Lions News

[whatever_gong82]

Game balls and goats: Aidan Hutchinson mistakes prove costly for Detroit Lions


Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press



CHICAGO – Dave Birkett grades the Detroit Lions in their 28-13 loss the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Soldier Field.

Game balls

QB Justin Fields

Fields is in a tough spot playing out the string for a Bears team that likely will be looking to replace him with the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, but he came up big Sunday.


In his third game back from a thumb injury, Fields completed 19 of 33 passes for 223 yards, threw the go-ahead 38-yard touchdown to DJ Moore late in the third quarter, and added 58 yards rushing on 12 carries and an 11-yard touchdown run. Fields failed to top 100 yards on the ground against the Lions for the first time since 2021, but he set up another Bears touchdown as a decoy on a direct snap to D.J. Moore.

Fields is far from perfect, but if the Bears don’t want him in 2024, he’s done enough to earn a starting job somewhere else in the league.


S Jaquan Brisker

Brisker was all over the field Sunday.

He made a game-high 17 tackles, broke up two passes, and forced one fumble for a Bears defense that held the Lions to their second-lowest point total of the season and a measly 61 yards of offense in the second half. About the only thing Brisker did wrong Sunday was drop an interception he had a chance to return for a touchdown.

“It's unbelievable to get 17 tackles,” Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. “That's unheard of. I don't think that's ever happened in my career to have a guy have that many tackles. I honestly can't remember. I'll have to go look it up. That's amazing. What Brisker brings is the reason we drafted him.”

Goats

DE Aidan Hutchinson

Hutchinson has been one of the Lions’ best defensive players all season, but he was the culprit on two second-half plays that led to 12 Bears points.


Hutchinson jumped offside on a fourth-and-13 play from the Lions’ 38-yard line late in the third quarter, giving Fields a free play and a shot downfield that he connected to Moore for a touchdown. After a Lions fumble on the next series, Hutchinson left the right end uncovered when he called a stunt with defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike on third-and-goal from the 11. Fields ran around the edge for an easy touchdown, ending any hopes of a Lions comeback.

The No. 2 pick in last season’s draft, Hutchinson has been the Lions’ most effective pass rusher for two years running, but he gambled trying to make two plays Sunday and it cost his team.


WR Amon-Ra St. Brown

The Lions’ No. 1 receiver didn’t look like himself Sunday.

St. Brown caught just three of nine targets for 21 yards – his second straight game with three or fewer catches and his lowest yardage total since Week 6 of last year – and he didn’t catch any of the three passes thrown his way on an 11-play fourth-quarter drive with the Lions playing desperate catch-up ball.

St. Brown had one drop on that drive, and couldn’t hold onto two other passes that bounced off his body (he lost one when a Bears defender hit him from behind, and another on a low throw on fourth-and-17 that he couldn’t handle after going to the ground to try and make the catch). It’s unfair to expect heroics from St. Brown every week, but the Lions needed more out of him Sunday and he didn’t deliver.



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

[whatever_gong82]

Detroit Lions to split No. 2 CB reps between Jerry Jacobs, Kindle Vildor


Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press



Jerry Jacobs isn't being benched, but the Detroit Lions plan to keep rotating personnel at the No. 2 cornerback spot.

Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday he expects Jacobs and Kindle Vildor to share snaps for Saturday's game against the Denver Broncos, much as they did in Sunday's loss to the Chicago Bears.



Vildor played 17 of a possible 71 defensive snaps (24%) and made three tackles, including one for loss. He missed time late in the game with cramping, but finished as one of the Lions' top-rated defensive players, according to Pro Football Focus.

Jacobs played 53 snaps (75%), second most among Lions cornerbacks. He gave up the go-ahead 38-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Moore late in the third quarter, when the Bears had a free play after Aidan Hutchinson jumped offside on fourth-and-13.



"I still see him and Jerry kind of working in there a little bit together," Campbell said.

The Lions (9-4) rank 18th against the pass this season, and have gotten inconsistent play from their secondary much of the year. Jacobs has a team-high three interceptions and had a key pass breakup just before halftime Sunday, but he had allowed five touchdowns and had a 92 passer rating against going into last week, according to Pro Football Reference.



