough. In the previous win over Dallas, the three takeaways were huge.

FIVE: Campbell’s play-calling in the second half was somewhat confusing at times. Yes, he wanted to get the run game going, but on a third-and-11 inthe fourth quarter, he put the ball in the hands of Jahmyr Gibbs who just could not break through. They settled for a field goal when a more aggressive approach might have paid off.

UP NEXT: Pittsburgh Steelers at Lions, 4:25 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 20 at Ford Field. The Steelers face the Dolphins on Monday night.

Five reasons the Lions pulled off a 44-30 win over the Cowboys

DETROIT — After a disappointing loss to the Packers on Thanksgiving, the Lions bounced back in a huge way with a 44-30 win over the Cowboys on Thursday night at Ford Field.

With the victory, the Lions (8-5) kept their playoff chances alive. The Cowboys (6-6-1) had their three-game win streak snapped and saw their playoff hopes dwindle.

In the last three years Detroit is now 15-0 following a loss.

“The intensity, the urgency. The guys don’t ever get frazzled, they don’t get panicked, they just go to work,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “They did it again.’’

The Lions never fell behind, leading 20-9 at the half and keeping their foot on the gas.

They played complementary football with the offense scoring 44 points, the defense coming up with big plays when it mattered most including forcing three turnovers and special teams pitched in too. Jake Bates kicked three field goals (another was blocked) and kick returners gave the offense good field position throughout and the opposite for Dallas.

“Everything was big and the guys really stepped up. We did, we played complementary football that above all is what really makes a difference,’’ Campbell said. “That’s what good teams do. It doesn’t matter how good your offense or defense is if you’re not able to help each other out when you need it with one of the phases it makes it tough and we were able to do that.’’

Five reasons the Lions won:

ONE: The offensive line helped give Goff more protection than he had a week ago. They weren’t perfect – Trystan Colon and rookie MIles Frazier alternated at left guard in place of the injured Kayode Awosika. Dan Skipper provided much help as the sixth lineman. Having Amon-Ra St. Brown back was huge (6 catches 92 yards). “St. Brown is what we are, where he goes, we go,’’ Campbell said. He wasn’t sure St. Brown’s ankle would be well enough to play until Wednesday. Goff was 25 of 34 for 309 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked just once.

TWO: Running back Jahmyr Gibbs ran for three touchdowns while David Montgomery added another. The Dallas defense just didn’t have an answer for them. Gibbs converted a third-and-8 in the third when he caught the ball near the sideline, stopped and deked DaRon Bland out of his cleats to get extra yards for first down. It was a thing of beauty. Gibbs had 7 catches for 77 yards and a dozen runs for 43 yards, while Montgomery ran 6 times for 60 yards and had one 13-yard catch.

THREE: The defense came up with big plays when needed. First snap of third quarter Derrick Barnes intercepted Dak Prescott and two plays later Goff connected with rookie Isaac TeSlaa for a 12-yard touchdown. Prescott passed for 376 yards and a touchdown, threw a pair of interceptions and was sacked five times. Al-Quadin Muhammad sacked Prescott three times.

FOUR: The Lions were 3 of 8 on third downs, but often they were moving the ball so well they didn’t get to third down. Campbell opted for field goals on a few drives instead of going for the TD on fourth down. No fourth-down attempts.

FIVE: Play calling on both sides was more effective. Jameson Williams finished with 7 catches for 96 yards. It was an all-around better effort. The Lions looked more like the team from weeks ago when they were ranked as one of the best in the NFL. “We challenged a number of our guys and they really showed up for us. That team (Dallas) is hot – it was a hot team coming in here. That’s a potent offense,’’ Campbell said. “Was it perfect? No. We still have some stuff that wasn’t good.’’

NEXT UP: Lions at Los Angeles Rams, 4:25 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14.

Five things to watch as Lions face the Giants; plus injury update, prediction

While the Giants have lost five straight, Lions coach Dan Campbell will not overlook them when they play at Ford Field on Sunday.

Again, the Lions (6-4) are coming off a loss and again they look to bounce back. They haven’t lost back-to-back games since October 2022 and they intend to keep that streak alive. Campbell said the urgency is always there.

