Category: NFL

Same result as last week in one sense: another close-ish final score. Everything else about how it felt was worse.

Detroit went into Buffalo already missing pieces up front, with two starting offensive linemen out and both starting safeties unavailable. Josh Allen and the Bills offense made that count immediately. Buffalo scored on their first three drives and it was 21-0 before the Lions ran a single successful play that mattered. By halftime it was 27-10.

Watching it live, the offense looked like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be early on. Goff started spreading throws to whoever was open, then within a series or two it was back to feeding Gibbs almost by reflex, like the play-calling defaulted to its most comfortable answer instead of what the defense was actually giving up. Gibbs finished with just 52 yards on 16 carries on the ground, which tells you Buffalo had that answer scouted and Detroit kept asking the question anyway for a stretch.

The second half was a different team. Once Goff started living through Jameson Williams, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Sam LaPorta instead of forcing the ground game, Detroit actually outscored Buffalo 21-14 the rest of the way. St. Brown finished with 142 yards and two touchdowns, Goff ended the night 327 yards and four touchdown passes, and for about a quarter and a half it looked like a real comeback instead of garbage-time stat padding.

Then the defense gave up 41 points, for the second straight week after allowing 30 to the Saints. Two straight games of that is a pattern, not a blip. And it’s happening with the two starting safeties already out and the offensive line already missing two starters, which is exactly the kind of situation where thin depth turns a bad week into a genuinely ugly one. Allen finished with 317 total yards and five total touchdowns and the Bills converted 9 of 12 third downs. Detroit’s defense was beaten and gassed, on the field almost the entire night.

Final: Bills 41, Lions 31. A game the offense nearly stole back in the fourth quarter, and a defense that made that theft necessary in the first place.

Jets come to Ford Field next. Plenty of time to figure out who’s walking through that door to help the back end of this defense, though at this point I’m not holding my breath.

Full disclosure up front: I’m not a football theory guy. I couldn’t diagram a cover-2 if you paid me. I watch as a casual fan who likes the Lions, yells at the TV a little, and moves on with my day. So take these as impressions, not analysis.

Sunday’s game against the Saints was a weird one to sit through, because Detroit won 31-30 and it still didn’t feel like a win.

The first half and change went about how you’d hope. Detroit built a 21-0 lead through the third quarter on two Jahmyr Gibbs rushing touchdowns and a Jared Goff touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown, and the Saints hadn’t put a point on the board yet. This is the part of the game I actually enjoyed watching.

Then it fell apart. New Orleans scored on four straight possessions, a touchdown, another touchdown, a field goal, and a third touchdown, to erase the entire lead and tie the game at 24 with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter. A 21-0 lead turned into a tie game that fast. Their quarterback finished with 410 passing yards on the day, which is a number that should not be possible against a defense that also racked up five sacks and two interceptions. Both things happened in the same game.

Detroit did answer. Goff found St. Brown again for a short touchdown to make it 31-24 with barely a minute on the clock, which should have sealed it. Instead the Saints marched right back down and scored again to make it 31-30, then went for the two-point conversion and the win instead of the extra point and overtime. The pass fell incomplete, and that’s the game.

So Detroit wins by one point after giving up 30 unanswered and needing the Saints to miss a two-point try to close it out. The Lions also lost the total yardage battle, 369 to 469, and Detroit held the ball for five more minutes than New Orleans did while still surrendering nearly 500 yards. None of that shows up in the final score, but it’s exactly why the game felt like it did.

I know a win is a win, and I’m sure there are Lions fans out there right now telling me to stop complaining about a victory. Fair. But if you were watching live, you know exactly the feeling I mean: that slow drain where a comfortable laugher turns into a nail-biter you didn’t ask for, and by the end you’re relieved more than happy.

On to Buffalo tonight.