Tag: NFL

Detroit Lions’ penalties, turnovers lead to 28-13 loss at Chicago Bears

Dan Campbell said lack of discipline was the culprit

A few weeks ago, the Lions needed a last-minute touchdown to beat the Chicago Bears. 

On Sunday at Soldier Field, it was a different story. Self-inflicted wounds — eight penalties and three turnovers — buried the Lions. 

Down six points at the start of the fourth, the Lions could not get anything going and left the Windy City with a 28-13 loss. It was the Lions’ second loss in three games. 

“That’s a tough pill to swallow, but it is what it is. I thought we played hard, I thought we did some really good things at times. But honestly it was the discipline. The penalties cost us today, that’s the story of the game,’’ coach Dan Campbell said.

While Detroit (9-4) is still atop the NFC North, they have lost two division games and will face the Minnesota Vikings twice in the last three games. 

The Bears weren’t flawless but they did not turn the ball over and they only had four penalties.

“I’m not in panic mode, I’m not losing confidence. We’re good, we’ve got four to go. All we’ve got to do is get our discipline back and continue to fight like we fight,’’ Campbell said. “It wasn’t our day today, we didn’t handle it. When you do that to yourself against a good team, that’s what happens and this is a good team. We’ll clean it up and move on, that’s what competitors do.’’

Campbell said he will need to be a little more irritable to get the team back to a more disciplined mode. 

Five of the reasons the Lions lost:

1. The Lions defense could not stop quarterback Justin Fields. He’s more of a threat rushing, but can also find an open receiver when under pressure. He’s not one of the best QBs in the league, but he seems to mystify the Lions defense. They should have been better prepared. He finished 19-33 for 223 yards, one passing TD, 58 rushing yards and one rushing TD. “The discipline, that’s the biggest thing. Early in that game, Field is running around, he got us a few times, then we settled in on defense,’’ Campbell said. “I thought we played pretty good. The second half we got put in some tough spots but all in all we just couldn’t score enough points either.’’

2. Jared Goff was just off. He threw two interceptions and lost a fumbled snap. That’s easy to diagnose. But he also had trouble finding open receivers and if he found them they had a problem holding onto the ball. He went to WR Amon-Ra St. Brown twice in the fourth quarter and he couldn’t hold on to either one. He was 20-35 for 161 yards, one TD and two interceptions. “You get in this type of game with that type of wind and you don’t want to be living in these passing downs, these second-and-longs, third-and-longs, that’s where we had to function because we weren’t good enough on some of our first-down efficiency,’’ Campbell said. “That’s where we’ve been good.’’

3. The offensive line was without center Frank Ragnow, so Graham Glasgow moved to center and Kayode Awosika got his first start at right guard. They opened the lanes for the running backs who amassed 140 rushing yards against the NFL’s top rushing defense. Goff was sacked four times. Still Campbell thought they protected well. “It’s the nature of that type of weather. You’ve got a passing game like ours, you try to play with timing and rhythm it’s not the easiest thing to do,’’ the coach said.

4. The third quarter continues to be 15 minutes of miserableness for the Lions who led 13-10 at the half. Sunday they had zero first downs in the third. They got the ball to start it and could do nothing with it and the defense allowed 18 second-half points. So far this season the Lions have been outscored 84-46 in the third quarter, while they’ve got the scoring edge in the other three quarters.

5. The defense had a few good stretches, but inconsistency has been an issue most of the season, even during wins. With the talent available, more is expected. They did get to Field – sacking him three times and pressuring him often but he was able to overcome that too often. Early in the second quarter they stopped DJ Moore on a fourth-and-1 run. Momentum seemed to shift for the remainder of the half, but it didn’t last into the third.

UP NEXT: Denver Broncos at Lions on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 8:15 p.m.

Detroit Lions draft CB Jeff Okudah who says his technique is his best asset

Cornerback was one-year starter at Ohio State

Jeff Okudah, the Lions first-round draft pick, says his best asset is his technique.

“I try to sharpen my sword every chance that I can I get,’’ Okudah said on a media conference call late Thursday night.

The 6-foot-1 cornerback, a one-year starter at Ohio State, was a natural fit for the Lions who had traded away Darius Slay to the Eagles.

Okudah, who is from Texas, was the third overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft on Thursday night following Joe Burrow who went to Cincinnati and Chase Young who was drafted by the Washington Redskins. 

“It was a feeling I can’t explain. All the hard work, finally I’m getting a chance to get my name called. It was really something I’m going to remember forever,’’ Okudah said.

He became the first cornerback that the Lions have drafted in the first round since 1998 when they selected Terry Fair.

“He’s very aggressive at the line of scrimmage. He’ll play with his hands. He’ll stay square. He’s patient. There’s not a lot of panic down field on some of the shots, really good in transition, has good makeup speed,” coach Matt Patricia said on a Zoom call with WJBK-Fox 2. “Just really overall, hard-working, tough kid, loves to tackle and really just loves the game. He loves to work at the game. Loves to just study every single week. He was outstanding with his recall on his opponents and things like that. Just knew that we had a kid that we thought would be a really good player for us.”

