GBU: RAMming it down their throats in OT

[Mainevent]

The Rams defense could just be pretty good, we'll have to see how they hold up. Froot pointed it out, but the LBs were better, they have the two rookie DL who are more mature than typical rookies, they have the 2nd year guys who were huge finds. The secondary isn't great, but they have vets like White and Johnson back there.

Week 1 is weird - strange things happen.

[froot loops]

I kind of look at it like the expectations of last year's opener. We thought the Lions were going to be in a shootout with the Chiefs because the conventional wisdom was that the Chiefs D wasn't good especially without Chris Jones. Halfway through that game I kind of said, "this Chiefs D is much better than advertised." They were so good during the season you forget about the expectations going in

[whatever_gong82]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2024/09/09/detroit-lions-los-angeles-rams-david-montgomery-frank-ragnow-game-winning-drive/75137025007/

[whatever_gong82]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2024/09/09/detroit-lions-winners-losers-david-montgomery-delivers-victory/75133930007/

[wcfwtf]

Brazilian Fields…. Forever

[foxhopper]

Besides the win the best thing is no major injuries that I'm aware of.

[Coop]

A word about Stafford. Respect. He could not win a championship in the D for various reasons, amongst them, not being the leader that Goff is at QB, which is my only real criticism of Stafford. He is the same gunslinger for the Rams as he was for us, and he did give his all yesterday, proving to us once again how good of a player he is. We were not necessarily the better team yesterday (week one is so different across the board in the NFL) but we made the plays when we needed to get that W especially in OT. I do like that Campbell said in the locker room celebration that if we had lost that game we will be ok. He's right.

[whatever_gong82]

Pride of Detroit Direct
by Jeremy Reisman



Welcome to the first Victory Monday edition of Pride of Detroit Direct, Season 2. I know a lot of you aren’t feeling great about the season opener, and, sure, letting a 14-point lead slip away against a severely short-handed Rams team wasn’t a great look. But let me try to assuage your anxiety this Monday, because I’m feeling just as good about this Detroit Lions team as ever.

On this week’s newsletter, I explain why Sunday’s game was what the team needed, Brett Whitefield returns to break down the advanced stats of Detroit’s defense, and Erik and I speak from Ford Field on our initial thoughts about the game.


Sloppy football is acceptable, overcoming it is exceptional

When the Lions scored a touchdown in the third quarter to pull ahead 17-3, I’ll admit I thought the game was relatively over there. After an up-and-down first half, Detroit had found their footing, and with the Rams’ injury report reaching critical mass, Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford would have to pull off a miracle to make that game even look close. Yeah, I know. I’m in the future, also.

In Week 1, we’re all eager to make sweeping generalizations about the rest of the season. It’s our first data point, and we want to extrapolate what it means through December. But that’s not how data works. We’re talking about one game. We don’t know if this will be a typical performance, and we don’t know if this will be a typical Rams performance. Hell, we can’t even create a trend line with a single data point.


Beyond that, one of the very few things I took from the Matt Patricia era was his very insightful view on how the season typically plays out. In short, how a team plays in September is very rarely how they’ll look in December. Players get injured, younger players get more comfortable, veteran players knock off rust, and coaches figure out ways to best utilize their players.

All of that is to say that September football is consistently crappy. Look around the league and show me more than two or three teams that should be extremely happy with their overall performance? Every team has concerns and things to fix this time of year. The most successful teams are the ones that address and adjust. For the past three years, that’s been the Detroit Lions. Look at Dan Campbell’s short history of December/January win/loss record:


2021: 3-3
2022: 5-1
2023: 4-2 (2-1 in playoffs)

We know this team is going to get better, even if they didn’t look as good as we wanted in Week 1. We know this team is capable of more. And we know they’re going to play each opponent until the final whistle.

And let’s not forget they actually won the freakin’ football game against a top NFC opponent. Say whatever you want about the injuries the Rams were dealing with, but the fact remains that they’ve got an offensive mastermind at coach, a top-five quarterback under center, and a young, talented defense that is capable of keeping them in games when their entire offensive foundation is carted off the field. Or, at least, that’s what I think. Who knows? It’s Week 1.

But the one thing that is absolutely clear is that the Lions are 1-0. They’re 1-0 in conference play. They now have a potentially key tiebreaker for playoff seeding. And they came out of the game apparently healthy, too, and that’s also something that shouldn’t go unappreciated.

Now it’s up to the Lions coaching staff–a group that is universally praised for their competence–to work out the kinks, make their adjustments, and get this team ready for January football. And if that means compiling some more ugly wins along the way, sign me up.


A deeper look at the Lions’ new-look defense vs. Rams

By Brett Whitefield, owner and COO of Fantasy Points

*Before we dive in, remember that all data cited in this section is provided exclusively by Fantasy Points Data Suite - right now you can get 25% off of a Data Suite subscription by using our exclusive promo code POD25.


