Lions News

[jaadam4]

Paschal out too. Leos are dropping like flies

[Whitley]

Man is it good we signed Glasgow and have depth on the edge

[Cody_Russell]

Zonovan Knight as next man up at RB too. Would assume they split the Montgomery workload with Reynolds and Knight. Go with the hot hand… of which I will guess is Knight.

Prelim reports suggested Montgomery could miss a week or two with a thigh bruise. Happy it wasn’t worse than that considering he was carted off!

[Sanders Fan]

[Meano.Culpa]

Paschal out too. Leos are dropping like flies

Any IDL on the street? Maybe Suh has enough left in the tank for a rotational contribution?

[Iron Lion]

Any IDL on the street? Maybe Suh has enough left in the tank for a rotational contribution?

He did say that Goff was the best QB he ever played with but I think that was just a shot at Stafford. Suh just hates that man for whatever reason. Not sure if Suh has any more reasons to hate the Lions but we would have to be on a roll for him to consider us.

[whatever_gong82]

Wojo: In raucous opener, Lions chew on 'humble pie'


Bob Wojnowski

The Detroit News


Detroit — It was loud all day, rolling waves of decibels, right to the final play. And then it got so quiet, you could hear the din drop.

Pffft. Just like that, as fans gasped, the air left Ford Field’s blue ski mask party. In a home opener full of exhilarating action, the Lions received a painful message at the end. Climbing the NFL ranks isn’t easy, and against a nemesis, every mistake is punished.


The game ended in overtime, which was appropriate considering how tight it was. The Seahawks pulled out a 37-31 victory, also appropriate because they made more big plays at big times. When Geno Smith flipped a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Lockett on the first possession of overtime, the sellout crowd of 66,434 stood as if it couldn’t believe it was over. Aidan Hutchinson laid prone on the turf as if he couldn’t believe it was over, and also that there wasn’t a (fairly obvious) holding penalty.



The Lions weren’t begging for calls after this one because they knew their worst wounds were self-inflicted. Their defense, so good a week ago, rarely bothered Smith, collecting one sack and forcing no turnovers. David Montgomery ran with power but fumbled on the first play of the third quarter, and the Seahawks quickly converted it for the tying touchdown. Jared Goff was sharp all game, except for one underthrow as he was getting hit, intercepted by Tre Brown and returned 40 yards for a touchdown to put Seattle on top 31-21.

“I know it stings, and those guys are disappointed,” Dan Campbell said of his players. “I’m disappointed, the staff is, but my gosh, man, this is good. We’ll get a little humble pie here.”


From celebratory cake to rancid pie, that’s how quickly it can turn. Plenty of fans heeded safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s call to wear blue ski masks, to fit a self-appointed villainous theme. Others noticed, too, including a Seahawks player who wore a blue mask while loudly celebrating with teammates in the locker room.

OK, so maybe the ski mask thing fell short on the intimidation scale. If the Lions want that identity, they’ll have to take it with force, and perhaps that’s the humility Campbell referenced.



One game doesn’t reveal a team’s true identity, just as the stirring 21-20 victory last week over the Super Bowl champion Chiefs didn’t change everything. In fact, the Lions (1-1) ran smack into the true villain here, a Seattle team that has beaten them three years in a row and nine of the past 10 meetings.

This one hurt worse, because anticipation was mounting since the victory in Kansas City, and the Lions had every opportunity to pull it out. It’s too early in the season to draw dramatic conclusions, but this didn’t look like a return to the Lions’ old ways. More like a reminder they’re not yet good enough to win with so many mistakes.


“You’d like to get the first one in front of the fans, I think that probably makes it sting a little bit more,” Goff said. “That was a real, real, real home-field advantage for us, and having them do that for the rest of the year will be a real, real home-field advantage.”


Defense disappoints

The Lions defense still has a long way to go, as Smith completed 32 of 41 passes for 328 yards. The pass rush was nonexistent, despite the absence of the Seahawks’ two starting tackles. Smith was masterful at getting the ball out quickly, and the pace accelerated just as it did a year ago, when Seattle came in and beat the Lions, 48-45.

This was a chance to make amends and earn some payback. In the locker room, players expressed disappointment in short, somber answers. Did they have a message to the fans?

“We’re sorry,” cornerback Jerry Jacobs said. “We need to keep that same energy because we ain’t gonna let you down. We appreciate the support, seeing all those blue people in the stands, just keep bearing with us.”


