lions – Lions Lowdown

Five reasons the Lions romped over the Cowboys, 47-9; Aidan Hutchinson update

When does a dominating win by the Detroit Lions feel a little like a loss? When Aidan Hutchinson, the heart of the defense, goes down in the third quarter with a broken tibia.

Still the Lions kept punishing the Cowboys and high-tailed it out of Dallas with a 47-9 win on Sunday.

“I thought we played the most complete game we’ve played here in a long time, if not the most since we’ve been here,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “I thought all phases stepped up particularly offensively and defensively, we applied pressure, we finally got a multiple take away game. They come in bunches.’’

Campbell said Hutchinson underwent immediate surgery and was staying in a Dallas hospital overnight. He said they’ll know more Monday, but obviously he’ll be down for a while.

“These are hard moments, that’s hard for everybody,’’ Campbell told reporters afterward. The team surrounded Hutchinson on the field after he went down before he was hauled away on a cart

Still the team stayed strong without Hutchinson.

The Lions are now 4-1 and face the division rival undefeated Vikings (5-0) next week at Minnesota. Detroit has now started at least 4-1 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1970-71.

With a bye week coming up, the Cowboys (3-3), who were coming off two straight wins, will look to heal their wounds and regroup. They have lost all three home games so far this season.

It was total domination from the get-go for the Lions who were rested and ready after their bye week.

“I expected us to come in and play well. It’s the tightest I felt about our crew and we answered,’’ Campbell said.

Five of the main reasons the Lions won:

ONE: Quarterback Jared Goff was well Jared Goff, finding guys downfield for chunk plays – a 42-yard pass to Tim Patrick, a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Williams, a 52-yard flea-flicker TD pass to Sam LaPorta and a 38-yard pass to Kalif Raymond. Goff completed 18 of 25 attempts for 315 yards and threw three touchdowns. He is one of only three QBs in Lions’ history who have thrown three 50-yard plus passes within the first five games of a season. He’s right there with Greg Landry and Earl Morral.

TWO: The Cowboys’ defense had no clue about how to stop the Lions on the ground. The Lions rushed for 184 yards. David Montgomery, who is like a freight train pushing down the field, finished with a pair of touchdowns and 80 rushing yards. Jahmyr Gibbs found success too with a dozen runs for 63 yards. The offensive line gave Goff plenty of time to throw and the running backs room to run.

THREE: The Cowboys could not get much going offensively thanks to Detroit’s stingy defense. Dak Prescott, the NFL’s highest paid player, just didn’t look like it. He completed 17 of 33 passes for 178 yards and threw two picks. The Cowboys had just 3 points on their first six possessions. They never scored a touchdown even with Hutchinson out of the game. It didn’t help that they turned the ball over five times – three interceptions (a late one by Cooper Rush) and two fumbles lost. Entering the game, the Cowboys owned the NFL’s second-best passing offense. That makes the Lions’ effort look even more amazing.

FOUR: Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson went deep into his playbook with a flea-flicker touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta, a pass to left tackle Taylor Decker in the end zone that wasn’t complete and a trick TD play to right tackle Penei Sewell that was negated by a penalty. He made offensive lineman Dan Skipper eligible on the first play, a nod to the whole mess at the end of the game last December which the Lions lost.

FIVE: Dan Campbell had his bunch ready to play. The game plan was solid. It looked like the best game for the offense and defense this season. A big nod also to defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn who is playing without a few key injured players. Campbell didn’t make much of it during the week to the media, but he grew up in Texas and played three seasons for the Cowboys. At practice Friday one of the tunes blaring from the speakers was from the Texan band, Whiskey Myers. It was called “Bury My Bones” and seemed to fit in with the theme of the week.

BONUS: Brian Branch came up with two interceptions of Prescott and was stopped just short of a touchdown on the return of the second one early in the fourth quarter. On the next play Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown in the end zone for a score to give Detroit a 47-9 lead. Branch is the second player in franchise history to record two interceptions and a forced fumble in a single game, joining DB Drè Bly.

BONUS TOO: Kerby Joseph intercepted Cooper Rush, who was in for Prescott, in the end zone in the fourth quarter. It was Joseph’s fourth interception this year and all four have been in Detroit’s end zone. He is the Lions’ first safety to produce an INT in four of the team’s first five games since 1981.

The maturation of Lions WR Jameson Willliams

ALLEN PARK — Jameson Williams has matured before our eyes. The Detroit Lions wide receiver, who got off to a slow NFL start, collected his second game ball this season in the win over the Seahawks on Monday night.

It wasn’t just his two catches for 80 yards — one a 70-yard touchdown play – his blocking caught the eye of coach Dan Campbell.

Williams also earned a game ball in the opener, a win over the Rams, in which he had five catches for 121 yards and a touchdown. He carried that ball into the press room after the game, cradled in his arm and said it was his first game ball at any level. He didn’t want to let it go.

In the first four games he’s racked up 289 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns. He’s matched his touchdown total from last year when he had 354 receiving yards in a dozen games.

He’s a changed young man.

Campbell first gives credit to Jameson himself for his maturation, but points out that he had a lot of help along the way.

The coach didn’t mention it but the staff was also patient waiting for the 2022 first-round pick, to get his NFL legs under him. They never gave up. Campbell always would say he had seen improvement even when it might be tough to see to the naked eye by others.

“Everything starts with him. He’s done an outstanding job of rehabbing, getting over the injury, he had to deal with what came with the gambling, the time off (four-game NFL suspension), then he got hurt in camp before that happened,’’ Campbell said on Tuesday.

