Tag: Taylor Decker

Five things to watch as Lions face the Vikings; plus injury update, prediction

Fresh off the bye week, the Lions enter a crucial stretch of the season, starting with the division-rival Vikings on Sunday at Ford Field.

The Lions (5-2) hold second place in the NFC North behind the Packers (5-1-1) and ahead of the Bears (4-3) and Minnesota ((3-4). The Vikings have lost two straight and three of the last four with Carson Wentz at quarterback.

Coach Dan Campbell talked to the team this week about where everything is stacking up in the NFC.

“It’s very competitive, especially at this point in the season for one conference. But all I stated was, ‘Hey, this is where we’re at, this is where these teams are at, and this thing’s about to shake out within the month of November.’ … You’re going to start seeing some risers and fallers, and a lot of these teams are playing each other,’’ Campbell said. .”We’re one of them. So, it really is just handle your business, man. And the bottom line is, find a way to win your division. And we’ve got Minnesota coming in here, that’s No. 1. And then you worry about the next one after that.”

Campbell said external expectations are what they are.

“It’s not about expectations, it’s about our standards,’’ the coach said. “The standards are the standards, and it’s about us playing to those standards, and that’s the most important thing.”

Five things to watch:

ONE: J.J. McCarthy is expected to start for the Vikings on Sunday. The second-year quarterback has just two games of NFL experience but Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said regardless of time on task he’s a threat. Sheppard referred to the Vikings’ Week 1 27-24 win over the Bears when McCarthy threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran 14 yards for a score all in the fourth quarter for the comeback win. “Ultra competitor, a player like that doesn’t get drafted where he was drafted without a reason and I see the reason,’’ Sheppard said. “You turn on the Week 1 game and they were getting stymied in the first half, they came out in the second half and in a way he put that team on his back, he put that offense on his back and you saw how the guys galvanized around him. So that told me something about him.’’

TWO: While the secondary backups – the Legion of Whom – excelled in the win over the Bucs before the bye week, the secondary will look more familiar on Sunday with Brian Branch and possibly Terrion Arnold, Avonte Maddox and Daniel Thomas returning. Still Sheppard loved what he saw from the others. “I mean the names go on and on of the guys that went out and not only just played, not only held the line, but they’ve put some pressure on some of our starters now,’’ Sheppard said. “Like these guys came in and we probably played the best defensive game that we’ve played this year with a bunch of you call it ‘no name,’ whatever. I know these guys’ names, and I know who they are as people and I’m just glad that everybody else does now.”

THREE: During the bye week, the coaches looked at third-down percentage and how to improve it. The Lions rank 22nd in the NFL converting 37.7 percent of third downs. It’s not just third-and-long that is the issue. “I feel like there’s a lot of things we’ve actually missed on third-and-manageable. The mid-range third downs. So we’re where we want to be to have a shot at converting, it’s just we’ve got to get it done,’’ Campbell said. “And that really is collective, it’s all of us. There’s things that we can do to really help our guys and then it falls on them too. So, it’s collective, it’s the whole unit. And I know we talked about that and so look, we’re just going to keep tweaking it, we’re going to keep working on it and hopefully we get better this week.’’

FOUR: Defensively, the red zone play has been ranked in the bottom third of the league. “Statistically I kind of looked at some areas that I believe we should be better and will be better starting with the red zone. When you allow teams down there it’s huge that you limit points in those situations – the 4-point plays,’’ Sheppard said. “As far as when teams are in 7-point striking distance and you only give up a FG. We’ve definitely got to tick up there.  Also third-and-11 plus we’re in the bottom 5 of the league.’’

FIVE: Jared Goff has faced Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores enough to know him but that doesn’t make it easier on the quarterback who said he sees some changes from last year. 

“Well coached, fast, fly around, good hard-nosed players who play hard for him. It’s a good group,’’ Goff said. “… They want to penetrate, they want to get in the backfield, they want to get typically five or six guys rushing, one-on-ones on everybody. In that case, they run some pick games, they run some stunts, they do a little bit of everything. And they want to disrupt your timing and get in the backfield and it’s up to us up front and me to get the ball out and do everything right.”

LIONS INJURIES: Out —  CB Kerby Joseph, RB Craig Reynolds, LB Malcolm Rodriguez; Questionable — LT Taylor Decker, CB Avonte Maddox, RB Sione Vaki and S Daniel Thomas.

VIKINGS INJURIES: Out — FB C.J. Hand, TE Josh Oliver, CB Jeff Okuday; Questionable _ LT Christian Darrisaw, RT Brian O’Neill, EDGE Andrew van Ginkel and DB Josh Metellus.

PREDICTION: Lions 35, Vikings 21

UP NEXT: Lions at Washington Commanders, 4:25 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16.

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.