Third quarter
The Lions defense nicely holds on the opening drive, but the special teams fail. Oakland pulls off a really well-designed fake punt, a direct snap to the upback and then a handoff to the TE crossing. It’s a huge gain and the Raiders drive continues. Good call and execution by the Raiders.
The defense again holds. Da’Shawn Hand and Harrison are winning consistently up front. Devon Kennard killed a stretch run with excellent edge leverage. The Raiders miss a 45-yard FG attempt and the Lions safely dodge a bullet.
Detroit answers impressively. Or rather, Stafford and McKissic do in spite of some dreadful OL play. It’s the worst sustained drive I’ve seen all year from Ragnow at center, and Dahl continues to struggle badly at left guard. The gap between Decker and Dahl is a major issue and the Raiders smartly keep picking at the open scab. Yet Stafford makes a couple of phenomenal deliveries under pressure, notably a 3rd-and-13 connection with Jones in a very tight throwing window. Prater kicks the short FG after the drive sputters in the red zone and we’re tied at 17.
The Lions defense is almost exclusively playing zone coverage now and it’s helping. Slay and Coleman both seem more comfortable and it’s playing to Moore’s strength. And just as I start to feel good about the coverage, Carr whistles a beauty throw over Davis and in front of Harris, who is very late to react to the play. Marcell Ateman, one of the slowest WRs in the league, gets wide open down the middle for a 34-yard reception.
Harris gets hit with an iffy DPI call in the end zone two plays later. He did make contact with Zay Jones before the ball was there but he was playing the ball. Forutnately it’s offset by Incognito doing what he does best, earning an idiotic unnecessary roughness call for losing his temper. The game is definitely taking the feel of which team is trying harder to lose than to win.
Fourth quarter
Carr capitalizes against a 2-man rush from the 2-yard line, hitting TE Foster Moreau between Kennard and Christian Jones in coverage on the first play of the fourth quarter. Easy money for the Raiders. Harris nearly blocks the extra point with a great diving effort but the Raiders go up 24-17,
After an underwhelming Agnew return that was partially ruined by Jalen Reeves-Maybin completely whiffing on a block, the Lions offensive line is once again behind the 8-ball. Stafford delivers another outstanding small-window throw to Danny Amendola, who has been quiet all game. He follows that with a crazy play that moves the ball into Raiders territory.
Stafford stepped up nicely to dodge the pressure and he’s locked into Golladay. It’s not a good throw but Golladay somehow reaches way out and plucks it from the air while also being interfered with. It’s only DPI because Stafford’s throw is that far off from where it’s expected, but Worley never looks for it. Golladay gets up slowly after two Raiders have a full-speed collision with one another tackling him and he takes some grazing fire as a result.
Dahl’s miserable game continues. He can’t sustain a block and Johnson gets washed asunder a wave of Raiders. The WR blocks on this play were also poor, contributing to the loss. Johnson runs squarely into Decker’s rump on the next run and it’s 3rd-and-10. The Lions are wasting chances by running here and that’s not lost on the broadcast crew.
Then again, the next play proves why passing is perilous. An unblocked Benson Mayowa blisters around the edge and forces Stafford into a rushed incompletion. Mayowa lands on Stafford after the play and No. 9 is slow to get up and even slower to walk back to set for the next play.
The walking wounded context matters greatly here. It’s 4th-and-10 from the Oakland 39 with 11 minutes to play, Golladay, Stafford and Decker are all very beaten up and showing it. Coach Patricia elects to punt instead of trying to go for it or kick the long Prater FG.
Moore screws up the chance to pin the Raiders deep. Sam Martin’s punt bounces inside the five but Moore ran out of bounds in coverage. He shows awareness by not trying to down it himself but his teammates all eased off because they assumed he had it. Rough play.
Flowers singlehandedly forces a quick punt. On 1st down he blows up the trap block and helps Wilson tackle Jacobs at the line of scrimmage. Flowers instantly diagnoses the screen on 2nd down and would have had an easy pick-6 if Carr threw a better pass. He then sacks Carr on 3rd down deep in Raiders territory. It’s a 4-man rush and a bit of a coverage sack but Flowers still dominated his man.
Next comes another play that doesn’t scream out in the box score but shows the lack of attention to detail that costs the Lions. They set up for a punt return with Agnew deep. But he’s too deep and doesn’t even try to come up for a shorter punt. It takes a Raiders bounce and costs the Lions about 13 yards of field position. He could not have caught it cleanly but fielding it (admittedly dangerous) on the first hop would have saved at least 10 yards.
Stafford misses Amendola on the first pass against good coverage and Amendola stays down with an injured arm. He missed time earlier with the same injury.
