Coming off a shaky few weeks where the roar sounded more like an anxious and muffled purr, the Detroit Lions found their roar on Saturday night. The Lions roared to an impressive 42-17 win over the visiting Denver Broncos.
The defense deserves a lot of the credit for the team finding its mojo and successful stride. Even though the Detroit offense sputtered out of the gate, the defense was aggressive from the get-go. Two smart personnel changes by coordinator Aaron Glenn paid off from the opening drives. Safety Ifeatu Melifownu created a takeaway with a strip-sack on a gorgeous blitz, while cornerback Khalil Dorsey proved an upgrade in coverage at outside CB over Jerry Jacobs. A smartly conceived, aggressive defense bought time for Jared Goff and the offense to wake up.
And wake up they did! The Lions scored touchdowns on five straight offensive possessions spanning the second and third quarters and into the fourth. The drives covered 80, 61, 81, 75 and 75 yards, with Goff playing some of his best ball of the season.
The run game worked quite well, with Jahmyr Gibbs (100 yards on 11 carries) and David Montgomery (85 on 17) finding considerable success all night. Sam LaPorta scored three touchdowns, setting all sorts of franchise rookie marks with a big bounce-back game. Jameson Williams (four catches for 47 yards) had his first game with more than two catches in his NFL career. His early involvement in forms other than being a straight deep threat really opened things up for Goff, who was largely outstanding after some early yips.
Goff finished 24-of-34 with 259 yards and five touchdowns. He protected the ball well, not turning the ball over and even nicely holding on during a potential strip-sack. Amon-Ra St. Brown also broke out of a mini-slump with a seven-catch, 112-yard game.
The confidence from Dan Campbell’s team was tangible. It was the first time in several weeks that the Lions played like they believed they were the better team. And they proved they were, emphatically.
The Lions improve to 10-4 while the Broncos, losers for just the second time since Week 6, fall to 7-7.