Instead of treats, it was all tricks to the loyal fans this Halloween in the shameful excuse of a performance from the Detroit Lions.
In a week where most thought the Lions could get their first win of the season, they were embarrassed to a 44-6 beatdown by the Philadelphia Eagles. In every facet of the imagination, the Lions got outplayed and outcoached to their worst performance this season, and they picked a wrong time to do it.
Coming off a loss to the Los Angles Rams where they were not far behind in upsetting the potential Super Bowl-bound team, and how much heat for a poor start was surrounding the Eagles, this was as a good time as any to head to their bye week fresh off their first victory. Now in their week off, they get to get a long hard look in the mirror in figuring out how to get this winless monkey off their back and bounce back after this cringe-worthy performance.
Typically, I could find some worthy performances from the Lions losses, but there is no player worth earning a slot in the stud category this week, leaving me with a bunch of duds to sort out.
Jared Goff continues to show why the Rams were so happy to ship him off to Detroit. Between the zeroing in on targets and 12 step dropbacks, he is wound to the Lions offense that continues to bleed out. The Lions tried to simply this offense for him, and yes, he doesn’t have that many weapons, but good quarterbacks make the players around him better, and right now, he is epically failing. Also, when you throw it away on a fourth down, you deserve to get criticized.
On the flip side, the offensive line came him no favors. You could have put turnstiles out there, and they would’ve provided better performances. The pass protection gave up five sacks. Some of it was on Goff, but the line was getting demolished. Today was a day to open up the run game, and the lineman was getting blown and pushed back, leaving RB D’Andre Swift with one of his worst games this season, especially after accounting for his fumble-six (to ex-Lion Darius Slay).
The front seven had zero answers to the Eagles rushing attack giving up 236 yards on 5.1 yards per attempt while giving up four touchdowns on top of it. It felt like the Eagles rusher was getting at least five yards before he was even touched. The Eagles only threw the ball a total of 16 times. Detroit could not muster any pressure, and if they did, containment would break and end up giving up a massive gain on the ground to QB Jalen Hurts.
The question heading into this week was who would play slot if AJ Parker was a no-go this week, and regrettably, we got that answer, and it was one that made everyone cry. Will Harris has been probably the worst safety in the league, and whoever decided it was a good idea to put him there should rethink those choices. In one particular play, he came clean off a corner blitz, and he hesitated and lost every bit of momentum, allowing Jalen Hurts to rush for the first down. So if Parker is unable to go after the bye week, please, for all that is good in this world, do not put Harris in his place.
I could probably go all day on how bad of an all-around performance this week on every level, from the coaching to the players. They were ill-prepared this week, and it showed with a vanilla offense that reminds you of a preseason game and a porous defense. Thankfully, the Lions have the week off this coming week.