Week 1 of the season was not pretty for just about all 32 teams in the NFL. With the lack of emphasis placed on the preseason and the lack of opportunities to get 70 plays at once under your belt, fatigue and rust are certainly a thing. This was absolutely true for the Lions offense - that ultimately made enough plays when it mattered to win. It was also true for the Lions defense, who had a lot of positives to take away as well as some interesting deficiencies to point out. Let's start the first piece of the season by taking a closer look at the new and improved Lions defense and how they attempted to contain Matthew Stafford.


DEFENDING MATTHEW STAFFORD

One of the big developments in Matthew Stafford's game over the past couple years has been a willingness to take what the defense gives him. Stafford traditionally has had this aura of a gunslinger who constantly takes shots and pushes the ball downfield. While he is certainly still capable of doing those things, he has evolved in his willingness to be more of a game manager. Take last year for example, among qualifying QBs, Stafford ranked just 25th in ADOT and 29th in deep throw percentage. Keeping himself clean and adjusting to new NFL coverage philosophies has been huge for the mid-30s QB.

In this game specifically, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn seemed convicted in constantly applying pressure or at least creating the illusion of pressure.


Lions pass rush by the numbers:


The Lions defense generated pressure on over 40% of dropbacks.

The Lions defense blitzed or stunted on 33% of dropbacks.

The Lions front showed a “pressure look” on over 50% of dropbacks.

Aidan Hutchinson had 18 pass-rush wins including 10 pressures.


Marcus Davenport and Levi Owunzurike provided good complementary pass-rush efforts totaling over 10 pass-rush wins and 10 pressure combined.

In non-surprising fashion, Stafford adjusted his game accordingly. The constant pressure looks combined with the Rams starting offensive line missing four starters put Stafford immediately into “get the ball out quick mode” - and get the ball out quickly he did. Bucking a huge 2023 trend from opposing quarterbacks.


Stafford TTT (Time to Throw)


Stafford got the ball out under 2.4 seconds on 26 of 52 dropbacks.

Stafford got the ball out under 3.0 seconds on 42 of 52 dropbacks.

A TTT of 2.55 seconds on the day.


This was a massive departure from most gameplans we saw against the Lions defense last year where opposing QBs had a league high average TTT of 2.84 seconds. It was even a big change from the playoff game vs the Rams where we saw Stafford hold the ball on average of 2.72 seconds before making a throw. It resulted in a low ADOT under 7.0 on the day.

The problem is, the Rams found success by constantly finding soft spots against off-man coverage or manipulating coverage looks with motion to get free access in the 2nd level.


This coupled with a sloppy tackling effort after the catch from the Lions led to a lot of unnecessary yards. In total, the Lions missed eight tackles, which led to 171 of Matthew Stafford’s 317 yards coming after the catch. Taking what the defense gave him paid off for most of the game.

On one hand, I am sure it’s encouraging for Lions fans to know the Lions have the ability to generate pressure and dictate the terms of the game. It is probably also encouraging to know a rookie CB in Terrion Arnold making his first start was largely responsible for holding Cooper Kupp to just 5 yards per target (on 21 targets). On the other hand, the adjustments (or lack thereof) were a bit concerning. Moving forward the Lions defense will certainly need to clean up mistakes and improve in the margins as well as show a willingness to make adjustments to the game plan. In the NFL, a win is a win. On to Tampa Bay.


VIDEO: Lions vs. Rams recap with Jeremy and Erik

Let's revisit the game that was. Click the video below or right here to watch Jeremy and Erik recap the game.

[mason reese]

1st half pass charts for both qbs.

[El Axe]

Got this from reddit, so I don't have any other grades:

Aiden Hutchinson 95.7 PFF grade, 47.7% win rate -- both top marks in the NFL for week 1
Levi Onwuzurike 76.4, 5 pressures
Marcus Davenport 75.6, 6 pressures
Alim McNeil 69.1, 1 pressure

edit: fat-fingered Levi's score

[El Axe]

if DJ Reader returns to full strength, that pocket is going to regularly collapse. Davenport is much more physical than I realized and Levi looked good. Those 5 plus a few snaps from Paschal and that's a pretty powerful rotation being thrown at an OL.

[El Axe]

Baldinger is a fun listen when he talks about OL. Highway 58 indeed

[Blue Lagoon58]

I've waited so long to have an OT like Penei. Amazing we'll have him around for another decade, at least.

[edindetroit]

Can't get enough of this

[CGVT]

I watched the drive again. On the second to last play the O line had pushed the D line so far off the ball that they were past the first down line before Monty got the ball and on the TD they had blown the d line into the endzone before the handoff as well

Fucking amazing.