Detroit Lions: Week 1

Only the Lions can make a tie really feel more like a loss. With the exception of the Cardinals-Seahawks game a few years ago that, after a flurry of missed field goals, ended in a 6-6 tie, I can not think of a more frustrating result to a game. The Lions seemed to have it in the bag, until they decided to just no longer score or play defense and allow rookie Kyler Murray to bring the Cardinals all the way back. Look, I credit Murray a lot. In his first NFL game he managed to lead his team on a storming comeback and force overtime despite being down 24-6 at one point. I do like Murray, I think he has potential to be very good in this league. Very early on in the draft process, before he was the consensus #1 overall pick, I was hopeful that he might slip to the Lions at #8 and we could snag him. I have expressed before that I want actual competition in the quarterback room, and Murray would have brought us a lot of intriguing traits that Stafford does not have. I think that would have been an exciting quarterback duel. That did not happen, however, and instead once again the Lions have a rookie do some damage to them in the opening game of the season. At least it was not as embarrassing as last year.

Offense

As much as I have really slammed Stafford in my first few weeks, I did like what I saw from him on Sunday. He threw the ball pretty well, had a good few touchdowns, and no interceptions. He did fumble twice, however, losing one, and that simply can not happen. I still wish I could see some examples of him really putting touch on the ball, but I really do not think that will ever happen in his career. I think what I was most excited about, though, was the emotion he showed on the sideline when "The Timeout" was called. It is not very often we see him show a ton of anger on the sideline, despite how many stupid things the Lions' coaches have done over the years, and it was refreshing to see that. In fact, even Sam Martin showed some frustrations, which was very surprising to see from a punter.

Kerryon Johnson unfortunately did not do a whole lot in this game. He showed his usual quickness on a few nice runs, but did not break off any long ones. I personally wish we saw a little less of C.J. Anderson. When he was in at the end of the game, and our play calling got all conservative, that was an immediate sign to me that the Lions were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. I hate when teams do that, and the Lions are notorious for it. Time and time again, the Lions will have a 7 point lead, and they will get the ball, run it three times, and punt it right back to the other team, and more often than not, they get burned for it and end up losing. On top of the fact that Anderson being in the game equated to trying to run the clock out, he also just did not run very well either. I completely forgot that we signed J.D. McKissic until I watched this game. It was an under-the-radar signing for us, and if we did not have Ty Johnson, I probably would be more excited about it. I liked McKissic a lot in Seattle, he showed good hands and some quicks, but if he is taking work away from Ty, then I begin to have a problem with it. McKissic is a fine player, but he does not bring the game-breaking speed that Ty does. If I had to pick between giving the ball to a guy that could take it to the house on any play, or a Theo Riddick look-alike, I would pick the home run hitter every time. That home run hitter is Ty Johnson, and I want to see more of him used as a change-of-pace back.

I feel very much the same about Kenny Golladay's and Marvin Jones's performances as I have felt about Tarik Black and Nico Collins so far for Michigan. They showed up and did their thing. Neither Golladay nor Jones had any huge plays, although Golladay did have a nice touchdown, but they played well and did what they needed to do to help the team. Danny Amendola was a pleasant surprise for me. Although, I do not know if it was necessarily surprising, because at this point everyone knows Amendola is a solid receiver. I was happy with how much of a rapport Stafford and Amendola seemed to have. Amendola was targeted a team-high 13 times, that shows that Stafford trusts him to make plays. He had a great game, excluding a bizarre play late in the game where he was supposed to go out of bounds to stop the clock, but just did not do so. Now, the guy that everyone is talking about is none other than T.J. Hockenson, who had an absolute monster game. I have expressed my distaste already with when we picked him, and I still stand by my claims I have made about it, for now. I can not take away from what he did on Sunday, though. He went out there and lit up the Cardinals defense. All game long he seemed to be running away from the linebackers and safeties that they were putting on him. He certainly showed some impressive speed with the ball in his hands, too. I do not recall seeing anything significant involving him blocking, but usually that is a good thing. As exciting of a game as it was for him, I need to see games like this on a consistent basis before I believe he can be this kind of player for us. Also, in order to justify taking him when we did, he basically would have to become one of the top tight ends in football, if not the absolute best. Do I hope he does that? Of course. Do I think he has the ability to get to that level? I believe so. Can I say for sure that he will? No, I have to see more from him, but this game was a fantastic start for him.

Defense

There were only a few defensive plays that really stood out to me in this game. One of them was a great hit by Tracy Walker, who also had an interception that day, to jar the ball free from Larry Fitzgerald's hands late in the game. Devon Kennard had a good game getting to the quarterback, but outside of him nobody really did much. What was more frustrating was how little pressure we were getting late in the game. In situations like that, it is key that your defense gets pressure on the quarterback, and our defensive line just failed to do that. This was especially frustrating because all off-season everybody talked about how bad Arizona's offensive line was, so the fact that we could not get pressure late in the game is concerning. I also question why Darius Slay was not guarding Fitzgerald until really late in the game. Yes, Fitzgerald is old, but he was the Cardinals' leading receiver on the day. Their second-leading receiver was running back David Johnson. Fitzgerald was Murray's go-to target, and he got the best of our secondary most of the day. I just feel like after that became clear, that we should have moved Slay to cover him. Now, Kyler Murray came out and said that he thought the Lions' defense looked tired late in the game, and that allowed the comeback. I do not necessarily believe that, but if that is true then Patricia should be fired on the spot. The fact that we may have been unable to close out a game because our defenders were too tired is pathetic. Like I said, I do not believe it, but I saw those comments and felt I should comment on it as well.

Overall, there were a few bright spots and a few not-so-bright spots. Hopefully the Lions can put this disappointing game behind them as they get ready to face the Melvin Gordon-less Los Angeles Chargers. It is going to be a tough game, because Philip Rivers is still an extremely talented quarterback, but I do think it is a very winnable game. If the Lions come out ready, and can put some real pressure on Rivers, that will be a huge help to our defense. The Chargers are also without Derwin James, which should only benefit our offense. One thing is for sure, the Lions can not come out slow, or they can get buried very quickly. I am cautiously optimistic, but I do not quite trust that the Lions will get the win.

I think I am going to start giving an MVP and an LVP of the week for my posts about the Lions and the Wolverines. So this week's awards go to:

MVP: T.J. Hockenson. He had the best individual performance by far in his first NFL game. Hats off to him.

LVP: Kerryon Johnson/C.J. Anderson. They pretty much split carries for a combined 84 yards. That is just not going to work. We need a run game if we are going to have any success.