Tag: Taylor Decker

Five things to watch as the Lions face the Bucs; plus injury updates, prediction

Under coach Dan Campbell the Lions have piled up amazing statistics on their way to two straight NFC North titles.

One stat seems to stand out. The Lions have not lost back-to-back games since October 2022 when they fell to Miami and Dallas.

That streak gets tested on Monday night when the Lions (4-2) host the Tampa Bay Bucs (5-1). Detroit is coming off a 30-17 loss at Kansas City. The bounce-back stat is on the line. If it was easy to accomplish this season after season, more teams would do it.

“It’s our players, we have a good group of guys that are competitive, they’re a resilient group, they know how to overcome adversity,’’ Campbell said. “They don’t like losing. And they go back to work to fix the things that need to be fixed. We have a couple things to clean up and we’re going to clean them up this week. So it’s our players man, coaches do a helluva job too.’’

The Lions lost just two regular season games in 2024 and one of them was to the Bucs in Week 2. They bounced back after that with 11 straight wins.

“We’ve gotten each other, I don’t know, four or five times now in the last handful of years. And it feels like we’ve given them a good punch and they’ve given us a good punch. We’ve kind of gone back and forth in that way,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said. “And I think a lot of who they are is a lot of who we want to be too. And again, I’d hope they’d say the same thing about the respect they have for us, the respect we have for their team, how hard they play, how well they’re coached, the whole thing. It’s great. It’s a good, fun I guess rivalry, if you want to call it that and I think they’re a good team.”

Five things to watch:

ONE: Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield is a challenge even with a fully healthy secondary which the Lions do not have.  “Baker makes that offense go, and it’s been that way no matter who the play-caller has been over the last couple season. … He’s a tough guy. He’s a tough guy to deal with because when it seems like there’s nothing there, he finds a way to pull his team through,’’ Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said. “So, he makes that thing go. The coordinators are smart because they don’t try to change much, they understand what works for him and they carried over. There’s some nuances that changed motion-wise, schematically, but for the most part it’s Baker’s show.” In the Bucs 20-16 win over the Lions last year Mayfield scored on passing and running touchdowns. The Lions secondary will be without Terrion Arnold, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph and Avonte Maddox.

TWO: It’s an understatement to say DL Alim McNeill has been missed since he tore up his knee late last season. He will be back in action on Monday. “I expect Alim to come in and show what he’s shown the last two weeks on the practice field. Like I said, it’s like he didn’t miss a beat,’’ Sheppard said. “Now, obviously you’re not taking hard-core doubles and true pounding and – you know that live in-game you may find yourself in kind of an eight-play sequence there that you can’t simulate on the field. So, it’s all that stuff – getting his legs back up under him. But I mean I expect this player to play at a high level and more importantly help our defense in a tremendous way.”

THREE: The Lions offensive line is coming together despite playing without LT Taylor Decker for two games. Decker could possibly return against the Bucs which would be huge since they’ll be facing nose tackle Vita Vea (6-foot-4, 347 pounds) who has 2.5 sacks to start the season.  “The size is one thing but (Vea’s) quickness to get off the ball. He’s got explosiveness and he’s got really good feet. When you’re (facing) a man that big and can move like he moves you have to do everything right and you’ve got to play with leverage,’’ Campbell said. “You have to get off of your life. We have double teams, we have to fit the double teams together. You’re off just a little bit he’ll spit you, he’ll crease you, he’ll get an edge. He’ll do that in the pass game too. He’ll swim sometimes and so if you’re not locked in and you’re not perfect fundamentally he’ll get on you. We have to be locked in on every stinking play and we have to play together.’

FOUR: All the talk about the change in offensive coordinators came to an end quickly. One main reason is the play of Jared Goff who leads the NFL in passing TDs (14) and passing percentage (75.9). “I mean, he’s the CEO of this place. So, when you’ve got a veteran guy like that, we’re always talking, ‘Hey I want this, I want that. I’d like to have this.’ It’s awesome. When you have that dialogue with the quarterback, it just makes it so much easier for me and everybody,’’ offensive coordinator John Morton said. “Everybody sees how much confidence he has to do things, and it’s paid off for us. So yeah, it’s big time.” Goff said he’s always tried to keep the ball in his teammates’ hands and avoid sacks. “Those two things, completion percentage and low sack numbers, is something I work on and something we’ve done a good job with up to this point,’’ said Goff who has been sacked nine times this season with four of those in the opening loss.

FIVE:  Tampa Bay’s coach Todd Bowles is known for switching things up which creates headaches for guys like Morton. “Listen, we have to prepare for everything. Protection-wise, that’s the biggest thing. You give them all the looks that you can give, especially the things that they’re doing this year,’’ Morton said. “You’ve already played them three times, you go back there, and you look at those games. You look at games of other teams that are similar to us, similar to the quarterback. … But the biggest thing is, we try to make sure (Goff is) protected. Because when he’s protected, he’s deadly.’’ 

