Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Lions Lowdown

Lomas Brown ‘flabbergasted’ when named a semifinalist for Pro Football Hall of Fame

Brown blocked for Barry Sanders during his 11 years with the Lions

Fittingly, Lomas Brown was at a turkey giveaway on Tuesday morning when he got the call that he is a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“I was just flabbergasted,’’ Brown said at a press conference on Tuesday. “I didn’t have words at that point. I’m still kind of short of words to say what this means to me.’’

Brown, an offensive tackle for the Lions from 1985-1995, said he is thankful for the chance to get in the Hall and to all those who have helped him including the Lions media relations staff and the Lions organizaion. After an 18-year NFL career, he retired from the Buccaneers in 2002 and has been eligible for the Hall since 2007.

“I’m just thankful today to be able to get to a point I’ve never gotten in the Hall of Fame selection. I’m just thankful,’’ Brown said.

The seven-time Pro Bowler was drafted by Detroit in 1985, stayed for 11 years and then went on to play for the Cardinals, the Browns, the Giants and the Buccaneers where he was on the 2002 team that won the Super Bowl.

He was teammates with coach Dan Campbell on the Giants in 2001-2002.

“Unbelievable teammate, always upbeat, never a bad day, willing to do whatever for a teammate and just a helluva player, a productive player,’’ said Campbell who played tight end. “You talk about reliability, dependability, that was him.’’

At the time Brown didn’t see Campbell as a potential NFL coach, but he did see something in him.

“I was in my 15th year, he was in his second when I got to New York. You couldn’t say he was going to be a great coach but there was something different about that dude,’’ Brown said.

Brown remains engaged with the Lions as part of the radio broadcast team. He’s also involved in charity work in the community which started when he was drafted in 1985.

“As an offensive lineman you’ve always — there’s something about you where you want to protect people — make sure everyone is having success,’’ Brown said. “And I think for me when I first got here in ‘85 my thing was instead of making a big impact on the field I thought about making a big impact off the field. It thrust me into the community and you guys live here, this is a great community. We know there’ s a lot of need out there. They say to those who much is given, much is expected. I kind of took that moniker.’’

The next step in the Pro Football Hall of Fame process is to narrow the field from the 26 semifinalists to 15 which is expected by the end of the year.

Five thoughts from Lions WR Jameson Williams on his role, his TD at the Eagles and the celebration

ALLEN PARK — Since the win over Tampa Bay a month ago when Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams finished with zero catches on two targets, he’s been more involved in the offense.

Always a deep threat due to his speed, in recent weeks he’s also been targeted in intermediate and crossing routes with success.

Five thoughts from Wlliams when he met with the media on Thursday:

ONE: He does notice a difference on game days. “I feel more involved, but I’m just thinking it’s part of the progression and you know it’s part of plays, we’ve been running the same plays no different, switching it up a little bit and it’s been coming my way,’’ Williams said. “That’s the thing, it’s part of the progression.’’

TWO: He scored a touchdown in the loss to the Eagles on Sunday night beating out cornerback Adoree Jackson with his speed. “I feel when I get a ball and it’s a little bit of space I can make something happen. Every time I catch the ball I’m trying to score,’’ Williams said. “ I’ve got the mindset to break a tackle and try to get more than what I got at the catch point.’’ He caught that ball at the Eagles’ 25-yard line and ran it in from there for the score on Sunday. The 40-yard pass play was one of Williams’ four receptions.

THREE: His touchdown celebration, where he jumped up and bear hugged the goalpost, may have gotten more attention than the score. “I didn’t know it was a penalty til I sat down on the bench and saw the field goal team going out,’’ Williams said. “I apologized to Jake (Bates), I apologized to Jack (Fox), I apologized to coach, everybody. They told me it wasn’t my fault but I felt like it was my fault in the moment. We’ve just got to make plays and be smarter.’’ He was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct which pushed the extra point back 15 yards. Bates missed it wide right. Williams said that coach Dan Campbell told him not to do it again.

FOUR: Williams said he doesn’t think they played bad at all. He praised the defense and said the offense has to learn and move on. “Wherever anybody wants to rank us, that’s up to them. I don’t really care where we’re at, we know what we play like, we know what type of team we (are),’’ Williams said. “We’re going to get it together and down the line it’s going to be big for us, games like that are going to help us down the line. We know where we went wrong, we corrected it, we just have to move forward.’’ The Lions are 6-4 at this point and out of the playoffs with seven games remaining.

