The Detroit Lions fell to the Carolina Panthers 32-26 on Sunday night in a particularly disheartening game. The team does not look like it has evolved or improved from week to week. The offense, while still a clear strength, is dealing with bouts of self-inflicted mistakes, leading to consistenetly inconsistent play. The defense is a complete disaster with no end in sight.
Here are my positional grades for the Lions’ Week 4 report card.
Quarterback: B
Jared Goff was fine for most of the night. There was obviously
a lot of pressure on his shoulders for most of the second half with the Lions down two scores, and he kept them competitive with steady plays and a couple of deep shots. However, his operation on the final drive was a disaster. He can’t take a coverage sack, he can’t miss Sam LaPorta by five feet, and it wasn’t much help to throw short of the sticks on fourth down either.
Unfortunately, Goff is in a position where he needs to play near-perfect ball to win the game, and on Sunday night, he didn’t.
Running backs: C-
Jahmyr Gibbs had his least effective game of the season, rushing for just 46 yards on 15 carries. He also had a critical drop on third down forced Detroit to settle for a field goal—something they just couldn’t afford to do in the middle of a shootout. Gibbs did find the end zone once, but he was more of a non-factor than expected against a Panthers defense that had struggled to stop the run.
Wide receivers: B-
Jameson Williams and Isaac TeSlaa had some huge plays in this game to help the Lions keep it close. However, Williams had a weird drop(?) early in the game, then had another critical drop that could’ve gotten the Lions out of a second-and-14 situation. It felt like a night of two steps forward, one step back for this unit. More good than bad, but some critical mistakes in critical moments.
Tight ends: B
Sam LaPorta was one of Detroit’s most potent weapons in this game, finishing with eight catches, 84 yards and a touchdown. Unfortunately, Brock Wright brings the unit’s grade down for his two penalties—a personal foul leg whip and a false start.
Offensive line: C
Pass protection was pretty solid, in general. Although, I thought the Lions could’ve handled blitzes a little better. What was more concerning was Detroit’s run blocking, which provided almost zero daylight for Gibbs. On top of that, the line was called for three false starts and two holding penalties (one declined).
Defensive line: B
Perhaps the most frustrating part of Sunday night’s defensive performance is that the defensive front didn’t let Bryce Young get comfortable all night. In total, they tallied 11 quarterback hits (all but one from the DL), three sacks, and a handful of TFLs. When it comes to the pass game, they held up their part of the bargain and more, but Bryce Young had the back seven in the palm of his hand. The Lions defense produced a 40.0% pressure rate (ninth best of the week) despite only blitzing 26.7% of the time (21st).
Unfortunately, I can’t even give the defensive line an A because the run defense completely fell apart in the second half. In the final two quarters alone, the Panthers tallied 93 rushing yards on just 18 carries (5.2 YPC).
Linebackers: F
Young’s use of RPO concepts had the Lions’ linebacker room in a tizzy all night. Their zone discipline was a disaster, their tackling was not on point, and the amount of wide open field over the middle was significantly the fault of poor depth from the linebackers. Just look at how much Young attacked the middle of the field:
Detroit tried to switch up personnel again, using rookie Jimmy Rolder a few times early in the game before realizing he wasn’t ready. But no one else stepped up, either.
Defensive backs: F
When the Lions play zone, the safeties are too late to break on the ball and the corners aren’t playing disciplined ball. When the Lions play man-coverage, the cornerbacks are getting toasted. Detroit is shuffling through schemes, personnel, and trying several different things, but when it comes to the question: what does this Lions secondary do well? I’m afraid the answer right now is nothing.
Special teams: B
Jake Bates was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goals and 2-for-2 on extra points. He was also excellent on kickoffs, landing every single one of them inside the 8-yard line and none in the end zone.
However, the Lions coverage and return units weren’t particularly good. Both Tom Kennedy and Jacob Saylors averaged less than 22 yards per kick return. Meanwhile, the Panthers averaged 25.5 on theirs.
Coaching: F
Let’s start with in-game management. Detroit had to burn a timeout early in the game after having too many men on the field. Then they burned a second timeout on a challenge that had little chance of succeeding. Late in the game, a delay of game (then false start) doomed a fourth down attempt. Not a terrible list of transgressions, but not great, either.
No, the coaching gets an ‘F’ this week for preparation and game-planning. On defense, I don’t know if there’s anything left to say. The team is far, far, far less than the sum of their parts on that side of the ball, and that falls directly on Kelvin Sheppard’s shoulders. And what’s particularly concerning is that coach Dan Campbell openly admitted they weren’t prepared for all the RPO looks they got early.
“To start the game, we didn’t do well enough in the coverage aspect. They had a couple of things in there, the RPOs that got us,” Campbell said. “They put your run-pass-hook defender in conflict there a little bit and he’s got such a quick release. That got us a little bit early.”
Detroit’s adjustment there was far too late, and as Campbell then pointed out, once they settled that down, the run defense levee broke. By now, the Lions defense should have an identity, an area of strength, or some sort of “bread and butter” concept they can fall back on. Instead, Lions defenders look as lost as ever, and I can’t point to a single thing the back seven is doing well consistently.
Then there’s the discipline on offense. Detroit racked up another nine penalties on Sunday night, most of which were of the pre-snap variety. Campbell took complete ownership of those mistakes after the game.
“The bottom line is I’m not getting that across. I’m not getting it done right now because it’s still happening, so I put that squarely on my shoulders—that I’m not getting it coached properly,” Campbell said. “I’m the one who’s going to get this fixed. I’m the one who is going to fix this whole discipline thing, whatever it takes.”
And if I can get a little nitpicky, offensive coordinator Drew Petzing deserves some heat for the final drive of the game. Detroit had plenty of time to mount a game-winning drive, but he got greedy. On second-and-7, Petzing dialed up a long-developing double-move to Jameson Williams—hoping to get a big chunk play. Instead, the Lions got the one thing they couldn’t afford: a sack. I know the Lions had hit on some deep shots earlier in the game, but that play reeked of desperation when they didn’t need to be in desperation mode. Detroit had plenty of time for some easier, shorter passes to methodically move down the field and get their late shots at the end zone.