Williams didn’t play until Week 5 in 2023 and in that first game had two catches for 2 yards. He had missed much of training camp and all of the preseason games so it took a bit for him to get in gear.

“He’s been so raw to it, just learning and working his way through it, he’s just matured so much. He’s matured, he’s worked, he’s grinded, he wants the coaching, he wants to get better. That’s a credit to him that he’s open and he’s coachable,’’ the coach added.

It wasn’t just his teammates and the coaching staff, it was the team’s developmental staff that helped steer Williams in the right direction.

“We have so many resources here that help guys develop, not only certainly as players but as men and just trying to do things the right way, being a pro and everything that goes along with it,’’ Campbell said. “It’s been good to be able to do that and it doesn’t work that way everywhere, not every place is set up the way ours is set up.’’

It was the perfect landing spot for Williams.

Jared Goff, offense find rhythm as Lions topple Seahawks, 42-29

DETROIT — Dan Campbell preaches complementary football which he hadn’t seen consistently from his team this season even though they won two of the first three games.

That changed for the Detroit Lions on Monday night. The offense caught fire and the defense came up with a few big plays enabling the Lions to snap their three-game losing streak to the Seattle Seahawks with a 42-39 win at Ford Field.

In the first three games, the defense played well and the offense played just good enough.

On Monday night, Jared Goff played nearly a perfect game and he had plenty of help to bring the Lions record to 3-1.

“We knew this was coming offensively. Everybody did. You can’t worry about this and that, you can’t start panicking, you just work and clean everything up,’’ Campbell said. “… We worked and it showed. We found our rhythm.’’

Goff was 18 of 18 for 292 yards and two touchdowns. And he caught a touchdown pass from Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Campbell said he knew Goff played well but didn’t realize he was near perfect.

“I gave the game ball to somebody else, I feel awful,’’ Campbell said. “I knew he played really well. You could feel it. He found his rhythm early, I thought he was seeing the field,played with rhythm.”.

He gave game balls to WR Jameson Williams and CB Kerby Joseph.

“Everybody on that offense stepped and found a rhythm today,’’ Campbell said.

Five reasons the Lions won:

ONE: Goff earned a quarterback rating just shy of perfect. He also became the first quarterback in NFL history to attempt 10 passes in a game without throwing an incompletion.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done it. I know I did it in the first half last week. I was aware of it then. I was kind of aware of it today about middle of the third quarter. I couldn’t think of one. Then I threw the one out of bounds that ended up being offensive pass interference. I was like does that count? (It didn’t.) It was a good day,’’ Goff said.

The Seahawks had entered the game with a 3-0 record.

“That defense had done a good job up to this point and we were able to get after them,’’ Goff said.

TWO: Another first for Goff was a touchdown catch. “I think that’s my first one ever all the way back to 7 years old,’’ he said.

The play, that’s been around for a couple years, is called Alcatraz and Goff has no idea why.

On a second-and-goal from Seattle’s 7-yard line, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown passed the ball to Goff in the end zone.

“We’ve never gotten into the right situation to get it called,’’ Goff said. “I think we have called it but if it’s not the right look I get out of it. But that was the right look.’’ It put the Lions up by 14 points.

THREE: Wide receiver Jameson Williams had just two catches but one was for 70 yards and a touchdown. His speed just was too much for Seattle’s secondary and he high-stepped into the end zone. As a tribute to Calvin Johnson, to celebrate Williams dunked the ball over the goal post.

“He’s a one-play touchdown guy, I know he strikes fear in every team we play. They’re going to see that and start getting more fear,’’ Goff said. “He’s a stud.’’

He received a game ball not just for his two catches but Campbell said they noticed his key blocks throughout the game.

FOUR: Running backs David Montgomery and Jaymyr Gibbs combined for three rushing touchdowns. Montgomery’s longest play came on a short pass — his only catch in the game – that he turned into a 40-yard gain by spinning and breaking tackles along the way.

“This guy, unbelievable, he is. I would never not block for that guy ever, because the play is never over with him,’’ Campbell said. “He’s tough, he’s relentless, he’s resilient, everything you’d want in a back.’’

Montgomery finished with a dozen carries for 40 yards and a rushing touchdown.

Gibbs had 14 carries for 78 yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns. His 20-yard scamper in the first quarter set up the Lions first touchdown.

FIVE: The Seahawks ran 78 offensive plays and by late in the game the defense might have been dragging a bit. But late in the fourth quarter they came up with a huge goal-line stand. Seattle had the ball, first-and-goal, at Detroit’ 3-yard line and they were stopped four times and turned the ball over on downs. And then with a minute left Kerby Joseph intercepted Geno Smith in the end zone to put the game away. The Seahawks finished with 516 yards and Smith passed for 395. But with the game on the line, the defense came up big.

BONUS: A dozen penalties is too many. Campbell knows that but he was not pulling out his hair.

“I have to watch tape but I can tell you just about everyone that I saw Carlton (Davis) is battling, that’s a good receiver he’s on, that guy is a physical receiver and Carlton is physical. We played ball,’’ Campbell said. “I’m not discouraged about that one bit. I’m just not. There’s things we have to clean up. … We can’t survive 12 penalties every game but we needed to be physical.’’

UP NEXT: The Lions have a bye week which will give them time to heal a bit. It’s a banged-up group. “We played some physical opponents these first four weeks. So I do think it’s coming at a good time,’’ Campbell said. “And it’s good to get to 3-1 with this bye, we rest up, heal up and then we make a big push.’’ They play at the Cowboys on Oct. 13.