Tag: Jameson Wiliams

Five key reasons for the Detroit Lions 20-16 loss to Tampa Bay Bucs

DETROIT —  On the stats page, the Detroit Lions dominated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But on the field Detroit couldn’t take advantage of its chances and lost 20-16 at Ford Field on Sunday.

The Lions had the edge in first downs, 26-14; third-down efficiency, 7/17 to 2/10; total yards 463 to  216; and total plays 83 to 47. Sounds impressive but the scoreboard is what matters. Also, Detroit was just 1 of 7 in the Red Zone.

“We fought, we got down there, certainly on offense we doubled up on yardage, we get down to the red zone and can’t get TDs, that was the story of the game,’’ Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “Defensively I thought we played lights out, gave us two shots there at the end of the game and we couldn’t finish it out.’’

The Lions beat the Bucs twice last season — 20-6 in October and then a big divisional round win, 31-23, in January. With the win, the Bucs moved to 2-0 while the Lions fell to 1-1.

“It’s early in the year but it’s a good learning experience and chance for us to dive into what went wrong and how can we fix it,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said. “If I remember correctly we started 1-1 last year and we were able to respond from that pretty well.’’

Here are five of the main reasons the Lions lost:

ONE: At the end of the first half, the Lions had second-and-10 at Tampa’s 17-yard line with 18 seconds left. Amon-Ra St. Brown caught an 8-yard pass up the middle, Goff spiked the ball leaving 4 seconds but the Lions were penalized for 12 men on the field and the half was over. If they had made a field goal, they wouldn’t have needed a touchdown in the fourth quarter, they could have won with just another 3 points. “It’s a massive error on my part no one else’s,’’ Campbell said. “It was between hurry-up field goal and clocking it, it was 100 percent my fault.’’

TWO: Going 1 for 7 in the red zone was a killer. “We just never felt real comfortable and once you get out far enough and you end up in these third-and-longs in the red zone that’s where it gets pretty hard, when getting close to 10-yd line it’s hard to throw it from there from what they could do coverage-wise,’’ Campbell said. “We couldn’t quite get the rhythm, we couldn’t get in sync and ultimately it hurt us.’’ Detroit was at Tampa’s 11-yard line on a fourth-and-8 with 1:01 remaining. A 5-yard pass to Jahmyr Gibbs, turned the ball over to the Bucs. Goff said the Bucs’ defense got “really stingy” in the red zone.

THREE: Goff threw a pair of interceptions, including his first pass of the game. On that one it looked to him like Jameson Williams was man-handled but no pass interference call was made. He finished the game 34 of 55 for 307 yards, zero touchdowns and those 2 interceptions. Campbell is not worried about Goff. “He’ll rebound. Has he played better? Yeah, he’s played better. I know him, he never stays down,’’ Campbell said. “… He’s going to take ownership and he’s going to be better. That’s the way he’s wired and that’s what makes him who he is.’’

FOUR: Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield completed just a dozen passes (185 yards) and was sacked five times. He threw one touchdown pass and one interception. He also carried the ball five times for 34 yards. Even though his numbers weren’t spectacular he was in control. That was not a surprise.

FIVE: Aidan Hutchinson was an edge rusher on a mission, finishing with 4.5 sacks. “His motor is unbelievable. To be able to play at the rate he plays at, at that intensity for that many snaps in a game, it’s rare,’’ Campbell said. “On top of that he’s got talent and he’s continued to develop his different moves.’’ Detroit’s defense held the Bucs numbers down but also allowed too many chunk plays including a 41-yard touchdown play by Chris Godwin. 

UP NEXT: Lions at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22.

Lions QB Jared Goff confident going against Raiders on Monday night

Goff’s 3 thoughts on Crosby, Gibbs and JMo

ALLEN PARK — Jared Goff, like the rest of the Lions, is not in panic mode because they lost a game — and lost it badly — to the Ravens on Sunday.

The Lions are still 5-2, remain in first place in the NFC North and just have to get back on track against the Oakland Raiders (3-4) on Monday Night Football.

Some fans are quite agitated, but not Goff.

“It’s a rollercoaster outside of our building at times, for every team in the League. It’s no different for us, but in here, it’s pretty ‘steady Eddy’ and ready to respond this week,’’ Goff said on Thursday.

The quarterback said they will learn more about themselves on Monday night.

Five thoughts from Goff:

1. The Raiders defense has been solid in taking away chunk plays. There’s a reason for that. “I think they do a good job of rushing, obviously. We’ve talked about  Maxx (Crosby) a few times,’’ Goff said. “Obviously, him rushing the passer, as well as a few of their other guys that can rush the passer. And they’re good on the backend too, so they’re good at limiting that stuff. It’s going to be our job to try to find them in different ways and see if we can get more than other teams have.”

2. While most of the Lions didn’t play well in the loss, rookie RB Jahmyr Gibbs stepped up and showed that he’s quickly maturing into a solid NFL running back.”He can catch the ball in the backfield, we can hand it to him, he can do all sorts of things. He’ll get another big workload this week I would imagine with David (Montgomery) still out. And yeah, it’ll be good,’’ Goff said. Goff said Gibbs is very smart, a quick learner and they’re excited to see him continue to grow.

3. Goff said he just has to keep working with WR Jameson Williams who was targeted six times against the Ravens, but didn’t make a catch and had at least two drops. “It’s so early in his career and his development. I just keep working, keep working with him, building that trust with him and getting on the same page,’’ Goff said. “He’s working his tail off at practice and has done a great job trying to get better every week and I expect to see his development continue.” Williams’ speed is his biggest asset and early on, Goff had to adjust for that speed when passing to him but the two are more comfortable now. “I think I’m past that now where I know his speed and we’ve got a good rapport in that way. But yeah, it’s just getting on the same page with everything and, again, it’s just so early in his career and his development that it’s just reps, it’s just reps, it’s just time and it’s a matter of time before everything starts to click for him in our offense.”