Detroit Lions – Page 132

Five things to know about the Lions-Cardinals matchup

The good thing for Lions coach Dan Campbell is that he has experienced an unusual number of tough challenges in his first season.

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. At least that’s what they say.

Campbell is in for another tough battle on Sunday when the injury-depleted Lions (1-10-1) face the Arizona Cardinals (10-3) at Ford Field at 1 p.m.

The COVID uptick across the league has affected the Lions, but not enough to delay the game.

“Yeah, there is concern, but there is nothing we can do about it. I mean, we’re doing all we can do to prepare for a game. You guys know COVID and football don’t go together,’’ Campbell said. “So, as far as how everybody is dealing with it, we do the best we can with it and we’re trying to keep our guys as safe as possible, but also prepare. We’re trying to be as smart as we can about it.”

Here are five things to know about the matchup:

1. The Cardinals, who are atop the NFC West, have won all seven of their road games this season. “It’s very impressive. They can jump on you in a hurry and then when they do, it takes a lot of pressure off of what you do for them defensively and offensively. I mean, you can open up Pandora’s box because you feel like – and I know defensively, look (Cardinals Defensive Coordinator) Vance Joseph does a hell of a job and he’s got multiple looks, multiple personnels, multiple pressure looks, but it also helps when you know you feel like you can score at will and now, you can really just do whatever you want,’’ Campbell said. “That puts a lot of pressure on teams, and so they work hand in hand, they complement each other well over there, O, D and special teams. And so, you look at it as a challenge. It’s a challenge for most teams, but I think you’ve got to try to make them play your game a little bit if you can.”

2. The lengthy injury list has given others a chance to prove themselves. “That’s a silver lining in all of this and that’s kind of the bright spot is that you are finding out about a lot of these guys that have been backups or have been on the practice squad,’’ Campbell said. “Ultimately, you don’t always know until you throw them into the fire and then you find out about some guys who normally have not had that opportunity like we have. But, we have because of different circumstances and that is a positive. You find out, ‘Do you move forward with these guys? Do you keep them around or are we looking to upgrade? Are these guys we can count on?’ And so forth.”

3. The final four games are important to Campbell. “Look, I think you’re continuing to try to improve on what you do. Like, for example, I feel like our receivers are really coming on over the last three weeks, three to four weeks,’’ Campbell said. “Particularly, these last two weeks I feel like they’re doing some real good things. We’re getting a lot more crisp, a lot more detailed, those guys are making plays. And so, I’m encouraged. I feel like it’s not as cloudy as maybe it was before. You’re starting to see things a little better.’’

4. Campbell was asked this week how much he is paying attention to Michigan and Oregon due to their potential top draft talent. He snapped back, “Zero.” Get this straight, he remains focused on getting this team to improve. He was asked again a few days later. “Is the draft within the next day or so? Because I would be very interested,’’ Campbell said. “But right now, no, and I really don’t. That’s (Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes)’s department right now. I’m so focused on what we have here and getting prepared for Arizona to be honest with you.”

5. Injuries play a huge role like they have all season. Julian Okwara (ankle) and RB D’Andre Swift (shoulder) are out. In case you missed it TE T.J. Hockenson is out for the rest of the season after deciding to undergo hand surgery. Also, questionable to play are Alex Anzalone (ankle), Michael Brockers (knee), Will Holden (not an injury), Jonah Jackson (back), Josh Reynolds (thigh) and Jaylen Reeves-Maybin (shoulder).

PREDICTION: Cardinals 42, 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.

Five things to know about Lions Thanksgiving loss to Bears

In the annual Thanksgiving Day game, two series with back-to-back-to-back penalties stalled the Lions’ offense.

Then late in the game the defense was in disarray. Back-to-back timeouts were called which is illegal in the NFL, cost a penalty and then the Bears kicked the game-winning field goal.

It was another Lions’ game — a 16-14 loss — that left a bitter taste in the mouth.

The Lions (0-10-1) are still looking for their first win. The Bears (4-7) provided a good opportunity to punch it in at Ford Field. Instead it was just another punch in the gut.

“It’s just a matter of we have to learn how to win. Once we learn how to win then we can begin to see the fruits of our labor a little bit,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “The effort is there, the fight and the fact that here we are, it’s 3 games in a row we’re right there at the very end.

“There again, I see improvement. I sit there and watch and I see some of these guys get better and better. What encourages me is I know the core of this team and I know the vets we’ve got and the young guys. These guys aren’t going to lay down, that’s not what these guys are made of, that’s what keeps me hopeful to know we are building something,’’ Campbell said.

It’s a familiar refrain for this team years after year, decade after decade. Rebuilding since 1957.

Five things to know about the Lions loss:

1. On two Lions’ offensive series there were back-to-back-to-back penalties.In the second quarter Detroit had first-and-10 at Chicago’s 29-yard line. They were in field goal range and then a false start by T.J. Hockenson was followed by a holding call on Evan Brown and then Jamaal Williams was called for a false start. All of a sudden it’s first-and-30, then second-and-26, then third-and-32, then punt. Campbell said some teams can overcome penalties but the Lions can not. “The bottom line is we put ourselves in those third-and-a mile situations and that’s on us. Those things kill you,’’ Campbell said. It happened again in the fourth quarter. Fans booed loudly when Goff completed a 7-yard pass on a third-and-32.

2. Jared Goff who returned after missing Sunday’s game due to injury completed his first dozen passes, but the offense had trouble establishing the run game finishing with just 76 rushing yards. Goff had a different outlook on the penalties. “The false starts are absolutely on us, that can’t happen,’’ Goff said. “You can call holding on every single play, it’s no excuse we’ve done it too much and I know those guys are hard on themselves up front. Back there they can throw that flag every play and to me it seemed like it was a little too often on that call.’’ D’Andre Swift left the game with a shoulder injury which affected the offense but still no excuse.

3. When a defense holds an opponent to 16 points, the team should be able to find a way to win. Campbell praised the defense repeatedly for keeping them in the game. And yet when the Bears got the ball with 8:30 left in the game, the Lions defense could not get them off the field. They went down and kicked a game-ending, game-winning field goal.

4. Calling back-to-back timeouts in the final minutes is inexcusable. The defensive players have to understand and know what is going on. Here is how Campbell explained it: “It was a check by what they were doing. So you don’t get it until it’s in the middle of the play, but it’s something that we had talked about. And so you don’t get it pre-snap, it’s a call and it’s got basically a check on it to what they’re going to do and what they line up in offensively is what happened. So we had half in one call and half in another. So the first thing in my head is, ‘Well, we’ve got a blown coverage and they’re about to score a touchdown, so I do it, which you can’t do and now it’s a penalty. But I know that if he threw it out in a flat it was about to be a touchdown.’ Can’t do it.”

5. Coaching has to be under scrutiny. Not just the conservative play-calling, but also having guys prepared. That whole back-to-back timeout situation is a perfect example. And the Lions finished with a season-high 10 penalties costing 67 yards. In Week 12 that should not happen. No excuses.

UP NEXT: The Lions host the Minnesota Vikings (5-5) on Sunday, Dec. 5, at Ford Field.