Okudah knew the Lions had interest but didn’t know for certain where he would land.

“I wasn’t really sure of anything coming into tonight because I went into the draft with an open mind, I know a lot of things happen on draft night that are out of your control,’’ Okudah said.

He thinks he can be a good fit in the Lions’ defense, which was ranked 31st in 2019, thanks to his background at Ohio State.

“At Ohio State we played a bunch of coverages. We played Cover 1, Cover 3 and some Cover 4,’’ Okudah said. “I think my background of playing a bunch of defenses. I’m pretty confident I can go in there and be able to learn the defense.’’ 

It’s going to be all different this spring with the possibility of no team workouts due to the coronavirus shutdowns. Even training camp and the season are question marks.

He wants to learn from veteran corner Desmond Trufant who was signed by Detroit as a free agent.

“I want to be around him a lot, I want to soak up everything he knows, things he wishes he could have done differently, I want to use his trial and testimonies to maybe avoid going through some of the same things,’’ Okudah said.

He was known at Ohio State as being studious and prepared. 

On SiriusXMNFL when asked if he was ready to be a lock-down corner for the Lions, Okudah said: “It’s definitely a big challenge. I’m just ready to go into that locker room, begin to earn my teammates’ respect and that’ll be the first step. We’ll go from there after that.’’

He can make an immediate impact, but the Lions will have a chance to work him in slowly since they signed Trufant.

Remember, Darius Slay only started four of the 13 games he played as a rookie. He wasn’t Big Play Slay right out of the gate. Obviously it didn’t mean the Lions had given up on him, but rather they gave him time to soak it all in. 

Cornerback is one of the toughest positions to learn in the NFL, but there’s no reason to think that Okudah is not up to the task. 

“It’s a crazy feeling being drafted that high. The Detroit Lions think a lot about me, I think it’s up to me to return that and give them all I have, go to work every single day with my teammates and be the best player I can be,’’ Okudah said.

The Lions will have three picks on Friday night in the second and third rounds — 35th overall (second), 67th overall (third) and 85th overall (from the Eagles.) Friday night’s festivities start at 7 p.m. The fourth through seventh rounds begin at noon on Saturday.

NFL admits 1 bad call against Lions; Matt Patricia mum on penalties in MNF loss

Coach says they must control what they can control

Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, admitted that the second illegal hands to the face penalty on Lions defensive lineman Trey Flowers should not have been called. It factored into the 23-22 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.

Both penalties were called on Flowers in the fourth quarter. Vincent stood behind the officials for calling the first one.

“There was one that was clear, that we support,” Vincent told reporters, referring to a prior penalty. “But there was another that when you look at it and you review the play, it’s not something that you want to see called in that particular pass rush. One you can support, but the other one, when you review it and you have seen some slow-mos, the foul wasn’t there.”

Vincent was speaking at NFL’s fall league meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

The flag on that second all against Flowers came on third-and-4 and ended up extending the game-winning drive.

Vincent did not address the personal foul called on the Lions’ Tracy Walker who was clearly going for the ball, but in the process had a helmet-to-helmet hit on the receiver.

He also did not speak to the non-call on a pass interference on Marvin Jones Jr. when Packers cornerback Will Redmond draped his arm across Jones’ chest before the ball arrived.

Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell would not speak to specifics from Monday night. But he had a short answer when asked how pass interference is being called this season: “It’s not.”

As expected, Lions coach Matt Patricia did not want to discuss the officiating.

The coach said he had been in meetings all day Tuesday and had not talked to anyone from the NFL yet or heard about Vincent’s comments.

“For me obviously there were some calls in the game that everyone’s focused on right now. I’m focused on the ones we have to do right out on the field through execution and coaching and playing,’’ Patricia said in a conference call on Tuesday. “If you go through a game and you’re relying on the officials to tell you if you’ve won I don’t really think you’re going to turn out in a favorable manner more times than not.’’

He repeatedly said they have to control what they can control to give themselves a chance to win.

“The things we can control are definitely a lot of the plays out there that we know we can do a better job,’’ Patricia said.

While he’s been sequestered planning for Sunday’s home game against the Vikings, the Lions fans are in an uproar over the state of the NFL officiating and the way it always seems to work against the Lions.

“I love our fan base and I love their passion, I love all of it. I appreciate it more than you know,’’ Patricia said. “I just want the fans to know we’re going to work to get things right, do things the right way. We’re tough, we’re built tough, we’re blue collar – just like this city, just like this state. We’ll continue to be tough and in the end toughness is going to prevail. And we’re going to do everything possible to make sure that happens.’’

“I think the game is going the way of player safety and we understand that. We’ve just got to be careful, there’s a fine line. Just be careful in regards to what we’re doing,’’ defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni said on a conference call on Tuesday. 

After each game, NFL teams submit questionable calls to the NFL for clarification. Patricia would not say if that number after last night is more or less than usual. 

He did explain what keeps him going.

“Football is an emotional game, that’s why we love it so much,’’ Patricia said.