Detroit Lions: Crashing Back Down To Earth

As the Detroit Lions rounded out the first half of their season, they managed to turn their season around, but the wrong way. After getting off to a good start to the season (2-1-1), they have severely faltered since then, going 1-3. Sitting at 3-4-1, they are in a distant third place in the NFC North, ahead of only the Chicago Bears at 3-5. Good thing we tied Week 1, right?

The thing that is the most frustrating is that two of the three losses we have had in this stretch were very winnable games. By now, you have probably heard from literally everyone how bad the referees were in that Monday Night game against the Green Bay Packers. For Trey Flowers to get called not once, but twice, for the same penalty that should not have been called at all is utterly ridiculous. This is especially so when you remember that both penalties were called on plays that would have decided the outcome of the game. What is also frustrating is that the left tackle, David Bakhtiari, set the refs up to make the call. On a play where Flowers did actually get into his face and the refs did not call it, Bakhtiari went up the ref and said he was “looking up at the sky” on that play because Flowers’ hand was up in his face. Then, on the two plays that Flowers was called for the penalty, Bakhtiari was, completely on his own, looking up at the sky, thus baiting the referee into making the call. I just find that lame. If you have to resort to trying to set refs up to make calls in your favor in order to win games, then you do not deserve to win the game. It is a real shame that the refs bailed the Packers out time after time. The sad part is that as a Lions fan, I am used to this sort of thing happening to us. How many times have the Lions lost because the refs screwed up? The Calvin Johnson catch rule, the ball batted out of the end zone against the Seahawks, the picked-up flag for pass interference that had already been called against the Cowboys in the playoffs. This is just the latest in a long line of instances where the Lions were essentially cheated out of a win. Now, I know someone out there is saying, “Well, we should not be in a position where the game depends on the refs anyways.” While sure I also wish the Lions just always had a big lead, it does not excuse the refs from making the wrong call in that scenario. It does not matter what happens in a game up to a point, the refs still have to make the right call, and they did not in this case.

After that crushing blow we turned around for another disappointing game against the Minnesota Vikings. I do not even have too much to really say about this game because ultimately the Vikings just outperformed us in every way. Kirk Cousins is having a good year, which he does once in a while, and he has two stud receivers to throw to in Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. Additionally, Dalvin Cook is a dangerous running back that gave us trouble and they have a good defense. All of that combined makes for a tough opponent, and they did really take it to us. We had our shot, but we were unable to keep them out of the end zone for the game-sealing touchdown.

Thankfully, we faced the New York Giants next and we were able to just deal with them. We kept Saquon Barkley under control about as much as a team can, although he still had a few very impressive runs. It was nice to get back on track with a win, but it is really hard to feel good about beating a team that still only has two wins.

This past week was another tough watch, against an interesting Oakland Raiders team. It really felt like a must-win game for us, and I was hoping we would be able to go out to Oakland and steal one. With every other team in our division losing on Sunday, a win would have really helped us jump back into the division race. It was a disappointing day overall on defense. We failed to get much of a pass rush at all, which has been a pattern so far this year, and Oakland’s monstrous offensive line opened up a lot of holes for talented rookie Josh Jacobs. Additionally, we allowed them to gain a first down on a fake punt. I was equally disappointed in our offense, though, but I do think that our performance overall was definitely affected by the absence of Kerryon Johnson. He is a very important piece of this offense, and without him our running game is not much of a threat right now, although I still would like to see Ty Johnson get more of a shot at it (he only had 9 carries in this game). That is why I thought our final play call was so bad. On fourth and goal from the 1-yard line, we decided to line up in a jumbo set I-formation and run a play action pass. Now, in order for a play action pass to work, the defense has to actually fear your running game. In a game where we ran for under 100 yards as a team, the Raiders rightly did not fear our running game. They knew we were going to pass the ball, so lining up in a run-heavy set that gave us the stunning pass-catching options of Jesse James in Logan Thomas did not make any sense. We would have been better off just going four-wide and trusting Stafford to fire the ball through a tight window, especially because Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones were torching the Raiders’ secondary all game. That is, until we decided to stop throwing to them for some reason.

I will now analyze a couple observations I have made over the past four games.