It was a Blue day with a blue finish, and with the sense the Lions blew one. Goff was superb most of the way, completing 28 of 35 for 323 yards, getting plenty of time behind his strong offensive line. He threw three touchdown passes, two to Josh Reynolds, including a 4-yard strike with 3:08 left. That made it 31-28 and required a stand by the defense, which came through this time, but not in overtime.

Goff directed a short drive in the final two minutes, and Riley Patterson tied it 31-31 with a 38-yard field goal on the final play. The Seahawks won the coin flip and the Lions never saw the ball again. Which is why you don’t leave the outcome up to a coin flip.

“I thought (Campbell) said it great after the game — we didn’t deserve that one,” Goff said. “They earned that win, and we kind of earned the loss. Again, had some plays potentially to kind of sneak one out, but typically, it doesn’t go your way if the turnover margin is that big.”


The Lions committed three turnovers, the Seahawks none. And while Goff didn’t necessarily need any humble pie, he got a slice anyway, throwing his first interception in 11 games, ending a streak of 383 passes without one, third-longest in NFL history.


Turnovers haunt

Of course, that streak wasn’t going to continue forever. In the NFL, extremes are rare, and most trends get pulled to the middle. Seattle (1-1) was pounded at home last week by the Rams, but Pete Carroll’s teams don’t stay down for long.

Neither does the Lions’ offense, which can be dazzlingly creative under coordinator Ben Johnson. There was the flea flicker where Goff pitched the ball to Jahmyr Gibbs, who pitched it back to Goff, who lofted a 36-yard touchdown pass to Kalif Raymond. There were all sorts of misdirection plays, and it might have been even more effective if Montgomery hadn’t left in the third quarter with a thigh injury.

“If there’s some magic world where we can take away the turnovers from today, I thought we played pretty well,” Goff said. “Outside of that, the turnovers are what kill you.”


That’s the short answer for a tough loss. Next week, Atlanta comes in with another top-notch offense, and the Lions have to do what they stress. Campbell always will be aggressive, and the Lions converted one key fourth down Sunday and missed on two others.

That’s part of who they are. Tighter pass defense and a stronger pass rush need to become a bigger part of who they are. Which brings us back to the humble pie, and Campbell’s interesting explanation. Not that the Lions needed to be brought down, but they needed to see where they are in their development.

“I just think sometimes you don’t know exactly where you’re at until you’re in it,” Campbell said. “It’s just, we come off a big win, and you can always preach certain things, but this is the NFL, and these guys came in, and they took that win; they earned it over there. … We have to make those plays in the moment and not just assume it’s going to turn into the game you want it to.”


The Lions didn’t want to get into a shootout with the Seahawks, and they might have avoided it with one or three fewer turnovers. On this day, they tried to have their pie and eat it, too. It’s early in a long season, nowhere near dessert time for a team still learning how to feed off the frenzy.


bob.wojnowski@detroitnews.com

X: @bobwojnowski

[whatever_gong82]

Three-and-out: Clock-management questions arise from Lions' late-game strategy


Justin Rogers
The Detroit News


Allen Park — Here are three observations after having a night to ponder the Detroit Lions' overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Selective aggression

I've never hidden my affinity for how aggressively Lions coach Dan Campbell approaches games. Rarely will I question the decision to go for it on fourth down, because I fully believe the analytics support those calls. Additionally, his methodology for special teams has paid off time and time again with the fake punts and onside kicks.

But, if there's an area of inconsistency with Campbell's coaching, it's how well he and his staff manage the clock. The way the team handled the end of the fourth quarter was inexplicably counter to the attacking mentality displayed throughout the other 58 minutes of regulation play.


Down three, the Lions took over with 1:44 remaining and had all three timeouts. If you believe in the concept of momentum, they had it all, having just driven the length of the field for a touchdown before coming up with a critical defensive stop that had Ford Field rocking. The only thing left to do was go for the jugular, and the way the drive started — with a 12-yard pass to Josh Reynolds across the middle — suggested that was the plan.



But the following sequence showed a baffling lack of urgency in the game's most crucial sequence for the Lions. Reynolds was tackled with 1:40 remaining, but the Lions didn't run their next snap for 35 seconds. That's fine; it was a good time to burn some of the remaining clock, but after a successful Kalif Raymond end-around, they waited again, not snapping until there were 32 seconds remaining.


After the game, Campbell said they didn't want to risk giving the ball back to Seattle to counter a potential score, but by wasting so much time, the offense was put behind schedule. And a rare missed throw from Jared Goff in the contest on second down only compounded the issue. Left with a third-and-7 from the 24-yard line with 23 seconds left, the Lions had three options run routes well short of the sticks, with Goff quickly firing to one of them, Jahmyr Gibbs, leaving the Lions to settle for a tying field goal.

