Let’s hand out some Detroit Lions positional grades for their 41-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night. It’s our Week 2 report card.
Quarterback: A
One of the major tragedies of Thursday night was that Jared Goff was on an absolute heater against the Bills. And this isn’t just box score scouting (327 yards, 4 TDs, 130.0 passer rating). All night, Goff did his best managing pressure in the pocket, throwing under duress, and threading the needle on several passes. His final touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown
was legitimately jaw-dropping. A shame many had already, understandably, turned the television off.
At the end of the day, Goff finished with a +6.7% completion percentage above expected while averaging 9.0 air yards per attempt. He did everything he could to make Thursday less embarrassing.
Running back: B
Jahmyr Gibbs had a tough night running the ball, but it’s hard to fault him when he was often getting hit before reaching the line of scrimmage. He often made the first guy miss, but the Bills were swarming him all night.
That said, Gibbs was extremely effective as a receiver against Buffalo. Gibbs finished with six catches for 61 yards and a touchdown. It finally feels like that part of his game is expanding, and it pulled the Lions out of a lot of holes on Thursday night.
Sione Vaki was mostly a non-factor, but he turned his two touches into 20 yards and was a better pass protector than last week.
Tight ends: B
Sam LaPorta continues to look more and more like himself, finishing this game with six catches, 52 yards, and a touchdown.
Unfortunately, the rest of the tight end crew drags the position’s grade down. Brock Wright had a tough night, although he certainly wasn’t put in the most advantageous positions (one-on-one vs. Greg Rousseau? What are we doing here?).
Wide receivers: A-
I have no real complaints about the Lions’ receiving corps. Once the Lions made a concerted effort to get Amon-Ra St. Brown involved, he torched the Bills’ secondary. Jameson Williams caught a pair of 15+ yard gains. Even Isaac TeSlaa got on the stat sheet, finally, including a fourth-and-18 conversion.
I’m sure the Lions would’ve liked to get these players even more involved than they were, but unfortunately, Jared Goff didn’t have time. That’s because…
Offensive line: D
… the offensive line was abysmal on Thursday night.
In the run game, the Bills posted a ridiculous 45% stuffed rate—meaning nearly half of Detroit’s runs were stopped for 0 yards or less.
In the pass game, the Lions allowed four sacks, 11 quarterback hits, and 22 pressures, per PFF. Backup right tackle Larry Borom was the worst offender, surrendering seven pressures. Detroit’s other backups (Ben Bartch, 4; Juice Scruggs, 2) didn’t fare a ton better.
Defensive line: D
While he may have lacked some discipline in the run game, Aidan Hutchinson was largely the only player who provided any sort of spark to the Lions’ defense. He was responsible for six of the Lions’ 24 pressures, one of the two sacks, and two of the eight quarterback hits.
Outside of that, not much good was happening up front. Rushing lanes were massive for James Cook. There was no gap integrity when it came to keeping Josh Allen in the pocket. When anyone got close to Allen, they failed to make a play.
The front is still the haven for most hope for this defense, as they still are producing a fair amount of pressure, but this was not their best day.
Linebackers: F
The Bills offense puts more stress on the linebackers than any other position, and Detroit was simply not up for the challenge. There were miscommunications in run defense (with multiple players playing single gaps), terrible discipline in zone coverages, and a ton of biting on play-action or misdirection plays.
It’s easy to see this reflected in the box score, where the Bills put up 203 rushing yards, 5.6 yards per carry, and the Bills tight ends were responsible for nine catches, 100 yards, and two touchdowns.
Secondary: F
There were plenty of questions about this secondary going into the season, and yet they are failing to meet even those low expectations. The little bit of optimism came from the fact that they were entrusting veterans Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox to hold down the safety spots with Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph sidelined. These were assignment-sound, experienced players and expert communicators who would ensure there were no coverage busts.
To say they failed their job on Thursday night would be a massive understatement. Detroit’s back end rarely seemed on the same page, and when they were, they weren’t making the plays anyways. They had a single pass defended all night.
I also think the secondary was largely responsible for the step back in the run game, as well, as their run fits were not particularly clean either.
D.J. Reed is doing alright, though.
Special teams: C-
Special teams was a non-factor in this game, as neither team was much interested in punting or kicking field goals. Detroit did give up a big punt return to Greg Dortch, though.
Coaching: D
I’ll start by saying that I’m still somewhat encouraged by Drew Petzing and the offense. I see well-designed plays, good route concepts, and a team that has been nearly perfect in the red zone through two weeks (7-of-9). I am extremely annoyed by his tendency to run the ball on second-and-long, and that got the Lions in trouble a couple of times on Thursday night, but—comparatively speaking—he’s doing fine.
The defense is an absolute mess. The Lions can’t play zone coverage. They can’t play man coverage. They have trouble disguising coverages, and they can’t beat teams just playing teams straight up.
This appears to be a very clear case of trying to do too much when the personnel just isn’t capable of it right now. On one hand, I like the audacity. This defense needed some shaking up and fresh ideas. But it feels like Kelvin Sheppard is throwing everything at this defense, and it’s clearly overwhelming them mentally. He needs to take a long look at the two weeks of tape, find something promising that this team does, and lean into that. Because it feels like they think they are much more dynamic as a defense than they actually are.
September football is for making mistakes and fixing them. But the defense is making far more mental mistakes than is acceptable right now, so Detroit better use this mini-bye productively
