They can’t be surprised. They had to see this coming. The way a fishing boat captain sees dark storm clouds coming. The way a desert nomad sees a swirling sandstorm coming. A road game on three days' rest? Against one of the NFL’s best teams, certainly one of its best quarterbacks? On the first night of a brand-new stadium and a fired-up, sellout crowd?
Heck. All that was missing was a black cat and a ladder to walk under.
Hit the road and stumble. In the Detroit Lions’ first away game of this young season, they came out slow and got cooked fast. How fast? Buffalo had four touchdowns on its first four drives. It had 11 first downs in the first quarter! It had 299 yards of offense by halftime!
after Bills stampede defense
It was over long before it was over, and while the Lions made a valiant effort to stay relevant in the second half, it was like a dog trying to catch a Corvette that had already zoomed around the corner.
“Like I told the guys, at least we know what it looks like,” coach Dan Campbell informed the media after the Bills smoked the Lions physically and statistically, 41-31, on Thursday, Sept. 17. “After two games we kinda know who we are now.”
Here is who they are: A team that is inconsistent in its offense, thin and weak in its secondary, and not as productive on either of its lines as the talent would suggest. They got away with it in Week 1, barely, against a mediocre New Orleans team and a second-year quarterback named Tyler Shough.
It doesn’t work against Josh Allen.
Hit the road and stumble.
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'We got what we deserved'
“It was already a tall task without us handling our business,” Campbell admitted.
And they did not handle their business, if their business was not making mistakes (they had 10 penalties, many at crucial moments), winning the third down battle (Buffalo went a crazy 9-for-12) or containing Allen, whom they knew, coming in, was the key to everything (he finished with three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, and over 300 yards of total offense without a turnover). If they made the guy look any better, his Hall of Fame bust would be finished by now.
This was exactly the game Lions fans feared, and exactly what they might have projected after watching the flawed victory over the Saints on Sunday.
The Lions frequently couldn’t stop the quarterback in that game. Same thing happened in Buffalo. The secondary got picked apart in that game. Same thing happened in Buffalo. The offense fizzled when it couldn’t afford to last Sunday. Same thing happened in Buffalo. Jameson Williams all but disappeared in Week 1. Same thing – mostly – happened in Buffalo.
“We got what we deserved,” said quarterback Jared Goff, who despite having a fine statistical night, got sacked twice on third downs to end drives when the game was still in play. “You get what you deserve on both sides of the coin in the NFL.”
Can we get a new coin?
Hit the road and stumble.
But don't panic ...
OK. Here’s why you shouldn’t panic over this loss. Deep down, I believe the Lions brass expected it. Sure, they would have been thrilled if the team somehow rallied to upset the Bills. But Campbell and his staff are not naïve. Their secondary right now features placeholders for two guys (Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch) who have been injured for so long they may need to get their photo ID’s retaken.
The team arrived in Buffalo with two of its starting offensive linemen, Christian Mahogany and rookie Blake Miller, out with injuries. The Detroit coaches had to gameplan like college kids on a road trip with a weak GPS signal, with just one game tape to study from new Buffalo coach Joe Brady's run calling plays from the sideline – after two years as the Bills' offensive coordinator, with a play sheet from above – and almost no time to do it.
So surely when the Detroit brain trust looked over this year’s schedule, ranked easiest in the league by some analysts, they weren’t counting on a win in Buffalo to make the playoffs.
No, this was always going to be a measuring stick – a fast-turnaround road game against a top opponent – that would expose Detroit’s flaws or reveal its upset capacity.
“Listen, it stinks, nobody likes it,” Campbell said. “I don’t like losing. I don’t like losing like that. But we just finished Week 2. We’re 1-1. And we got a lot of room to grow. We got a ton of it.”
That is true, although the same could be said for nearly every 1-1 team in NFL history.
For this team, here are a few reasons for concern:
- After a stellar Week 1, running back Jahmyr Gibbs returned to Earth, held to just 52 rushing yards on 16 carries. His second-half rushing was swarmed and ineffective.
- Cornerback Avonte Maddox went out with an injury in an already bone-thin secondary. And the guys who remained out there didn’t disrupt many of Allen’s passes, and didn’t intercept any.
- The Lions’ defensive line, celebrated as its strong point, couldn’t stop the run (203 yards allowed) much less the pass. James Cook finished with over 100 yards gained before first contact. That’s a lot of Detroit linemen in his rear view mirror.
- The Lions have now surrendered 71 points in two weeks, and over 400 yards of offense in each one.
- Williams once again didn’t factor much in the offense – even though the need for long explosive plays was high all game.
At halftime of this ugly affair, Campbell was asked by Prime Video sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung to assess what was going wrong. “The little [expletive] is killing us,” he said.
It was, but it’s some big you-know-what that needs to be fixed now. Better run blocking. Getting more receivers involved. Better pass pressure. Hiding the secondary’s weaknesss.
The memory that keeps replaying from Thursday night is Detroit’s defense pressing in on Allen, and the quarterback deftly stepping away, speeding past it, or negating it with a whipped pass to a wide-open receiver.
He’s a great quarterback, but he won’t be the only one Detroit faces this year.
Hit the road and stumble.
Fans will be happy the next opponent is the New York Jets.
But not if the Lions keep playing like paper airplanes.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions loss vs Buffalo easy to see coming, painful to watch
