GLENDALE, AZ – Dan Campbell called it “the white squall,” and in a sea of red at State Farm Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 11, it came quick and it was deadly.
The Detroit Lions played their best and most complete game of the season at a time they needed it most, scoring on seven straight drives and getting five straight three-and-outs to rebound from a slow start and beat the Arizona Cardinals, 45-21.
At 3-2, the Lions head into their bye week in a three-way tie for second place in the NFC North, two games behind the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, and – more importantly – looking like their old selves again.
They ran trick plays. They went for it on fourth downs. They played
more man-to-man coverage than they have all season. They dominated with the aggressive brand of football that has defined most of Campbell’s six seasons in Detroit.
“I think the important thing is that you go all in no matter what you're going to do and ether it crumbles or they rise up, but you're going all in,” Campbell said. “You got to push your chips all the way in and you got to believe in it. And so we did. We applied a little pressure, players really responded, did a great job, and they brought it to life here on Sunday, man.”
Beating one of the worst teams in the NFL doesn’t solve all the Lions’ ills, but they played well enough Sunday – after another uninspiring first quarter – to believe the playoffs could be in their future again.
The Lions opened Sunday with three straight three-and-outs on offense and allowed a 14-play, 73-yard touchdown drive on Arizona’s first possession, then looked unstoppable for the final three quarters.
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They scored three touchdowns on fourth-down plays – Jared Goff threw touchdown passes of 38 yards to Sam LaPorta on fourth-and-1 and 8 yards to Jameson Williams on fourth-and-4 in the second quarter and added a 1-yard sneak on fourth-and-goal on the Lions’ second possession of the second half – and also got 151 yards rushing from Jahmyr Gibbs and averaged 7.8 yards per play on their seven scoring drives.
“It felt like Drew could call whatever he wanted, we were going to make it work,” Goff said of offensive coordinator Drew Petzing. “And I think today was a good example of, like I said, where we can go and what we’re capable of. I think I said it earlier last week, we’ve been good, right? And, like, today we were great. And still some things to be better at certainly, but today we kind of – ‘OK, that’s what we’re capable of.’
“It’s good to know that’s our standard now and we can hold guys accountable to what we just did today.”
The Lions have long had one of the NFL’s most talented offenses, even if things weren’t clicking as expected the first four weeks. They entered Sunday 20th in the league in rushing despite the presence of Gibbs, one of the NFL’s premier backs, and they hadn't scored an opening-drive touchdown all season.
But the bigger issue in their 2-2 start was a defense bereft of talent in the back seven that played scared and looked confused while hemorrhaging points against mediocre teams like the Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints and New York Jets.
On Sunday, the Lions took the fight to the Cardinals with sticky man-to-man defense and an aggressive pass rush. They played less zone coverage than they did the first four weeks and held Arizona to 12 yards on 12 plays on five possessions after its opening touchdown drive to built a 24-7 halftime lead.
Asked what he found promising about a defense that finished with five sacks and one interception, held the Cardinals to 56 yards rushing and did it all while juggling personnel in the back seven – rookie cornerback Keith Abney started at safety and had his first career pick on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half, and Devin White returned to the lineup at linebacker after a two-game absence before leaving late in the first quarter with a broken forearm – Campbell said, “I just love the pass defense.”
“I almost threw an F-bomb there,” Campbell said. “The PDs [pass deflections], man. We got our hands on some footballs, we knocked some footballs down. I didn’t feel like we were stressed. That’s good to see. … Just to get that many three-and-outs back-to-back-to-back, and then you answer offensively, man, that’s a – it’s the white squall. It’s the massive wave that's coming at you.”
Campbell acknowledged some of the Lions’ aggressiveness Sunday was gameplan related. The Cardinals played without their two best offensive linemen and have few downfield receiving threats.
But with NFC North games against the Green Bay Packers and Vikings after the bye and reinforcements coming in the form of Brian Branch at safety and Cade Mays at center, it’s imperative that wave keeps on coming.
Goff said he felt like the Lions got back to their identity Sunday, and cornerback Roger McCreary said the entire team played with better energy.
“I mean, I don’t think anyone can stop us when we’re playing like that, respectfully,” guard Christian Mahogany said. “And I mean, I think we kind of showed it out there today. Not think, we showed it out there today. So it feels good to go into a bye like this.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rout fuels Lions before bye: 'I don't think anyone can stop us'