We all know what happened in overtime. Detroit lost the toss and never got the ball again. And when Goff said after the game they deserved to lose, he might have been talking about the two turnovers resulting in 14 Seattle points in the second half, but it's difficult to ignore taking the foot off the gas in the closing minutes.


Detroit should have called a timeout after Raymond's end-around. With 58 seconds and 27 yards to go, you're still in good shape to keep the playbook open and not leave too much time for Seattle, assuming you still end up forced to settle for a field goal. Plus, if you're comfortable trusting your defense in overtime, you should similarly be able to trust them with 20-30 seconds remaining.

There are no definitively correct philosophical approaches to winning in football, but there is value in remaining consistent. Campbell rarely hesitates to hit the gas, but he chose to pump the brakes here and it cost his team.


No excuses

On the flip side, Campbell deserves credit for never taking an easy excuse. The officiating on Sunday played too big of a role in an otherwise exciting game. That's not to say it adversely affected the Lions more than the Seahawks. In fact, Seattle probably got the worst of it, drawing twice as many flags, including multiple in the red zone and one that negated a third-down conversion late in the game that might have allowed them to run out the clock for a win in regulation.


But, it's the flags that weren't thrown that had Lions fans up in arms. On fourth-and-2 at the end of the third quarter, Reynolds got tangled with Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon. The two went to the ground and the pass fell incomplete, resulting in a turnover on downs.

Campbell was told the play was incidental contact and Reynolds refused to bite when asked about the contact, saying he needed to do better maintaining his balance after the corner got hold of his foot.

That turnover on downs resulted in the Seahawks grabbing the lead. Still, the Lions were obviously able to overcome the deficit. But there was no recovering from the game's final play, a winning touchdown toss from Geno Smith to Tyler Lockett.

On the play, Aidan Hutchinson was bearing down on Smith, but slowed by backup offensive tackle Jake Curhan, who had an arm hooked around the edge rusher's chest as he passed. Fans wanted a hold, and Hutchinson did his part, selling the restrictive grasp, but the penalty never came. Campbell was asked about it and immediately dismissed the sentiment of the question.



"Look, every crew is different and that crew called it the way they call it," Campbell said. "We knew that was a crew that normally calls a lot of penalties, and hey, that’s up to them. To me, it should have never come down to that, so I’m not using that. I’m not using any of them."

And that's the right answer. It was known this crew calls a lot of penalties, and they lived up to that reputation, sometimes to the Lions' detriment and sometimes in their favor. Officiating will never be perfect, and their mistakes are more glaring because we get to see 10 replay angles in slow motion while they're left to judge things in real time. That means every game will have questionable calls. But good teams don't need to make excuses. The Lions still had every opportunity to win the game and didn't. That's on them, not the officiating.


Lineup challenge looms


Running back David Montgomery was having a solid game before exiting because of a thigh injury late in the third quarter. He didn't return, and if what he said in passing in the locker room bears out, he might be down for a couple of weeks. That would be a devastating blow to an offense that really started to settle into a groove against Seattle.

The Lions signed Montgomery, in part, because of his lengthy track record of durability. And you can be sure that if there's any chance he can play next week against Atlanta, he'll will himself out there. But if he's sidelined, his contributions will be tough to replace.

Montgomery showed his value in this game through his ability to maximize his yardage, particularly after contact. And his reliability between the tackles only strengthens Detroit's play-action passing attack, a critical component to Goff's weekly success.


Obviously, the Lions have a first-round pick in Gibbs ready to step into a bigger role, but it's hardly a one-to-one replacement. His frame prohibits the Lions from overusing him between the tackles. Similarly, he's quickly developing into an important component of the passing game, which often requires him to line up outside of the backfield.

That means the Lions will likely need to turn to Craig Reynolds, or potentially even work in Zonovan Knight off the practice squad. But those options won't be able to replace the three-down consistency Montgomery brings to the table as a runner, receiving option and pass protector, which will likely limit the overall efficiency of the offense the next two or three games, against better-than-expected Atlanta and Green Bay teams.


jdrogers@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @Justin_Rogers

[whatever_gong82]

Niyo: Lions, frenzied Ford Field undone by empty-handed defense


John Niyo
The Detroit News


Detroit — It’s not that they were unmasked, really.

