N.Y. Jets – Lions Lowdown

Lions GM Brad Holmes will not overreact after playoff loss; does not feel walls closing in

He fully trusts Dan Campbell to hire coordinators who are good fits

Do not look for Lions GM Brad Holmes to make “crazy wholesale changes” after the disappointing loss to the Commanders in the divisional round of the playoffs. He thinks all the pieces are in place moving forward.

“Obviously it sucks, it’s humbling, but no overreaction. There’s nothing else to do but get back to work,’’ Holmes said at his end-of-season press conference on Thursday.

The level-headed GM has routinely said he won’t be a prisoner of the moment and this moment is no different.

“We’ll assess and evolve like we always do every year, we’ll work to improve, but literally there is nothing else to do but get back to work,’’ Holmes said. “That’s what we’ve been saying since Day One, it’s all about the work and that’s what we’ll continue to do.’’

He thought the Lions, whose defense was decimated by a slew of injuries, were very close this season winning 15 games, the NFC North title and earning the No. 1 seed. He’s confident about success next season.

“Nothing is going to alter what our approach has been in terms of trying to continue to improve and keep building. I did think we were very close, obviously felt very good about this season, but fell short. But we’re going to stay committed and stay committed to the process,’’ Holmes said.

He refuses to put a window – of sorts – on how many more years the Lions can contend for a Super Bowl.

“I understand that contrasts come up and stuff happens, but we feel so good about our young core and young nucleus of players and we feel really good about our quarterback (Jared Goff) and how he’s playing — him having an MVP caliber season this year,’’ Holmes said. “I think all the pieces are in place. I don’t feel walls closing in or a window. And, again, we make an effort to avoid those kind of things.’’

ONE MORE THING

Holmes said they were prepared to lose coordinators Ben Johnson (who signed as head coach with the Bears) and Aaron Glenn (who is headed to the Jets).

“I have so much respect for the unknown, you can’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Obviously we were prepared to lose those guys, those guys were great coaches. Call it what it is, we were lucky to have both of them this year,’’ Holmes said. “… I have the full faith and trust in Dan (Campbell) to make sure we’re going to have the right people in place in those spots.’’

Lions’ road record bodes well for playoff push; Elliott update; quote of the day

ALLEN PARK — With a playoff berth a definite possibility, the Lions will play two of their last three games on the road. On Saturday they’re at Carolina Panthers, then home to the Bears on Jan. 1 and finishing the regular season at Green Bay on Jan. 7 or 8.

After winning three straight away from Ford Field, winning on the road doesn’t seem to be a major factor moving forward.

The Lions have won at Chicago, at the New York Giants and on Sunday at the New York Jets. The win over the Bears was the first road win since Dan Campbell took over as coach.

So what’s the deal? This team is maturing and gaining confidence across the board. They’re well prepared at home or on the road.

When Campbell was asked about the road success on Monday he had to take a minute to come up with an answer.

“Look I think I go back the hardest thing for the offense is to be able to function with a silent cadence. It’s easy to say if you’re really disciplined on what you do and you get an environment and crowd noise and momentum, that will shift to the home team at some point but if you’re very disciplined you can work your way out of it,’’ Campbell said. “We’ve done a good job of it, we don’t let the momentum go so far the other way that we can’t swing it back in our favor. In some of the most critical moments we’re making the play to finish it out.’’

That is the key to winning six of their last seven. In those last three road wins the Lions were either tied at the half (Bears, Jets) up had the lead. At the Giants they were up 17-6 at halftime.

At 7-7, the Lions are 3-3 on the road and 4-4 at Ford Field.

Quote of the day: Campbell was asked about the progression of rookie Aidan Hutchinson. He had plenty to say, ending with this: “He’s got a knack for trying to punch at balls – footballs that is. He does everything. It’s not just one thing it’s the totality of it, he does everything and has gotten that much better,’’ said Campbell without hesitating after the ‘balls’ comment even when the media laughed.

Elliott status uncertain: DaShon Elliott injured his shoulder midway through the third quarter on Sunday and didn’t return. His shoulder was still tender and he was having testing done on Monday. Campbell said he expected to know more later in the day. If he can’t go on Saturday at the Panthers, it’s likely C.J. Moore or Ifeatu Melifonwu will get the nod.