The Lions signed Vildor off their practice squad last week, after the Tennessee Titans tried to sign him away to their active roster. Asked how Vildor, a former Bears draft pick in 2020, fared in his NFL debut, Campbell said he was "solid."

"He did some good things for us," Campbell said. "There are a few things that just getting up to speed with our terminology, how we do things that we’ve got to get him caught up a little bit more on, but all in all, I thought he was what we thought he would be. He’s competitive, he’s smart and he’s pretty crafty."



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

[whatever_gong82]

Niyo: Where there's smoke, Lions' Campbell promises fire


John Niyo
The Detroit News



Allen Park — Cole Kmet, the Chicago Bears tight end, was talking about that critical fourth-down conversion after Sunday’s 28-13 victory over the Lions. He was talking about Aidan Hutchinson’s costly mistake, and the ugly chain of events it triggered for Dan Campbell’s team at Soldier Field.

“I thought, ‘No way in hell are they jumping,’” Kmet said, when asked about Hutchinson taking the bait on a fourth-and-13 play that was designed to do exactly that, in drawing a defender offside. “They jumped. I don’t know how you could jump in that situation, but they did.”



They did, indeed. And after the way things unfolded — or unraveled — from there, Kmet might as well have been talking to Lions fans, some of whom, no doubt, are ready to jump themselves.

The Lions are 9-4, with a two-game lead on the rest of the NFC North, and a 99% chance of making the postseason, according to the New York Times playoff simulator. Their chances of winning the division are still better than 8 in 10 at this point, and Detroit’s magic number remains three, with four weeks left to play in the regular season.


Yet after a second loss in three weeks, and another mistake-filled, turnover-plagued outing against a sub-.500 division opponent, Campbell knows the narrative about his team has shifted underneath them.


“But, I know this: If you got the right guys, the right coaches, you'll find your way out of it,” he said Monday, as the Lions’ quickly turned their attention to Saturday’s prime-time game against Denver at Ford Field. “And the most important thing is that we don't buy into the narrative that is not inside of our building and what the tape says.”

Again, Campbell is well aware of what everyone else out there is saying.



The Lions have gone from one of the feel-good stories of the NFL — and a darkhorse Super Bowl contender in the eyes of some national pundits — to a team that’s giving many of its long-suffering supporters that sinking feeling. Sunday’s sloppy effort in blustery conditions against Justin Fields and the Bears only accelerated the seasonal affective disorder for some of you who remember the Lions’ last division title in 1993, but also the ones that slipped away in 2014 and ’16 — the last two times they wobbled into the playoffs as wild-card entries.

And for those that tuned in to Sunday night’s marquee game between Dallas and Philadelphia — two of the teams the Lions are chasing in the NFC — you may have nodded in agreement when NBC studio analyst Chris Simms noted, “It ain’t looking good in Detroit right now.”



That depends on your perspective, I suppose. But, it is no secret the Lions’ defense has largely come undone since Detroit’s midseason bye week, allowing more than 30 points per game and ranking last in the NFL in opponents’ pass efficiency, all while searching for something that had gone missing. As defensive lineman John Cominsky put it Sunday, “I feel like we’ve kind of lost our swagger and our confidence.”



Nor is it a news flash that Goff has started to crack under pressure behind a banged-up offensive line: After committing just five turnovers in the Lions’ first nine games, the veteran quarterback has coughed it up eight times in their last four. Not coincidentally, he has been sacked 10 times over the last month as well, and Goff described Sunday’s offensive showing — which produced 61 total yards on seven second-half possessions — as both “very uncharacteristic” and “extremely frustrating.”



When you throw in key injuries (Frank Ragnow, Alim McNeill), some questionable play-calling and game management by the coaching staff, and the simple fact that there really are no secrets for any team in the NFL by December, none of this should come as any great surprise. I think most of us realized the Lions' expectations were starting to outpace the collective talent on the roster after that 5-1 start, and now the opposite might be happening.

What won't change, however, is Campbell’s approach this week. It can't, he insists, as he prepares his team to face his coaching mentor, Sean Payton, and a Broncos team that has won six of its last seven games after a 1-5 start to join the AFC playoff chase. And if you're wondering what Campbell’s message to his players will sound like at the start of an abbreviated week of practice, don't expect anything inflammatory.