But the Lions certainly left their fans holding the bag Sunday, after Seattle’s 37-31 overtime win spoiled Detroit’s home opener at Ford Field.


And while the Seahawks were busy celebrating in the visitors’ locker room afterward, with rap music blaring — “Take Over Your Trap,” fittingly — and safety Jerrick Reed donning one of those blue ski masks that hundreds of Lions diehards had worn to Sunday’s game, there was a far different scene playing out across the hall.

Rookie defensive back Brian Branch was still in his uniform nearly 30 minutes after the game, looking despondent as he sat hunched over on a stool in front of his locker. He’d been the man in coverage on the final play of Sunday’s game, a 6-yard touchdown pass from Geno Smith to Tyler Lockett on third-and-2 as Seattle never let Jared Goff and the Lions’ offense touch the football in overtime.


Not far away, there was C.J. Gardner-Johnson, the live-wire safety who’d sparked this early-season fashion statement among Detroit’s frenzied fanbase and embraced the idea of the Lions as villains after that season-opening win at Kansas City. Only now, he was answering questions about a defense that allowed nearly 400 yards of offense and four scores on five Seattle possessions in the second half and overtime.


“We gave up 300-something yards (passing) — not good enough,” said Gardner-Johnson, one of a handful of Lions starters briefly sidelined by injuries in Sunday’s loss. “We gave up 37 points — not good enough. We know we’re not going to win a championship that way. That’s on us."


“Everybody fought hard on both sides of the ball. But the best team won today. Ain’t nothing you can say, or nothing you can do.”

Nothing to erase this loss, anyway. It was a game the Seahawks felt they “needed” to avoid an 0-2 start, Smith said, and it showed. It’s one the Lions “didn’t deserve” to win, Goff agreed, adding, “They earned that win and we kind of earned the loss.”


Dan Campbell called it a slice of “humble pie” in his postgame press conference. Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson called it a “wake-up call.” And just for the record, don’t bother asking him about that apparent holding call the officials missed on the final play in overtime, when right tackle Jake Curhan had Hutchinson “hog-tied around his neck,” according to Fox analyst Greg Olsen.

“Yeah, I probably won’t speak on that, because they’re gonna go fine my ass,” Hutchinson said, offering a wry smile instead. “It is what it is, man.”


It wasn’t the reason the Lions lost this game, of course. It wasn’t even close to the worst call or non-call of the game by this officiating crew, for that matter. (Seahawks coach Pete Carroll blew a gasket over an intentional grounding call on Smith on Seattle’s touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter.)



As for what this game became, though, that’s another story. And it’s one that Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn surely will need to address in time for next week’s game against the surprising 2-0 Atlanta Falcons.

Detroit has just one sack through two games, and the rush discipline that Glenn praised after the opener against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs felt fleeting against Seattle. Smith had 45 dropbacks Sunday, yet he was only hit once all game, when linebacker Alex Anzalone finally chased him down for a coverage sack on third-and-18 late in the fourth quarter. That led to a punt that set up Goff & Co. for the game-tying drive to force overtime.


But it wasn’t nearly enough against a Seattle team starting a pair of inexperienced backup tackles due to injuries. Shane Waldron, the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, did a good job protecting Smith early, utilizing two tight-end sets and even a fullback, at times, to help keep Hutchinson at arm's length. Yet even when he didn't, Smith, the veteran QB who'd run circles around Detroit's defense a year ago here, never seemed all that uncomfortable.

Sure, there were a few false-start penalties amid all the crowd noise Sunday, but Seattle still converted 50% of the time (6-of-12) in third- and fourth-down situations, including twice on the winning drive in overtime.



“Yeah, you’d like to believe we could’ve applied a little more pressure, but I felt like we never really got him in that type of game consistently enough,” Campbell said of Smith, who finished 32-of-41 for 328 yards and two touchdowns. “We let them continue to function in their offense and they were better at it and just better on the day than we were overall. They didn’t make those critical errors.”


The Lions’ defense did do a solid job of limiting the Seahawks’ run game, limiting Kenneth Walker III to 17 carries for 43 yards, 14 of which came on the first play from scrimmage. But on a day where the offense coughed up the ball twice — on a fumble at Detroit’s own 22 to start the second half and a pick-six midway through the fourth quarter — Glenn's group didn’t exactly respond in kind.

No turnovers forced, a lone sack and one big missed opportunity, in the end, as a sellout crowd of 66,434 was sent home empty-handed.