LIONS INJURIES:  OUT: CB Terrion Arnold (shoulder), Kerby Joseph (knee), DB Avonte Maddox (hamstring) and RB Sione Vaki (groin). QUESTIONABLE: LT Taylor Decker (shoulder), DT D.J. Reader (back) and DT Alim McNeill (knee).

SUSPENDED: DB Brian Branch

BUCS INJURIES: OUT: WR Chris Godwin Jr. (fibula), G Luke Haggard (shoulder), RB Bucky Irving (foot/shoulder); QUESTIONABLE: WR Mike Evans (hamstring), WR Emeka Egbuka (hamstring), LB Lavonte David (knee/rib), QB Teddy Bridgewater (illness).

PREDICTION: Lions 28, Bucs 27

Five things to watch as Lions face Chiefs in prime time action

The Lions are looking for their fifth straight win, while the Chiefs are coming off a 31-28 loss on Monday night to the Jaguars. Kansas City is off to a bumpy start this season but that hasn’t changed how Lions coach Dan Campbell sees them.

The Lions (4-1) and Chiefs (2-3) meet on Sunday Night Football in Kansas City.

 “I mean it – to be able to come back year in and year out and stay hungry, stay competitive, do the right things, don’t get complacent, eliminate entitlement when you’ve been a champion over and over, I think that takes a special kind of group, a special kind of coaching staff, special kind of leadership, players, the whole thing,’’ Campbell said.

“They have that winner’s makeup, that champions makeup. But that’s right up our alley, we love this. This is – you want to look back on this in a few years and say that’s what we’ve become,’’ Campbell said.

He sees the same thing building in Detroit. 

“Absolutely it’s building. And that’s what we preach here. Our players believe in it. You’ve got to stay hungry and every game is a new game and you’ve got to take it personal,’’ Campbell said. “You’ve got to take it personal.”

The Lions opened the 2023 season with a 21-20 win at Kansas City, a shocker to everyone but themselves.

“You could tell it was the first game of the season. There’s a number of things – they could probably say the same thing too – there were a lot of things you wish you would have done better,’’ Campbell said. “But at the end of the day we hung in there and we really played great complementary football. That’s what won us the game between special teams, offense, defense when we needed it most each unit picked up the slack.’’

It was two years ago, but it kickstarted two solid seasons.

“It was huge. Back then that was kind of a confidence thing, knowing we could go in there and do that,’’ defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said. “Now flash-forward a couple years and we believe we can compete against anybody. We’re going to go in there and try to execute our gameplan to the best of our ability and hopefully come out with a win.’’

Five things to watch:

ONE: Jared Goff is 2-0 in his career against the Chiefs — once with the Rams and then with the Lions in 2023. He’s at the top of his game but knows being up against coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defense is a challenge. “I think that they do a really good job of being very multiple in what they do. And oftentimes you can watch a ton of tape and defenses have certain tells or when they’re in this formation, they do this. They don’t really have much of that,’’ Goff said. “You kind of have to figure it out when you’re out there to some extent. There’s tape we can watch, but they do a good job of making different things look the same and same things look different, type of thing. And they’ve got good players too and that makes it really hard.”

TWO: With the Lions secondary banged up, it’s going to be more of a challenge to defend against the Chiefs’ three speedy wide receivers – Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton and Rashee Rice. “You can do everything right – you can do discipline, you can play the coverage, OK we’ll top some of this stuff, we’ll be disruptive on the releases and all the sudden you missed on one or you didn’t quite get to your landmark  in the back end and all of a sudden there’s 60 over the top of your head,’’ Campbell said. “Or you get a catch and run and you miss a tackle and they’re through it. 

“The good news is our defense has faced speed. They got a full dose of that in spring and training camp with (Jameson Williams) and (Kalif Raymond) ,and (Dominic) Lovett is not a slouch either. So we’ve got some juice here too and our guys have to face it. You have to be on point when you have that kind of explosiveness. It only takes one play and all of a sudden they’ve got seven out of it,’’ he added.

THREE: Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes even though the Chiefs are 2-3. He’s smart and tough. “You have to do a number of things with him – first of all he can smell a rat from a mile away. If you’re going to disguise it better be worthy of a Grammy, because this guy sees it all, he smells it immediately, he can alter protections, he can get to different things in the pass game,’’ Campbell said. “I think you have to do a number of different things but you have to be careful because you don’t want to become something you’re not either. You still want to hang your hat on what you do well.

FOUR: With Terrion Arnold out with a shoulder injury, expect Amik Robertson to step up. “He’s more than a security blanket, it’s one of the reasons we wanted to get him here as a free agent. He’s so feisty and competitive. One of the things he really majors in is man coverage,’’ Campbell said. “He’s a sticky cover guy, very confident, he’s got great hips movement skills and he’s got ball skills. We’re completely comfortable with him playing outside and in the slot. Thank goodness we’ve got him. We don’t feel there’s a dropoff with Amik.’’