FIVE: Detroit is a hefty 10-point favorite over the Giants on Sunday. “I think I see a lot of ways we could attack them, it looks good on our end,’’ Williams said. “We’ve got a lot of different ways we can attack them and make plays and execute. We’re just trying to get back on the winning track, that’s the main thing going into this game.’’

UP NEXT: Lions (6-4) face the N.Y. Giants (2-9) at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at Ford Field. It’s the first of three home games in 12 days for Detroit.

Detroit Lions’ defense comes up huge in 24-9 win over Tampa Bay Bucs

DETROIT — “Next man up” is not an empty phrase for Lions coach Dan Campbell. He’s serious and his defense proved him right in a 24-9 win over Tampa Bay on Monday night at Ford Field.

Missing key starters in the secondary, Detroit’s defense, including the pieced-together secondary, stifled Bucs’ quarterback Baker Mayfield. The Bucs (5-2) averaged 27.5 points per game and the Lions held them to just nine.

“I knew we were going to challenge more, do more than what we did last week. I did feel good about that,’’ Campbell said. “That’s a good quarterback over there, we knew (WR Mike) Evans was coming back.’’

The coach had confidence in his guys but didn’t think they could hold the Bucs’e offensive output so well.

Tampa Bay had no answer for running back Jahmyr Gibbs who had 218 scrimmage yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns.

The Lions’ resiliency showed again. Coming off a disappointing loss at Kansas City, Detroit was not going to lose two in a row. And they didn’t. The Lions (5-2) haven’t lost back-to-back games in three years.

“Listen, we’ve got a special group of coaches and players, they’re competitive, they want to win, they’re able to really focus on what needs to be fixed,’’ Campbell said. “What cost us the loss the week before and simply keep in that compartment. Don’t make more of it then needs be, don’t lose confidence, just fix it.’’

And they did.

Five of the reasons the Lions won:

ONE: Jahmyr Gibbs made the most of every touch and he had plenty. Gibbs scored two rushing touchdowns, carried 17 times for 136 yards and caught three passes for 82 yards. “You felt like this has been building. As he gets in better shape, and starts getting his feet under him, starts getting the feel of it, starts breaking some tackles,’’ Campbell said. “Every week it’s gotten closer and closer, tonight was the night he busted one out of there, there will be no looking back.’’Gibbs became the 10th player in NFL history to produce a game with at least 135 rushing yards, 80 receiving yards and two rushing TDs. The last player to do so was Chris Johnson in 2009. Gibbs reached those totals with 4:39 left in the third quarter. Let that soak in. And he is the 8th NFL player since at least 1960 to produce 100-plus rushing yards, a rushing TD and 50-plus receiving yards in the first half of a game.

TWO: Alim McNeill is back. Man, is he back. The defensive tackle, who had not played for 10 months after knee surgery, makes everyone around him better and it was evident from the get-go. He tipped a Baker Mayfield pass at the line of scrimmage on a key third-and-3 play early in the second quarter, forcing a punt. “You could feel his presence early,’’ said Campbell, noting that he’s not yet in great football shape.

THREE: The Lions’ secondary was missing most of its starters but the others stepped up big time. It was almost like they got tired of hearing about the “depleted” secondary and decided to make a statement. “That’s what’s expected here,’’ Campbell said. “I’ve said before you get in there you don’t have to be perfect, you challenge and you compete and we will help you, the guys around will help you and we’ll play with three units. I love the fact that the game didn’t feel too big for some of those guys.’’ Rock Ya-Sin started at corner and had two pass defenses and four tackles. CB Arthur Maulet intercepted Mayfield late in the second on a play that was called on a review. It was Maulet’s second appearance in a game for the Lions. Veteran Amik Robertson’s stellar play with a forced fumble and pass defended was no surprise. CB NIck Whiteside had three passes defended including two on back-to-back pass attempts in the end zone.

FOUR: It was not Jared Goff’s best game but he came through when needed and he had plenty of help from Gibbs and the Lions defense. “Offensively there’s certainly things we know can be done better and we’ll need to do better, but at the end of the day when we needed points we found points,’’ Campbell said. Still, Goff completed 20 of 29 passes for 241 yards, one touchdown (to Amon-Ra St. Brown) and one interception.

FIVE: Tampa Bay’s defense was not stout enough. They came in with the NFL’s fifth best rushing defense allowing just 88.2 rushing yards per game. The Lions rushed for nearly double that – 164. They could not stop Detroit’s run. In fact, they just couldn’t put up much of a fight.

UP NEXT: It’s the Lions bye week. Next game on Sunday, Nov, 2 at Ford Field against the Minnesota Vikings.