Week 9, 2019 Detroit Lions @ Oakland Raiders

Too Many Mistakes (again)

The 3-4-1 Detroit Lions made too many mistakes (again) and lost to the 4-4 Oakland Raiders with a score of 24-31. In a weekend that saw all the division rivals also lose their matches, the Lions couldn't help themselves with a win to gain on all 3 of the NFC North teams.

Matthew Stafford was 26 of 41 (63.41%) for 406 yards, 3 TDs and 1 (costly) INT (in the end zone early in the game) and one fumble. The ground game managed to rush for 90 yards between 5 individuals and got no TDs.

The defense allowed Derek Carr to go 20 of 31 (64.52%) for 290 yards 2 TDs and no INT. The Lions defense also allowed the Raiders to rush for 171 yards and 2 more TDs.

There were penalties for too many men on the field by the Lions. False starts. Holding and interference calls. So many it's hard to remember them all. The fumble was during a hand off from Stafford to McKissic, who appeared to me to be looking where to go instead of focusing on securing the football, but the QB always gets the stat on handoffs and maybe it was his fault, but whoever did it it still counts as a mistake by the Lions. The INT by Stafford was a jump ball to Golladay who usually does come down with those but this time he was outside and the ball was just a bit inside, of course Golladay landed out of bounds so me thinks he was too far outside to begin with, which means the ball was more or less on target... but I don't want to appear to be excusing Stafford's play, as there were plenty of other throws that were not quite where they needed to be (and even more that were spot on). Regardless of who is to blame, Stafford made too many mistakes... the OL made too many mistakes... the entire defense made too many mistakes... but the officials only made a couple which was a nice change.

There is no way I could pick one thing that made it so the Lions lost this game, other then to say the obvious, too many mistakes (again). Seems to be a theme this year. Anyway, the Lions had a perfect opportunity to gain ground in the division but didn't lose any ground instead with the rest of the division also losing, still when you got 4 games to make up you can't afford to make these mistakes... especially with half the season already gone.

The Lions now travel to Chicago to play the 3-5 Bears. The Lions can no longer afford to lose any game (in my opinion) so they better figure out how to focus and make fewer mistakes from here on out, or the season will be lost in November (again).