“You stay consistent,” he said. “You know, if we start acting like the house is burning down, I mean, it's gonna get worse. We know what we gotta do. I know exactly what we have to do. We gotta go back to work.”

The Lions’ head coach knows this, too: The same thing some fans probably found most alarming about Sunday’s loss, he found “the most encouraging.”



“Some of our best players on the team did not play well,” Campbell said. “And that's encouraging going into this (next game), because those are prideful guys. Those are dudes. And believe me, those guys are going to come back — no different than us as coaches — and we're going to be at our best.”

Campbell didn’t single anyone out, but it’s not hard to figure out which dudes he was referring to on Monday. Goff, Hutchinson, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Alex Anzalone all had their worst games of the season, according to Pro Football Focus grading. Taylor Decker wasn’t far off his season low, either.



And whether it was St. Brown’s uncharacteristic drops — he finished with three catches on nine targets — or Anzalone’s early penalties and missed tackles in his first game back from thumb surgery, or Goff’s critical fumble and Hutchinson’s fourth-down gaffe, there’s an expectation those things will “get cleaned up,” Goff says.

As for the swagger and confidence that has gone missing, particularly for a defense that saw some personnel changes Sunday, a revved-up home crowd at Ford Field should help, just as it did against the Raiders immediately following the Lions’ disastrous outing in Baltimore. Other than the Thanksgiving loss to Green Bay, this team has shown well in the national-TV spotlight this season. And it’s probably worth noting the Lions haven’t lost consecutive games since last October. So, where you see smoke, the head coach sees firefighters.



“I just know what kind of locker room and what kind of players we’ve got, and we will respond,” Campbell said. “We will respond.”

If they don’t? Well, then, it might be time to jump.



jniyo@detroitnews.com

@JohnNiyo

[Sanders Fan]

Lions didn’t move in ESPN’s power rankings. Still at 6.

[CGVT]

Lions didn’t move in ESPN’s power rankings. Still at 6.

ESPN must be watching a different Lions team than most of this forum. Ha!

[froot loops]

That twist stunt when Fields scored was an incredible blunder whether it was called from the sidelines or if Hutchinson called it himself. You prepare all week to contain Fields, it's the number #1 objective. That means setting the edge to contain him. In that stunt, Levi got caught up by the blockers so he never gets around them to set the edge. But let's say he does, who would you rather have on contain Hutchinson or a DT who has barely played?

They have to play smarter. Fields is the worst quarterback to have breakdowns like this. If you don't sack him, but you keep him in the pocket and you force him to dissect you like Herbert did, that's a win.

[chemiclord]

I think Hutch also told fans more than he realized.

According to him, he called in that stunt at the line. If that is true, that means that the Lions have a second-year guy with the power to audible for the unit. Which, if you're trying to win every game in front of you, is not ideal. Young players make a lot more bad reads and bad calls than veterans do. It means you're going to have long stretches of what seems to be boneheaded play as these young leaders make a ton of mistakes, and get fooled by more savvy opponents. I would no longer be surprised to hear that Campbell is being asked to make the majority of LB calls when he's on the field, or that the secondary is being asked to take their cues from Branch or Joseph (depending on which one is on the field).

It would also explain why there was no sense of urgency by the front office or coaching staff. This is not a team "playing to win." It's a team trying to get a young core of players valuable and necessary experience, and if they win, that's an added bonus.

Which (and this may surprise you to hear from me) is fine, actually! I actually agree with that! The last thing a young team should be doing is blowing their wad too early on a squad that isn't ready to take that next step. But I also know that's what I'd argue a majority of fans really don't want to hear, so Campbell has to keep up the tough guy "stuff to clean up" act every week, and why week after week very little gets cleaned up.

Because the only thing that'll clean that up is experience. A lot of experience.

[froot loops]

I think that's a lot of extrapolation but maybe there's some validity. I was looking to see if Campbell had the green dot, it didn't appear that he did.

One of the things about the NFL season is the farther you get away from training camp is the sloppier the play can get. The practice time is pretty limited and sometimes you get away from fundamentals. When the Patriots were in their prime, their main motto was "Do your job." That means not trying to hero ball it. Hutchinson at times appears to a basketball player trying to hit the 10 point shot to get his team back in the game.

[chemiclord]

Oh yes, there's definitely a lot of extrapolation there, but I think it would fit and explain no small degree of the boneheaded play we're seeing.

