An embarrassing defensive performance that led to a 32-26 loss for the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football has plenty of losers to spotlight after that outing.
The Detroit Lions were constantly playing catch up on Sunday Night Football as the Carolina Panthers were just having their way with them. The defense could not stop a nosebleed as Tetairoa McMillan had 14 catches for 192 yards and Chuba Hubbard ran for 6.1 yards per carry with two touchdowns. There were few bright spots in the Lions loss this week which drops them to 2-2 on the season through the first four games. Just think that Jared Goff has yet to throw an interception this season and if he had any kind of turnovers in these games then the Lions could likely be 0-4. Crazy to think about.
Loser: Kelvin Sheppard
I’m not going to sugarcoat it by starting with a good performance from last night or only throw one performance under the bus, this unit was atrocious last night. Genuinely might be one of the worst defenses I have ever watched play for the Detroit Lions. Sure the personnel in the secondary is not good, D.J. Reed has been dreadful and the team is down two starting safeties. But Kelvin Sheppard continues to attempt and run man coverage and refuse to adjust when he knows his guys cannot cover man-on-man. See Tetairoa McMillan or Chris Olave or Garrett Wilson or even Keon Coleman for reference. The worst thing has been that the pass rush has finally been getting pressure like the fans have dreamed of the secondary just does not hold up. Tyleik Williams and Alim McNeill have been good in the middle of the defensive line, but when everyone else around them is so bad it is hard for them to keep it up. Good defensive coordinators make adjustments and utilize the talent they have. The Jets defense this year with Aaron Glenn and minimal talent ranks just outside the top 10 in yards per game given up and had three straight goal line stands against the Chicago Bears on Sunday to force a turnover on downs. They even got their first interception in almost two seasons and would have had four but three were called back due to penalties. Glenn may not be a great head coach, but he has that defense playing extremely well this year minus the Lions game. If Sheppard’s defense makes Jacoby Brissett look like Carson Palmer this week, then he could be as good as gone with the bye week being the opportunity to implement change.
Winner: Jameson Williams and Isaac Teslaa
The receivers two and three in the offense got involved quite a bit last night in times where Jared Goff usually throws to Amon-Ra St. Brown. Instead he was going to Jameson Williams and Isaac Teslaa instead. Teslaa and Williams combined for 10 receptions and 197 yards, Williams had six receptions for 102 yards and Teslaa had four receptions for 95 yards. Both of these guys were threats down the field when the Lions offense needed a big play to get out of a third-and-long or score quickly, Teslaa and Williams were the deep threats that Goff targeted down the field to move the chains. After Williams had a questionable play where it looked like he short-armed a perfect Goff throw that could have been a big play, he rebounded in a big way catching basically everything thrown his way after that. Tesla had eight targets and while he only caught half of them it is nice to see Petzing and Goff involve him in the offense after they traded three third round picks to go get him in last year’s draft. Seeing those guys have big days takes a lot of pressure off of Amon-Ra St. Brown who usually is the go-to target when the game gets tight. Also a shoutout for Sam LaPorta who had eight catches for 84 yards and one touchdown. All of the other pass catchers were taking pressure off of Amon-Ra St. Brown to carry the load.
Loser: Brock Wright
How can a backup tight end quite possibly be a loser in a game where he is not expected to do much if at all? Well, the answer is that Brock Wright left a crucial impact on last night’s game but in all the wrong ways. Wright had a couple of inexcusable penalties that put the Lions offense behind the sticks often and when he was on the field it was mistake after mistake. Wright was called for a false start on the first drive of the game on first down that put the Lions behind the chains and forced them to end up settling for a Jake Bates field goal to start. Then his other penalty was an unnecessary roughness penalty which yes you can debate whether or not it was the right call or not, it was called on Wright and set the Lions way behind the eight ball. The very next play after the penalty, Wright got bailed out when Teslaa caught a 57-yard bomb from Jared Goff to put the Lions down the field and in scoring range, but those mistakes stand out like a sore thumb. Wright was brought back by the Lions as a second tight end because he was a good blocker and he has yet to shine in that category so far this season. His mistakes cost the Lions crucial yards and when the offense gets put behind the chains it is hard to come back from that.
This Lions loss felt way more deflating than the Buffalo game in week two. It was easy to chalk that loss up to Josh Allen is Superman and he is the best player in football, but everything seemed to go wrong on defense in this loss. The offense stalled out and settled for four field goals. If any one of those had been a touchdown this is a completely different ballgame. Sheppard has to adjust, Brad Holmes has to make some moves and there is going to be a lot of finger pointing when Jacoby Brissett inevitably looks like the next best thing when they play the Cardinals next week. Lots to worry about with this team this year.