“It’s awesome to see, but we did let them down today,” Anzalone said, when asked about the fans. “So it’s disappointing, in that regard, and we just need them to stick with us all season.”


john.niyo@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @JohnNiyo

[whatever_gong82]

Referee, CMU product, tells Seahawks QB in Lions game: 'I'm talking to America here'



Tony Paul
The Detroit News

A Central Michigan Chippewa brought some fire to Sunday's Lions game at Ford Field.

Head referee Alex Kemp, a CMU alumnus, went viral after his hilarious exchange with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, who was trying to argue an intentional-grounding call in the third quarter.


Kemp had started to announce the penalty when Smith came over to plead his case.

Kemp stopped announcing the penalty and told Smith, "I'm talking to America here, excuse me."



The exchange was picked up on a hit mic, and brought immediate laughter from the Fox broadcasting duo of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen. The video clip also quickly made its way around the internet, as viral moments tend to do.

Kemp wasn't persuaded by Smith pleading his case, or Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll’s sideline tirade, but the Seahawks still went on to score on that drive and won the game, 37-31, in overtime.



Kemp has been an NFL official since the 2014 season, and was promoted to referee for the 2018 season. He's the son of former NFL referee Stan Kemp. At Central Michigan, Alex Kemp was a punter on the football team.



tpaul@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @tonypaul1984

[whatever_gong82]

Lions expecting to be without Vaitai and Houston for near future; Montgomery day-to-day


Justin Rogers
The Detroit News

Allen Park — The Detroit Lions had been relatively healthy heading into the second game of the season, but the injuries piled up during the team's overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks. As it currently stands, the team will likely be without edge rusher James Houston and starting guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai for multiple weeks.

Lions coach Dan Campbell said Houston suffered an injured fibula. The NFL Network reported earlier Monday that the defender suffered a fracture, which will sideline him for six to eight weeks. The injury occurred during a kickoff early in the third quarter when Houston had his leg fold under him while pursuing Seattle's return man.


That injury is a blow to Detroit's pass rush, which has struggled to get to the quarterback through the first two games of the season, recording just one sack. Houston, a sixth-round draft pick in 2022, racked up 8.0 sacks in seven games as a rookie.

The Lions entered the year deep on the edge, but Houston is the second player they've lost in the past few days, after Josh Paschal landed on injured reserve because of a knee injury suffered during Thursday's practice.



Starters Aidan Hutchinson and Charles Harris have been shouldering much of the early-season workload, with Hutchinson on the field for more than 92% of the team's defensive snaps through two weeks. The remaining rotation is rounded out by John Cominsky and Romeo Okwara, who was a healthy scratch in Week 1, but figures to have an increasingly larger role in the next few weeks to backfill Paschal and Houston's snaps.

The Lions are also scheduled to get Julian Okwara back in the coming weeks. He began the season on injured reserve, but will be eligible to return to action for Detroit's Week 5 game against Carolina on Oct. 8.


In the short term, the Lions could promote Raymond Johnson III from the team's practice squad. The 6-foot-3, 270-pounder appeared in 15 games for the New York Giants in 2021.

As for Vaitai, he exited because of a knee injury in the fourth quarter. Campbell said the early expectation is that Vaitai would avoid a stint on injured reserve, which would shut him down for at least four weeks, but the team wouldn't know for sure without further medical evaluation.


Detroit implemented a contingency plan at guard this offseason after Vaitai missed the entire 2022 campaign because of a back injury that required surgery, signing experienced veteran Graham Glasgow. He finished the game for Vaitai on Sunday. In terms of depth, the Lions have rookie Colby Sorsdal and would likely promote Kayode Awosika off the practice squad after temporarily elevating him from that unit for Sunday's game.

In addition to Houston and Vaitai, Campbell said running back David Montgomery is day-to-day because of the thigh injury that sidelined him in the second half. If the backfield bell cow is unable to go against Atlanta this Sunday, the Lions are expecting to lean on a committee approach, with rookie Jahmyr Gibbs seeing expanded playing time.



Gibbs went from 19 snaps in the season opener to playing 32 against Seattle, finishing with seven carries for 17 yards and seven receptions for 39 more.

"He got a little bit more (against Seattle), and there was some plays he made and there were a lot he left out (on the field)," Campbell said. "That's part of being a rookie. He'll get better from those the more exposure he gets and we need him to grow. He will."


jdrogers@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @Justin_Rogers

[whatever_gong82]

Humble pie? Detroit Lions' hype train slows after crushing OT loss to Seahawks

Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press


Droves of Detroit Lions fans showed up with blue ski masks Sunday for the most anticipated season opener in Ford Field history, but in the end it was the Seattle Seahawks who played the role of villain.