[whatever_gong82]

Detroit Lions NFL playoff history: 5 most painful losses all-time


Marlowe Alter
Detroit Free Press



Detroit Lions NFL playoff history is a cornucopia of sadness.

The Lions' last playoff win of course came in the 1991 season — read our oral history of that epic win — in a shellacking of the Dallas Cowboys, the lasting image Barry Sanders popping free from a pile of defenders and racing past one who thought the play was over for the final touchdown.

Think about that for a second: People who are approaching 40 years old have no recollection of a Lions playoff win.

The Lions have since lost their past nine playoff games. They own the longest playoff victory drought in the NFL, after the Cincinnati Bengals ended their 31-year winless streak two seasons ago.

The Lions last won their division and hosted a home playoff game in the 1993 season, and are the lone NFC team to never appear in the Super Bowl.

Let's chronicle the Lions' history in the playoffs to find the five most heartbreaking games. This is ranked in reverse chronological order.


Detroit Lions most painful playoff losses

2014: Wild-card game at Dallas Cowboys, L 24-20


What happened: The Lions jumped to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter against the Cowboys in Dallas, led 20-7 late in the third quarter but saw it whittled to three early in the fourth. That's when one of the most controversial calls in recent NFL history took place: On third-and-1 from the Cowboys 46, Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew, guarded by linebacker Anthony Hitchens, was interfered with as he tried to catch a pass. Referee Pete Morelli announced the penalty, but 17 seconds later, retracted it, leaving the Lions in a fourth-and-1. Lions coach Jim Caldwell elected to try to draw the defense offsides, and when that failed, took a delay of game penalty and sent the punt team out. Sam Martin shanked the punt 10 yards and the rest is history. The Lions' defense softened, committed penalties and could not get off the field as Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo found receiver Terrence Williams for an 8-yard touchdown and 24-20 lead with 2:32 remaining. That was plenty of time for Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford to fumble twice on the final drive to snuff the upset bid.


The league later admitted it missed a holding call on Hitchens on the game-changing third down, and also said a blatant Cowboys hold against Ndamukong Suh was missed on a critical fourth-and-6 conversion to Jason Witten that kept Dallas' winning drive alive. Those admissions only served to infuriate Lions fans more and further fuel "The Curse of Bobby Layne."


1993: Wild-card game vs. Green Bay Packers, L 28-24


What happened: You've probably seen the video: Brett Favre scrambling left, looking back right and lasering a moon ball to the right corner of the end zone, where Sterling Sharpe ran under it to stun the 68,479 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome. The 40-yard touchdown with 55 seconds left was Sharpe's third score of the game. The Lions outgained the Packers, 410-293, with Sanders galloping for 169 yards over 27 carries, and won the time of possession battle by more than 10 minutes. But they squandered a 10-point lead in the third quarter, culminating in a game-changing 101-yard interception return touchdown by Packers rookie safety George Teague. The excruciating result was payback for the previous week in the same stadium, where the Lions knocked off the Packers, 30-20, to win the NFC Central Division. They haven't won a division title since nor hosted a playoff game, with this defeat remaining the lone home playoff loss in franchise history (5-1) — hey, you can't lose at home if you don't ever play at home!

The Lions lost again to the Packers the next postseason at Lambeau Field, when Sanders rushed 13 times for minus-1 yards in a 16-12 loss.


1991: NFC championship game vs. Washington Redskins, L 41-10


What happened: This wasn't a gut-wrenching fourth-quarter ending like the others on the list. But it remains the high-water mark for the franchise, painful in other ways. High off their rousing 38-6 victory over Dallas, the Lions traveled to the nation's capital to face another NFC East opponent: 15-2 Washington. The Lions were 14-point underdogs against coach Joe Gibbs' squad, expected fodder for the eventual Super Bowl champs, and there was good reason: Washington embarrassed them 45-0 in the season opener at RFK Stadium. The Lions this time hung in for a half, trailing 17-10 thanks to a touchdown catch from rookie Willie Green. Then they were run off the field in the second half, outscored 24-0. Washington's Mark Rypien threw for 228 yards on 12 completions, with touchdown passes to Art Monk and Gary Clark, and the Lions committed three turnovers, seven penalties and were sacked five times. It's the closest the Lions have ever come to a Super Bowl appearance, so the game has to make this sickening list.