The Lack of a Pass Rush is Very Concerning

Our already not-dominant pass rush has further disappeared in recent weeks. I have mentioned before in a lot of my posts about Michigan that a pass rush is of utmost importance to having a good defense. This is especially so in the NFL, where every quarterback in the league can hurt you if you do not put pressure on them. That is, except for Baker Mayfield, who has 6 touchdowns to 10 interceptions when not under pressure, good for dead last in the league. In fact, he is the only quarterback in the league with more interceptions than touchdowns when not under pressure. Seeing as we do not play the Cleveland Browns, though, that does not really give us anything to look forward to. As I mentioned before, Kirk Cousins played well against us, and Derek Carr did as well, but I have to believe that it would have been different if we provided more pressure. It is disappointing that Trey Flowers is not making a bigger impact as our big free agent signing. He is leading our team in sacks, but he only has four on the season. Other guys like Devon Kennard and Romeo Okwara have also not been able to get much going. It is hard to identify what exactly the problem is, because those two guys played well last year. Maybe the offensive linemen on the other team watched some tape and are now able to counter their go-to moves. Whatever the issue is, they have to figure it out. Our secondary is talented enough that they can make things happen if the line could just get more pressure on the quarterback, the line just has to do their thing and I think we could see a turnaround in the next few weeks. If they do not, then it will be a long second half of the season.

Matthew Stat-fford is At It Again

This is a typical Matthew Stafford season. Looking at the numbers, he looks great:

Completion Percentage: 64.3%

Passing Yards: 2,499

Touchdowns/Interception: 19/5

Unfortunately, numbers do not tell the whole story. Let me first put a disclaimer out there. Yes, I acknowledge that Stafford is having a much better season compared to last year, and I am very happy about it, because if Stafford is playing well it gives us a much better chance of winning. His high passing yardage is also exciting because that shows we have gotten some big plays, typically by deep balls to Marvin Jones, Kenny Golladay, or Marvin Hall. Despite how pretty the numbers look, there are still aspects of his play that continue to give me pause. I am going to continue to point out that he still does not put touch on his passes, and his completion percentage would be astronomical if he did. I also still question his decision-making, as there are still a few instances now and again where he throws a pass to a guy that is covered or just throws it away, and there is another receiver wide open that he did not see. The part that I find the most frustrating is that if he is having a season where he is one yard short of being on pace for 5,000 yards and has such a high touchdown-to-interception ratio, then why do we not have more wins? We had ample opportunities to put away teams like the Packers and the Raiders, but our offense just stalled out and we would give them the ball right back. The other annoyance is like we saw in that game against the Packers, where we kicked way too many field goals (five, to be exact). Neither of those things can happen over the next eight weeks. If we want to have any hope of stringing some wins together and making a potential playoff push, as unlikely as that might be, then Stafford has to go out there and win some games. He has to lead the offense on drives where we need a touchdown to really put the opponent away. Numbers are great, but if they do not lead to wins then they serve no benefit.

The Running Back Carousel Continues

Keeping track of all the Lions’ moves at running back has been exhausting. Seemingly every week the Lions make two or three moves involving signing, releasing, or calling up running backs. A big contributing factor is the fact that Kerryon Johnson is injured, so we have no true number one back. As it stands right now, the running back room consists of Ty Johnson, J.D. McKissic, and Paul Perkins. We also have former Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough signed to our practice squad. While it is a bummer that Kerryon is hurt again, I do think that the collection of guys we have is a talented group. Ty Johnson and McKissic bring some much-needed high-level explosiveness, and Paul Perkins is a bigger back with some impressive moves for his size. Furthermore, in the event we call up Scarbrough, he brings something else entirely. Scarbrough is a physical freak who is very comparable to another Alabama alum, Derrick Henry. He is 6’1” and 236 pounds compared to Henry’s 6’3” and 238 pounds. They also had similar 40-yard dash times, with Scarbrough running 4.52 and Henry running 4.54. Clearly, he is raw, otherwise he would probably already have a role somewhere, but I do hope we get to see him get some action, because I would love to see what he can do. While I was excited about the Scarbrough signing, I do wish we had gone after another guy, and that is Jay Ajayi. He is a very confusing case, as he went from having three 200-yard rushing games in 2016 to now being out of the league completely. I do not understand why that is the case. Maybe his knees are a real issue, that was a concern for him coming out of Boise State, but I still think it would have been worthwhile for the Lions to sign a guy with that kind of production on his record. Nonetheless, we did not, and we have a group of guys that are all trying to prove they belong. While it is hard to guarantee any consistent production out of this group, I would be lying if I said they will not be fun to watch.

