The Detroit Lions went out to the desert on Sunday and had their most complete performance of the season in a 45-21 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
The Lions are heading into the bye week feeling good after another slow start turned into a dominant win over the Arizona Cardinals, 45-21. The offense was once again firing on all cylinders. The defense finally came to play. You can say the Cardinals offense is one of the weaker offenses in the league, for sure. That is how the defense should have responded after that Carolina Panthers performance. They got a tune-up opportunity before the bye against a bad offense, and they got back on track. The cornerbacks played better, the pass rush had five sacks, and they stopped the run extremely well all night. Everything was clicking for Detroit to get them to 3-2 before Green Bay in two weeks.
Winner: Roger McCreary
The secondary actually looked good this week. Shocking, for sure, but one of the key pieces in helping its improvement this week was cornerback Roger McCreary. Usually, you do not want to hear a cornerback’s name being called so many times in the broadcast, as that means they are getting shredded by the wide receivers. However, McCreary’s name was being called last night many times for how well he was performing.
After a rough first possession from Arizona, where McCreary opened his hips to the outside and let a receiver get wide open cutting back to the inside, he was all over these Cardinals pass catchers. He had perfect coverage on a play early in the game where the refs initially threw a flag for pass interference. They ended up picking up the flag because it was just really tight coverage. He defended six passes, and he was draped on multiple receivers throughout the course of the game.
This was the best a Lions cornerback has played in a long time, and while it was on a team without many notable weapons, it was a perfect opportunity that McCreary took.
Loser: Amon-Ra St. Brown
Before you chew me out for saying Amon-Ra St. Brown is a loser in this game, just hear me out for a second. Everything was clicking for the Lions during this game, so finding a loser was difficult to locate. Instead, I just want to pinpoint some concerning moments during this game that were uncharacteristic for St. Brown.
He drops a touchdown in the end zone that was in his hands. Granted, a defender was close to him on the play, but that is a catch that he usually makes, and instead, he just dropped it. He also had two fumbles during the game yesterday, but he did not lose any of them. One of them was on a long catch and run, and the other was on a punt return.
St. Brown was returning punts due to an injury to Tom Kennedy, and he did not return to the game. Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta had better overall days than St. Brown. It was just a couple of uncharacteristic things that could be an issue down the road if they continue, but for today’s game, it did not impact the team much at all.
Winner: Jared Goff
If this team had just an average defense, Jared Goff should be the MVP frontrunner. He is already a strong candidate, but his play on Sunday confirmed that he is one of the best in the league. Goff was surgical once again, throwing for 271 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and he even ran for one on the goal line.
He was fantastic in this outing, as after this game, he became the first player in NFL history to have 12-plus passing touchdowns and zero giveaways through the first five weeks of the season. Take into consideration that this is also his third straight year with a different offensive coordinator, and he continues to be near the top of the league in passing statistics during all of those seasons.
His reputation within the media is never as high as it should be because Jared Goff has always delivered wherever he has been. Goff’s performance on Sunday was just another reason as to why he is so underrated and overlooked. Jahmyr Gibbs had a great game on the ground, but to discredit what Goff did because of that would simply be malpractice.
This win was a much-needed performance from the Detroit Lions for every unit on the field. Everybody was up to the challenge, the defense recovered from a pathetic outing last week, and Dan Campbell seemed like his team had their mojo back. They now get the bye week to rest before Green Bay comes into town.