1983: NFC Divisional game at San Francisco 49ers, L 24-23


What happened: The Lions were touchdown underdogs on New Year's Eve but outplayed the 49ers except for one key category: They lost the turnover battle, 5-2, with coach Bill Walsh's Niners intercepting Lions backup quarterback Gary Danielson five times — four coming in the first half. Still, the Lions had the chance to pull the upset over the 1981 Super Bowl champions in an epic fourth quarter. They turned to Pro Bowl running back Billy Sims, who scored touchdowns of 11 and 3 yards in the fourth for a shocking 23-17 lead with five minutes left. That's when 49ers quarterback Joe Montana did what he became famous for: He went 6-for-6 on the ensuing drive in just over three minutes, and found Freddie Solomon on a 14-yard post pattern to retake the lead at 1:23. The Lions responded by driving to the Niners' 25 with 11 seconds left, in position for their first playoff win in 26 years. The game instead became another pox on the Lions' ledger of painful losses. Kicker Eddie Murray had already made a playoff record (at the time) 54-yard field goal among three makes and one 43-yard miss. But with the season on the line, he pushed a 42-yard field goal wide to the right to the delight of the San Francisco faithful at Candlestick Park. "I lined myself up right, but I was trying to more or less finesse the ball through rather than just kick it like I normally do," Murray said in the locker room. "It's like golf, you gotta hook the ball and you leave it out and it doesn't come in, it's the same principle."

The contest in 1999 was named among the five best divisional playoff games ever by ESPN — no comfort to Lions fans.


1970: NFC Divisional game at Dallas Cowboys, L 5-0


What happened: One of three NFL games to finish 5-0, the Lions entered as three-point favorites at the Cotton Bowl, according to Pro Football Reference, with both squads 10-4. Weather was not to blame for the inept offenses — 35 degrees with a little wind. Turnovers (you guessed it!) were a problem, the Lions losing the category, 3-1. However the Lions did not commit a penalty compared to the Cowboys flagged six times. Defense dominated, with the Lions offense stymied to 156 total yards and no points after finishing second in the NFL during the regular season averaging 24.8 points per game. Quarterbacks Greg Landry and Bill Munson were a combined 7-for-20 for 92 yards with a pick, and halfback Mel Farr took 12 carries 31 yards. First-Team All-Pro tight end Charlie Sanders was held without a catch. The Cowboys gained 231 yards, most on the ground with Duane Thomas (135 yards on 30 carries) and Walt Garrison (72 yards on 17 carries). Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton was an abysmal 4-for-18 passing for 38 yards and an interception. The Lions defense made a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter to keep the deficit 3-0, but Landry was immediately sacked in the end zone for a safety. Joe Schmidt, the former Hall of Fame linebacker and then-head coach, replaced Landry with Munson. Receiver Earl McCullouch made a leaping 39-yard grab on a fourth-down heave from Munson to get the Lions to the Dallas 29. But Munson's third-down pass was high, off the fingertips of McCullouch and hauled in by cornerback Mel Renfro with 35 seconds left. As Renfro returned the game-sealing interception, McCullouch threw his helmet to the turf in frustration, forecasting the start of decades of playoff heartbreak experienced by the franchise.

[Marko69]

Got to be honest, if I used the word “extrapolation” down the pub, i think i’d get my head kicked in.

[dsred]

I was at that playoff game at the Dome vs. the Packers. Everyone there yelled almost in unison when they saw Sharpe wide open. Apparently the Lions' D didn't notice.

EDIT: My son was born July 93 and this game was in January 94. There have been no Lions' home playoff games since.

My son is 30 now.

[Sanders Fan]

The worst playoff loss was 1993 against Green Bay. I was sick for weeks after that. That was before I toughened up after years of painful seasons to come.

[froot loops]

I believe Sharpe was wide open on the previously play and Favre missed him.

[foxhopper]

Hutchinson nas to be one of the most frustated players in the league. Lots of effort and not much result. I haven't seen the percentage of snaps lately but is probably too many...But the team doesn't have much choice.

He cut his hair and it helped (Not mentally). Might be time to Crosby up. Shave the head and get inked up! J/k