Rookie Updates

Jahlani Tavai has continued to have a solid rookie campaign. He only has one less tackle than Jarrad Davis (who, by the way, is an utter embarrassment in pass coverage. He was doing pirouettes in the end zone while Carr found his tight end wide open in the end zone), and two less tackles than Devon Kennard. He also had probably the dumbest pass breakup I have ever seen against the Raiders where he was running towards the receiver with his back to the quarterback, and the ball hit him square in the back. Technically, he did get credit for it, and thus his first career pass breakup was a complete accident. As hilarious as that was to watch, I was a little mad because had he been turned around that was an easy interception.

Will Harris has slowly increased his playing time so far this season. Part of that, of course, is credited to the departure of Quandre Diggs, but Harris has been playing well enough to justify it. He consistently comes up and makes good open field tackles, which was clearly his strength coming out of Boston College. The one thing I hope to see from him is some real nice plays on the ball. It is a lot to ask for a third-round rookie safety who primarily makes tackles to also demonstrate good ball skills, but if he is going to become the star that I think he can be, then that is the next step for him.

Austin Bryant is finally back practicing after being out with an injury. I do not know if we will see him much in the near future, as I am sure he has some rust to shake off, but I hope we do. I think he has a lot of promise, and like I said before we need as much help in the pass rush as we can get.

Amani Oruwariye is still trying to fight off an injury as well and has yet to see the field this year. I am still very excited about what he has to offer as a 6’2” cornerback, but as a fifth-round pick it would be difficult for him to see the field this season anyways. I hope this injury does not affect his development too much.

As I have already mentioned, Ty Johnson is continuing to get work in the backfield, which is exciting to see for a sixth-round pick. I have expressed my optimism about him before, and I will continue to do so. I think he can really be an important piece of this offense.

Now for the rookie that is always the most interesting to discuss, our first-round pick at #8 overall, tight end T.J. Hockenson. There is no way to sugarcoat this, but it has to be said: Hockenson is already showing signs of being a major bust. After his “breakout” performance in Week 1, he has all but vanished from relevancy in our offense, and the past four weeks have shown no signs of improvement. Here are his stats in those four games:

At Green Bay Packers: 4 catches, 21 yards

Vs. Minnesota Vikings: 3 catches, 32 yards

Vs. New York Giants: 1 catch, 21 yards

At Oakland Raiders: 3 catches, 56 yards

Yes, his yardage popped up a bit last week, but let us not forget that he had a bad drop as well as at least one whiffed block. This kind of production is mediocre at best, and what makes it worse is that he was taken with the 8th overall pick in the draft. I said this when the pick was made and I have stood by it since then, if you take a tight end that high, he has to be a transcendental talent. He has to come in and be an immediate contributor that puts up 100 yards and a touchdown every week. If Hockenson was a fourth-round pick and put up these kinds of numbers, it would be a different story, but the fact he was taken so high makes this kind of production unacceptable. It is disappointing, to say the least, that he has failed to get anything going this season.

Another concern I have with Hockenson is injuries. He already had one concussion this season, and once again got dinged against Oakland and missed the rest of the game. While the reports coming out are that he is okay and has no lasting effects, it is very concerning that he has already had this happen twice. When guys have multiple head injuries in a season that normally is a red flag about how long they will last in the league. Obviously, the hope is that it does not become a recurring issue, but it is a reasonable concern to have about him.

It is only the first half of his rookie season, but there are a lot of reasons to doubt that Hockenson will ever live up to his #8 overall draft position. I do not believe he ever will, but all we can do is hope that he turns it around in the second half of the year and gives us some reason for optimism that he will make the insanely high selection worthwhile. I am not holding my breath.

Our lookout is far bleaker than it was after the first four games of the season, especially with the NFC North looking as strong as it is. Our next four games are against the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, and then Chicago again. If we do not come out of this stretch at least 2-2, then it will be another flop. Washington is terrible, and both Chicago and Dallas have some glaring weaknesses. I genuinely think the opportunity is there to go 4-0 in this stretch, because it is still hard to deny the talent on this team. I do, however, especially given our struggles in the last four games, sadly think that 1-3 or 2-2 is more reasonable.