Week 14 2018, Detroit Lions @ Arizona Cardinals

Record.

The 5-8 Detroit Lions win this game against the 3-10 Arizona Cardinals 17-3. There was a record set in the game, and there was nearly a 2nd one as well (more on this later).

Matthew Stafford was 15 of 23 (65.22%) for a measly 101 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. There was 142 yards rushing by 4 players after the offensive line was able to run block better then half the time (usually on the left side, not very often at all on the right side). CB Slay ran an interception back for a touchdown, and Zach Zenner ran in the other TD. There were a number of injuries as well, but somehow the Lions managed to pull off a win. The Cardinals rookie QB Josh Rosen was 26 of 41 (63.41%) for 240 yards with no touchdowns and the pick six. The Lions run defense held the Cards to 61 total rushing yards, a task they've been doing well lately since the trade for "snacks" Harrison.

NFL.com had these items on their site... "Darius Slay reached 21.29 MPH on his 67-yard INT return for TD, the 2nd-fastest speed reached by a ball carrier on an defensive return for TD this season." and "Larry Fitzgerald has passed Jerry Rice (1,281 with SF) for the most receptions with a single team in NFL history."

The Lions next play the 4-9 Buffalo Bills in New York. It won't be easy playing back to back road games, but at least they will be playing a team with a worse record, not that means anything this year really. Still, I expect the Lions to manage a win, as the Bills are in the Patriots division and thus Lions head coach Patricia should know a lot about most of their team and how to play them. The Packers also won today so the Lions remain at the bottom of the NFC North division.

It's still too early, but the Lions, despite the win, are looking at a top 10 draft pick... maybe. Depends on what happens the next 3 weeks. It also depends on the record of the other bottom teams in the league.

Week 13, 2018 - Detroit Lions versus the LA Rams @ Home

The Bright Side

The 4-8 Detroit Lions lose this one easily to the powerhouse 11-1 LA Rams at home. The entire NFC North lost their games today, in fact the Packers just fired their head coach after their loss to the Cardinals, so there is a little bit of a bright side, but not much. The Lions now have the same number of wins as the Packers, but they also have the same number of wins as the Buffalo Bills, so there is that.

Matthew Stafford was 20 of 33 (60.6%) for 245 yards with a touchdown and an interception and a fumble. Four runners rushed for a total of 102 yards (2 of them by Stafford) on 26 run plays. So the offense ran 34 pass plays (one by the WR Ellington) and 26 run plays on offense. There where a couple of failed on-side kicks and a few other trick plays, some that worked, some that didn't. But there were still a few times the offense ran their old plays and the Rams defense seemed to know exactly what was going to happen. Now the Lions defense allowed Goff to complete only 17 passes on 33 attempts (51.51%) for 207 yards a touchdown and an interception and a fumble. So Stafford did 3 more completions, had 38 more yards and everything else was basically the same. Or you could say the defenses allowed the opposing QB to do pretty much the same. But wait, the Lions defense also allowed 149 rushing yards by four different guys and 2 rushing touchdowns. This game came down to the Lions rushing defense and Todd Gurley for the Rams. Stafford and the Lions offense could not produce enough to overcome it. It could even be argued they contributed to the loss simply due to the OL not being able to keep Donald (and to a much lesser extent, Ndamakong Suh) out of the Lions backfield. It was not really a fun game to watch, unless you are a Donald/Suh fan... or a Gurley fan. According to NFL.COM "The Rams are 23-11 since 2015 when Todd Gurley scores a TD. They are 9-13 when Gurley doesn’t score. "

So far the Lions haven't fired any coaches, but they could and it wouldn't surprise me. I doubt they will though, simply because it's Patricia's first year and you don't expect the team to do great in the year of a new head coach... well, you do if it's Caldwell you hire, and he delivers, but this new head coach is thus far unable to deliver. (By deliver I mean a winning season, not necessarily a playoff win). The Lions could win all four of their remaining games and still only end up at 8 and 8, so no winning season this year (in case you are keeping track).

This blog post is called "the bright side"... so what is this bright side? Well, as of right now, if the draft were to be held based on the current record, the Lions would be drafting 7th overall. Not in every round, as there are 4 other teams with a 4 and 8 record, but we don't need to go there just yet, since there are still 4 more games left to play. Well, I went there, but 'we' don't need to. We can look at the next game instead. The Lions will be heading to the desert to play the 3-9 Arizona Cardinals (the team that just beat the Packers in Lambeau Field to get their head coach fired). We shall see if the Lions can do better then the Packers did. That's fun, right?

One more item on the bright side... the Lions only play one more game against a team with a winning record (at present)... so maybe their new coaching staff can get them all the way to 7-9 this year. Okay, maybe it's not all that bright, but I haven't much to work with here, so I do what needs must (or whatever that quote should be).