“We’ve had urgency. We’re an urgent team. Things haven’t gone our way that we would like. I mean we would love to be sitting here undefeated right now and that’s not the reality, we’re not undefeated,’’ Campbell said. “But there’s an urgency that’s there. And I know this, if you say, ‘Well let’s ramp up more urgency,’ that’s when you start making mistakes, that’s when you start panicking, that’s when guys start doing things they shouldn’t do. They’re trying to make plays and then they cost us all. That’s where bad stuff really happens because that means you don’t really believe in what you’re doing. You’re grasping for straws.

“I know what we’re doing, I know what we need to do. We go back to work, we clean up the little things, we adjust, we adapt, we move on and let’s find a way to get a W,’’ Campbell added.

Five things to watch:

ONE: The Lions defense played its best game of the season at Philadelphia. Coordinator Kelvin Sheppard saw a never-blink mentality and said they never wavered at any point in the game. Still, he would like to see more takeaways. “The way that game was structured on that night our offense needed one more possession, that was the nature of that game,’’ Sheppard said. “That was the one thing if I could, kind of a little teeny thing that we would have improved upon it would’ve been to steal a possession for our offense.’’

TWO: Can the Lions offense rebound? Jaredd Goff said he isn’t worried about the offensive inconsistency, he’s concerned about winning games. “I don’t care if we have 100 yards. If we win the game, that’s all that matters. The output of the offense, of course, yeah you’d love to score 40 every week and 500 yards like we did 10 days ago or two weeks ago, whenever that was,’’ Goff said. “But yeah no, you have a bad game, you learn from it. The output is not nearly as important as just finding a way to get a W, and we didn’t do that last week.”

THREE: If the offense is to bounce back after their worst showing of the season in loss at Eagles Goff and WR Amon-Ra St. Brown will have to connect like they have been until the Eagles debacle. “We’re good. Again, I consider that an outlier for what we’ve done in our career together,’’ Goff said. “You learn from it, you look at it, we talk about different ways we can get better. Yeah, no grand conversation about it, no.” Goff targeted St. Brown a dozen times but only connected on two at Philadelphia.

FOUR: Rookie Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart is out because he hasn’t passed concussion protocol which means veteran Jameis Winston will start. Campbell said they have been preparing for both, but thought they would face Winston. “I think the run game itself stays intact, I think the pass game – there is some vertical pass game to it. I don’t think it changes a ton,’’’ Campbell said. “And look, I know Winston very well, man. This guy, he can put it on a dime. He’s not afraid to freaking rip it in there, he’s a competitive, smart guy. And so look, he’s going to give him a chance. He’s played a lot of games, man, won a lot of games.’’ Campbell knows Winston well since both were with the New Orleans Saints in 2020.

“Well, I think there are a lot of things that – I think the core of what they do, and the pro-style offense itself is not going to change. And I think even if Dart had played, there wasn’t going to be a ton of quarterback run, things of that nature. So, I think the run game itself stays intact, I think the pass game – there is some vertical pass game to it. I don’t think it changes a ton. And look, I know Winston very well, man. This guy, he can put it on a dime. He’s not afraid to freaking rip it in there, he’s competitive, smart guy. And so look, he’s going to give him a chance. He’s played a lot of games, man, won a lot of games. But we’ve been prepared for both, we’ve made sure that we prepared just in case if you got a little different flavor with Dart. But we kind of felt like Winston was probably going to be the guy.”

FIVE: The offensive line needs to step up. Goff was twice but pressured all game long. He had a difficult time connecting with pass-catchers because he had no time. The run game averages 30 rushing yards per game but was held to 74 in part – not totally – due to the offensive line getting beat in the trenches.

LIONS INJURIES: OUT — CB Terrion Arnold, S Kerby Joseph, EDGE Marcus Davenport, OL Miles Frazier, EDGE Josh Paschal; TE Sam LaPorta likely out for rest of the season. QUESTIONABLE — LT Taylor Decker, CB Khalil Dorsey, C Graham Glasgow, G Tate Ratledge, CB D.J. Reed, RT Penei Sewell, WR Isaac TeSlaa and RB Sione Vaki.

GIANTS INJURIES: OUT — QB Jaxson Dart, DB Paulson Adebo, TE Thomas Fidone, LB Kayvon Thibodeaux; QUESTIONABLE — DB Tae Banks, RB Eric Gray, DB Tyler Nubin.

PREDICTION: Lions 38, Giants 17