Geno Smith threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Lockett on the first possession of overtime as the Seahawks survived a fourth quarter rally to beat the Lions for the third straight year, 37-31.

Seahawks safety Jerrick Reed II celebrated the win live on Instagram with a blue ski mask on his face, like the ones Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson encouraged fans to wear to the game. After, Lions coach Dan Campbell said he hopes the loss serves as the humble pie the Lions will need to accomplish their goals this season.



“I just think sometimes you don’t know exactly where you’re at until you’re in it,” Campbell said. “We come off a big win and you can always preach certain things, but this is the NFL and these guys came in and they took that win, they earned it over there. We (made) the mistakes that cost us and I don’t want to say we weren’t ready I just – man, we have to make those plays in the moment and not just assume it’s going to turn into the game you want it to.”


The Lions entered Sunday as the talk of the NFL after their Week 1 upset of the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, and for much of the day it looked like they might start 2-0 for the first time since 2017.

The Lions scored on a flea-flicker early and led 21-14 after David Montgomery’s 4-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, but Seattle (1-1) scored 17 straight points before the Lions rallied to tie the game on a Riley Patterson 38-yard field goal on the final play of regulation.


Geno Smith started Seattle’s comeback with a 12-play field goal drive late in the third quarter, and the Lions failed to convert a fourth-and-2 at their own 45-yard line on the next possession.

Jared Goff threw incomplete to Josh Reynolds on the play, when Reynolds got his feet tangled and tripped on Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon.


“I don’t ever ask for no flags, man,” Reynolds said when asked if a pass interference flag should have been thrown on the play. “I’m a street ball kind of guy. If they don’t throw it then they don’t throw it and that’s on me. I should have stayed on my feet and got it. He just got a piece of my foot and wasn’t able to keep my balance. Wasn’t really too much to it. I wasn’t expecting the call.”


Smith capped a nine-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Lockett on the ensuing possession, and Tre Brown returned a Jared Goff interception 40 yards for a touchdown five plays later to give Seattle a 31-21 lead.

That turnover was Goff’s first interception in more than 10 months, since a Week 9 win over the Green Bay Packers last season, and snapped his streak of passes without an interception at 383 throws, the third-longest in NFL history.


Campbell pinned blame for the turnover on Goff’s intended receiver, rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs, but Goff said he “would have liked to throw it a little more inside.”

“I thought he ran a fine route,” Goff said. “I was getting hit, or about to get hit and threw it before he broke. The guy made a good catch. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”

Goff led the Lions to two scores in the final 3:08 to send the game to overtime.

Reynolds scored his second touchdown of the day on a 4-yard pass, and the Lions forced a Seattle three-and-out to set up Patterson’s field goal.


But the Seahawks won the coin toss at the start of overtime and converted two third downs on their way to the end zone. Smith’s winning touchdown pass to Lockett came on a third-and-2 before Goff ever had a chance to touch the ball in overtime.

“It’s tough” without getting a chance in overtime, linebacker Alex Anzalone said. “But they drove down the field and scored a touchdown on us. We can’t let that happen.”



Goff completed 28 of 35 passes for 323 yards with three touchdowns, Reynolds had five catches for 66 yards and two scores and Amon-Ra St. Brown finished with 102 yards receiving for the Lions, who lost several players to injuries.

Montgomery (16 carries, 67 yards) did not finish the game with a thigh bruise, right guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai left with a knee injury, James Houston suffered an ankle injury and St. Brown (toe, cramps), Gardner-Johnson (arm), Kerby Joseph (hip) and Aidan Hutchinson (undisclosed) were among the starters who left the game with injuries but returned.


Smith finished 32 of 41 for 328 yards with two touchdowns for the Seahawks, who scored 14 points off three Lions turnovers and did not commit one of their own.

“I think losing to a team like this, man, we definitely shouldn’t have, it wakes us up a little bit,” Reynolds said. “I’m hoping. I’m hoping it wakes us up for next week. This Atlanta team’s pretty good, so they’re going to come in here and we just got to get on them.”


Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

[ghandi]

THe Lions caught a break in wek one when KC was without Jones and Kelce....I imagine its a different result if those two play but thats life in the NFL...You go into week 3 at 1-1 in what should be a winnable game (if they can stop Bijan)

[chemiclord]

Apparently, Gardner-Johnson suffered a torn pec in Sunday's game, and could possibly be out for the season.

[TheLondonLion]

Urgh. Of course.