Tag: Derrick Henry

Five reasons the Lions beat the Ravens, 38-30, at Baltimore

Seems like sometimes outsiders lose track of the fact that the Detroit Lions are built with plenty of fight. You might call it grit.

They showed it again on Monday night with a 38-30 win over the Ravens at Baltimore where the Lions have never previously found success. It was the second straight win for the Lions (2-1). The Ravens fell to 1-2.

Coach Dan Campbell loves complementary football and that’s exactly what he saw against QB Lamar Jackson and RB Derrick Henry. The Lions defense sacked Jackson seven times and the offense scored on drives of 96 and 98 yards. The run game was amazing, when they needed a big pass Jared Goff came through. 

“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Jared Goff said.

ESPN analysts prior to the game all picked the Ravens to win. Not sure if the Lions  knew that but it didn’t matter. They had all the motivation they needed.

Five reasons the Lions won:

ONE: Lions defense made a statement with a huge goal-line stop with 2 minutes left in half. The Ravens had first-and-goal at Detroit’s 3 and gained 2 yards. Then they were stopped on second and third downs. Then on fourth down Lions’ Jack Campbell strip-sacked Lamar Jackson, giving the Lions possession. 

TWO: It was the 11th game in which Lions RBs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery both rushed for TDs. In fact, they each had two. It established a new NFL record for the most games in which each member of an RB duo have rushed for TDs. Montgomery’s 72-yard break-through run late in the third, set up a 4-yard trick play touchdown with ball going from Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown who tossed it to Gibbs for the score. Oh, and it happened on fourth-and-1. Then to wrap up the win, Montgomery ran in for a 31-yard touchdown. Credit the offensive line for their part in the run game and protecting Goff who was never sacked.

THREE: There’s running down the clock and then there is the Lions offense running an 18-play, 98-yard touchdown series taking up 10:48 in the second quarter. Montgomery’s TD gave Detroit a 14-7 lead.  But the Ravens drove and scored on a Jackson pass to Rashod Bateman with 1:23 left to tie it at 14-14 at the half. The Lions also scored on a 96-yard drive. 

FOUR: Lamar Jackson was sacked five times in the Ravens’ first two games. The Lions defense sacked him seven times including twice in the fourth quarter. The Lions defense came up big AGAIN midway through the fourth quarter when Aidan Hutchinson knocked the ball out of Derrick Henry’s arms and D.J. Read recovered it at Baltimore’s 16. The Lions settled for a 45-yard field goal which gave them a 31-24 lead with 6:35 left.

FIVE: Time of possession was an emphasis for the Lions. In the first half they had the ball 19:48 to 10:12. Offensive coordinator John Morton stuck with the run game even when at times they weren’t picking up many yards. Smart move. They finished with 225 rushing yards and four rushing TDs. The best defense was keeping the Ravens offense on the sidelines.  And to keep it interesting, Morton reached into his bag of trick plays.

UP NEXT: Cleveland Browns at Lions, 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28.

Five keys to the Lions loss at Titans, 46-25

This was never going to be easy. The Detroit Lions’ defense has had trouble stopping the run and Titans’ running back is nearly unstoppable even against the best defense.

The Titans opened up the game in the second half, defeating the Lions 46-25 at Nashville on Sunday.

The Lions drop to 1-2 under interim coach Darrell Bevell and 5-9 overall. Still, even though it was a lopsided loss, there is a renewed sense of energy on the offense but two turnovers were costly.

“It can’t happen, one on the 1-yard line, the other in the red area, you can’t turn it over against good teams and have a chance to win. I thought we were moving the ball well on good, long sustained drives, you turn it over and you don’t give yourselves a chance,’’ Bevell told WJR.

The defense continues its struggles like it has most of the season, giving up six touchdowns and 463 yards.  “We knew it was going to be a huge challenge, great running back (Derrick Henry) that they have, hard to stop, physical, he also has speed. We knew that was going to be a challenge and it turned out that way,” Bevell said.

Five keys to the Lions’ loss:

1. Two turnovers in the red zone were critical. D’Andre Swift tried to leap over the pile from the 2-yard line on third down in the second quarter, had the ball punched out and the Titans recovered. Also T.J. Hockenson had a third-down catch, fumbled it and Titans recovered early in the third quarter.

2. The Lions defense just couldn’t stop running back Derrick Henry who finished with 24 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown. Overall the Titans had 195 rushing yards which is nearly 40 yards more than their average per game. 

3. Since the defense couldn’t stop the run game, things opened up for quarterback Ryan Tannehill who was 21 of 27 for 273 yards, three passing and two rushing touchdowns. Late in the third, on a third-and-11, Tannehill completed a 20-yard pass to tight end Anthony Firkser for a first down. It was a defining play of the quarter and the game. The Titans converted 9 of 11 third-down attempts. That’s an incredible 82 percent.

4. Matthew Stafford, who was playing with injured ribs and was uncertain to go until Sunday morning, played like there was nothing wrong with him at all. We all knew he was tough, he proved it on Sunday completing 22 of 32 passes for 252 yards, one touchdown and a 102.6 rating. “It was a gutty performance by him,’’ Bevell said. He was pulled with nine minutes left after taking a big hit the previous drive. Chase Daniel stepped in and handled it well but it was too late to pull off a comeback with the Lions down by 21 points.

5. The Lions offensive line, which was without center Frank Ragnow (fracture throat), protected Stafford fairly well. He was not sacked but took a few big hits. Joe Dahl, who started at center, had never snapped to Stafford in a game but it didn’t really show. There was a miscue in the fourth quarter on a snap but surprisingly there weren’t more. Then Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who started at right tackle, couldn’t finish the game due to a concussion. 

NEXT UP: Tampa Bay Bucs (9-5) at Lions (5-9) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 26. The Bucs topped the Falcons, 31-27, on Sunday.