They got lucky. Not to mention outplayed. Give the Detroit Lions credit for barely holding on, I suppose, to beat the New Orleans Saints, 31-30, in overtime.
Because in the NFL, a win is a win is a win, right?
And you'll hear that from the coaches and the players. One and zero is better than zero and one, especially with the mighty Buffalo Bills now on the clock – in Buffalo. A 0-2 start in the NFL doesn't technically end a team's playoff hopes – but it makes getting there difficult, and frankly, unlikely.
In that way, the Lions put their season in jeopardy in the opener at Ford Field on Sunday, Sept. 13. And they did it to themselves.
They also put their season in the hands
of the young and hungry Saints, who lined up for a 2-point conversion in overtime that would've given the Lions a crushing loss if they'd converted.
Instead, Tyler Shough's pass to the corner sailed just over the hands of Bryce Lance. The Lions rushed onto the field relieved, no doubt .
They should also be worried, because it didn't have to be this way, despite a shoddy second-half performance on defense; the Saints scored 24 points in the third and fourth quarters alone, and Shough finished the game with 410 yards.
Yes, he needed 56 attempts to get there. But let's be serious, New Orleans' second-year quarterback – and receiver Chris Olave – shredded the Lions secondary.
And yet, it wouldn't have mattered so much if not for the drops.
There were too many, and by the same receiver – Jameson Williams.
He won't do this every game – at least the Lions hope not. But he might do it again at some point, as he dropped too many passes a year ago, too.
The first drop came on the Lions' third drive, early in the second quarter. They were up 7-0. On second-and-15, Goff dropped back and feathered a ball some 40 yards down the field. Williams had the entire secondary beat. The pass dropped into his hands. He dropped it, and a likely touchdown.
He later dropped a pass that would've converted a third down. The most disheartening came on a double reverse, when Goff faked a handoff to Gibbs and then tossed it to Williams who was sprinting from the other side of the field.
He bobbled it, dropped it, recovered it, and managed a few forward yards before being tackled, but he lost yards on the play. If he'd held on, he had room to run. Not for a score, but at least for a first down, and probably more.
The loss of momentum seemed to stun the offense, and kind of stunted it for the rest of the first half.
Williams made partial amends when he caught a 22-yard deep out during the Lions' drive in overtime. That gave Detroit first-and-goal from the 5.
But the Lions wouldn't have needed overtime if he'd held on to a couple of balls in the first half.
The dicey ending wasn't just at the feet – or hands – of Williams. The offense couldn't move the ball in the second half when a single score would've put the game away. And the defense couldn't get a stop when it had to.
Checking in with OC Drew Petzold
New offensive coordinator Drew Petzing likes to run the ball. He likes tight ends. The first was easy to tell in his Lions debut. The second, not so much – not that Jared Goff didn't look for Sam LaPorta.
It's just the Saints did a good job taking the middle of the field away, and not just for LaPorta. Amon-Ra St. Brown didn't have much room at times, either.
But then who are we kidding? The Lions have too much skill to blow a 21-point lead with just under nine minutes left in the third quarter.
To that point, their defense had stuffed the Saints into a phone booth offensively, collapsing the pocket on almost every down, harassing Shough and sacking him three times through the first 2½ quarters.
It changed slowly at first, then suddenly, when Olave got behind D.J. Reed while Shough scrambled to his right to extend the play; he lofted it down the field to Olave for 47 yards.
That loosened things up for the Saints, and eight plays later, they finally got on the scoreboard. Still, it was 21-7, and the Lions already had scored twice in the third quarter and seemed to have found a bit of offensive rhythm.
Turns out all they'd done is take advantage of relatively short fields, after Derrick Barnes' interception on the first play of the second half, and after Roger McCreary strip-sacked Shough to give the Lions the ball at New Orleans' 25.
And when they got the ball after the Saints scored the first time, they punted after gaining 5 yards. They managed 18 yards on their next possession before punting, after New Orleans scored again to make it 21-14, and when the Saints took over with a chance to tie, Ford Field got real quiet.
The Saints moved down the field again, into the red zone, and a heaviness settled over the proceedings. The Lions stiffened up and forced a field goal and when they got the ball back, gave it to Gibbs.
He ran for 15, then for 8, then for 3, and the Saints helped the cause with a couple of personal fouls.
The drive stalled inside the 10-yard-line, though, after a holding call turned a 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard-line to a 1st-and-goal from the 11-yard-line. The Lions kicked a field goal.
It felt like an own goal, as it were, a blown chance – again – to ice the game. And yet, they'll take it, and should take, even as there is much to work on, and not much time.
The Lions have a date with Buffalo in four days. Josh Allen will be waiting.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions' Jameson Williams won't have a drop problem all season, right?