FIVE: Another corner expected to get more playing time is veteran Rock Ya-Sin. Running backs coach Scottie Montgomery liked what he saw from him in training camp. “He does provide a tremendous amount of conflict at the line of scrimmage, not only there but at the top of routes where you usually can lean on guys, get heavy leans on people, maybe give them a little something at the top,’’ Montgomery said. “He’s done a really good job of staying close, staying sticky. And then he has an understanding of safety play and corner play so he knows exactly where he can take some of these chances.’’

BONUS: In 2024, the Chiefs were 10-0 in games decided by 7 points or less. This season so far they are 0-3 in those situations.

INJURIES: OUT for the Lions: LT Taylor Decker, DT Alim McNeill, CB Terrion Arnold, LB Zach Cunningham, RB Sione Vaki, DB Avonte Maddox and OL Gio Manu. … QUESTIONABLE: DB Brian Branch, S Kerby Joseph and WR Kalif Raymond

PREDICTION: Lions 28, Chiefs 27.

Five reasons the Lions topped the Browns for third straight win

The Detroit Lions could have had all the excuses in their pocket – short work week after a Monday night game, coming off a huge win in Baltimore, playing against the NFL’s top defense in the Browns. It was all there. But, if you haven’t noticed, this team is wired differently.

It certainly showed in the 34-10 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Ford Field. It marked the Lions third straight win. 

“We knew going into this game our defense was going to need to set the tone and special teams. Offensively we’d be smart, find our spots and, for the most part, that’s the way the day went,’’ coach Dan Campbell said. “Those three takeaways, (Kalif Raymond) on the punt return (TD) and offensively we were able to turn those three takeaways into 17 points which is huge.’’

Aidan Hutchinson sacked QB Joe Flacco twice, Flacco was intercepted twice and the Browns lost a fumble.

Take away the punt return touchdown and the Lions’ offense scored 27 points against a tough defense, but they had too many penalties and missed opportunities.

“We can be so much better certainly offensively —defense played outstanding. That is a good defense. They present a lot of problems,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said. But he admitted many little things could have been better and pointed the finger at himself on many of them including the two false start penalties.

While Detroit’s defense allowed a touchdown on the Browns’ opening drive, they held them to just a field goal for the remainder of the game.

Five of the reasons the Lions won:

ONE: The Browns’ top-rated rushing defense had not faced a team with a running game like Detroit’s which finished with 109 rushing yards. The longest run the Browns had allowed in the first three games was 11 yards. Jahmyr Gibbs gashed them for a 24-yard scamper early in the second quarter and a 22-yarder late in the third. Gibbs finished with 15 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown, along with 2 catches for six yards. David Montgomery had nine carries for 12 yards.

TWO: Jared Goff was solid under pressure except for his one interception – an underthrown pass intended for Jameson Williams. Goff took the blame for that, saying he made a bad decision. He targeted Williams eight times but they could not connect until there was 11:10 left when Wiliams caught a 27-yard pass on a third-and-9 play. Williams finished with two catches for 40 yards. Once again – you may have heard this before – WR Amon-Ra St. Brown came up big on the biggest plays including a 2-yard receiving touchdown where he was wide open in the end zone and late in the game a 8-yard touchdown catch. He has six touchdowns in the last three games.

THREE: The Lions offensive line stood up against Myles Garrett and Cleveland’s defensive line. Goff was not sacked at all. He was hurried and pressured which may explain why it wasn’t his best game statistically. But he made enough plays when needed. Goff finished 16 of 27, 168 yards, 2 TDs and one interception. Goff said they had a plan facing Garrett and credited tackles  Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell, along with the whole line, for doing the dirty work to protect him. 

FOUR: Flacco was intercepted twice with D.J. Reed and Kerby Joseph ah coming up with the big plays. He was pressured often and sacked three times – two of them by Aidan Hutchinson who has had sacks in three straight games. “Just another big performance by him today. What everybody sees – the quarterback hits, the sacks, the takeaways, all big things that are right in front of your face,’’ Campbell said. “The guy plays the run too. He can do all of that stuff that gets you all the glory but he does all the dirty work. He plays with his hair on fire, he doesn’t take plays off, he’s relentless, he’s aggressive, he’s violent, he’s smart, he’s disciplined. It’s good to see him back playing at a high level. It’s good to have him back period.’’

FIVE: Detroit’s special teams came up big, highlighted by Kalif Raymond’s 65-yard punt return for a touchdown to give them a 27-10 cushion early in the fourth. “He’s amazing. He’s one of those heartbeat guys for us,’’ Goff said. Campbell echoed Goff’s praise. “I don’t know if I can say enough great things about Lif. He’s such a stud,’’ Campbell said. “…He was aggressive, he trusted our guys. He was fearless the whole game.’’

UP NEXT:  Lions (3-1) at Cincinnati Bengals , 4:25 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5.