“C.J. has served in that role. We’ll look at him, we have Iffy as well. It will be the combination of who gives the best opportunity on defense but also on special teams and the team in general. Let’s put our guys in positions that are going to help us the most,’’ Campbell said.

(Up next: Lions at Panthers (5-9), 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 24)

Lions pull off huge 20-17 win over Jets to keep playoff hopes alive

It’s a sign of maturation and growing confidence that the Lions grabbed a big road win when they needed it most.

Detroit fought for a crucial 20-17 win at the N.Y. Jets on Sunday to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Lions have now won six of their last seven, three straight and three straight road games. After a 1-6 start, they’re amazingly at 7-7.

“It feels great, it does. You’ll never take away from winning, not in this league. I told our guys nobody knows that better than we do,’’ Campbell said.” We’re not going to talk trash about a win, a win is a win and we’ll take that because we earned that. But the reality is moving forward we do have to clean a few of these things up that could have cost us today. A win feels great. The guys, they believe. Now here we go this is another win but we had to find a different way to win. Every time that happens, you continue to grow and figure things out and your confidence grows.’’

Halftime adjustments can be huge whether Xs and Os or otherwise. Campbell said he talked to the team at the half because he felt they were making some mistakes because they were afraid to fail.

“More than anything that to me is going to be critical, I don’t think it’s about taking the cheese, all of that, because we can play, we’ve got a good enough team to play,’’ Campbell said . “Our deal has got to be we can’t become so tense and start doing things we weren’t doing (previously). There’s a reason we’ve gotten to this point and we’re beginning to win. If we start becoming too tense and uptight, so afraid we’re going to lose, you’re not going to win that way. We’re getting better as a team.’’

Five of the reasons the Lions won:

1. Late in the fourth, down 17-13, on a fourth-and-inches play,, Jared Goff connected with tight end Brock Wright for a 51-yard touchdown play. It gave the Lions a 20-17 lead which they were able to hold onto. It seemed the offense had played more conservatively most of the game, so that call caught a few by surprise including the Jets. “It’s a great call, it’s an easy read, an easy completion if we do it right and we did it right,’’ Jared Goff said. “We’ve got Brock with some speed, didn’t know he’d be that open, but when they are it’s pretty good.’’ Wright got some key blocks and was able to get into the end zone. It was his only catch of the game, he had dropped one earlier but that had not eroded confidence in him from Goff or the coaches.

2. After that touchdown, with 1:49 left all the Jets needed was a field goal to tie. Quarterback Zach Wilson had been erratic but had connected on several chunk plays. The defense held them just enough so their field goal attempt was from 58 yards. It was no good. “We stopped them, we came up with some critical sacks, hurries, we covered well. It was great and I think that’s part of the maturing process, the growth, everything,’’ Campbell said. “I don’t know if we would have made those plays early in the year — something would have gone the other way — but that just shows we’re getting more mature, we’re becoming more disciplined in the critical moments.’’

3. The Lions offense wasn’t as prolific as in recent games, but give the Jets defense credit. They are tough and the Lions expected that and they got it. Goff finished 23 of 38 for 252 yards and one touchdown. “We hadn’t done much offensively the whole game, specifically the second half hadn’t really done anything. I certainly wasn’t playing my best ball in the second half,’’ Goff said. But then he hit Wright on that touchdown play.

4. Zach Wilson was sacked four times and the pressure was on most of the game. Romeo Okwara, who was playing in just his second game this season, had a pair of sacks. John Cominsky had a huge sack on the Jets’ final drive on a second-and-10 play that pushed the Jets back 8 yards. Rookie James Houston set off the sack fest in the first quarter on a third-and-2 play. It was Houston’s fifth sack in four games. Campbell said he was happy to have Okwara back and expects he’ll be even better next week.

5. Punt returner/wide receiver Kalif Raymond was given a game ball. His punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter got the Lions on the board. He also had five catches for 53 yards. “He’s our Iron man,’’ Campbell said.

(Photo courtesy of Detroit Lions.)

(Next up: Lions (7-7) at Carolina Panthers (5-8) who lost 24-16 to the Steelers on Sunday.)