The next play is sheer waste. Three tight ends in the game (Crosby as an extra), one WR split wide left. Stafford rolls right by design. There is nobody out in a route for him to throw to on that side of the field. The QB strolls out of bounds after a short gain. Logan Thomas was the only Lion down the field on the play and he was blocking the whole time. Weird, weird call.
A misfire to a well-covered Hockenson forces another punt, this one from the Oakland 42. Martin’s punt is not a good one and the Raiders take over at the 26. A 16-yard net punt is not what Patricia wanted from not going for it on 4th-and-3 inside Raiders territory.
In keeping with the theme of each team trying to lose more than they’re efforting victory, the Raiders come out with two obvious interior runs that do nothing. They’re both so obvious that Davis is waiting in the hole for the runner. On 3rd down, Carr bobbles a bad snap and then rolls right with his receivers designed to go left. He thinks the better of throwing on the run into triple coverage, instead hitting the side judge in the head with a throwaway, and the Lions force a quick 3-and-out.
Agnew finally comes through on the punt return by coaxing fair catch interference. It’s a shaky call but Agnew sold it well and the official threw the flag after a lengthy conference.
A nicely designed TE screen to Hockenson sets up the Lions in Raiders territory and Stafford capitalized after a couple of well-blocked runs, including an end-around to Marvin Hall. Stafford hits McKissic on a corner route where he burned old friend Tahir Whitehead in coverage. Touchdown Lions! Prater’s extra point ties the game at 24 with 5:16 to play.
Carr gets incredibly lucky with his first throw. It’s a softball that even Kellen Moore would think lacks mustard, but it somehow feathers into RB Jalen Richard between Slay (on the outside WR) and Jones (in trail technique and not really beaten) in coverage on a wheel route. This is perhaps the worst throw I’ve seen completed all year.
Davis badly misplays the Richard inside run on the next rep. He winds up flying several yards past the point of attack and what should have been a stop for a very small gain instead goes for seven yards. The Lions are in 4-2-5 scheme here with Davis and Jones at LB and Kennard playing with a hand in the dirt. Even worse, the Raiders run the exact same play on the very next snap and Davis once again overruns the exact same point of attack.
Carr drops back to pass and the Lions bring six rushers. Throwing a can of corn while effectively sprinting backwards to avoid the blitz, Carr somehow finds Richard on a shallow cross. Richard flat-out drags Harris an extra 15 yards to get inside the Lions 10. It only counts as one missed tackle but Harris blew it at least three times. Embarrassing.
Carr scrambles to his left as the Lions get good pressure (Kennard and Romeo Okwara off the ends) and finds Renfrow in the front corner of the end zone for the TD. As hilariously awful as his above throws were, this one from Carr is a rifle shot on the money. The extra point puts Oakland up by seven with under 2:00 to play.
The Lions march down the field with Stafford in full control in the 2-minute drill. A defensive hold helps. A missed deep shot to Golladay probably draws pass interference if it’s certain other QBs making the throw, but alas.
The play after that is a frustrating one. Stafford finds Hockenson over the middle and squeezes it in. As the rookie TE is making the catch he gets hammered in the head. No call. It’s a textbook foul for hitting a defenseless receiver in the head and now Hockenson is out. Easy ejection call in college football, but nothing here. Sigh.
The Lions lose Golladay a few plays later when he gets pinned between two defenders trying to make a catch inside the OAK 10. This one does draw a flag, but No. 19 is now out too. The Raiders were also penalized for roughing Stafford on the play when Arden Key slammed him to the ground after the throw, landing with his full weight on Stafford’s back.
Stafford comes up short on a scramble attempt on 1st down and is sacked on 2nd down when he trips over Decker’s foot. After burning the last timeout, Stafford calmly delivers a perfect strike in stride to Logan Thomas, but the big TE gets dropped at the 1-yard line. Oakland calls timeout to set their defense for the 4th-down play.
The Lions go jumbo package. No WRs, three TEs, Nick Bawden at FB and Johnson deep in the I-formation. Both Thomas and Jesse James do a terrible job of selling the run, the Raiders do not bite. Stafford, under duress, throws a jump ball to Thomas that gets broken up. Ballgame.
Again, for context, Hockenson and Golladay are out injured. Amendola has been playing on this drive but isn’t moving his injured arm at all. Jones has been playing wounded most of the game. That doesn’t excuse this call or execution, but it provides some necessary background for what OC Darrell Bevell might have been thinking.
Good games
- Kenny Golladay
- Marvin Jones
- Damon Harrison
- Trey Flowers
- T.J. Hockenson (mostly)
- Tavon Wilson
- Darius Slay (mostly)
Bad games
- Jarrad Davis in what might be the worst game for any LB I’ve ever seen
- Jahlani Tavai
- Will Harris, challenging Davis for the worst outing by any Lions defender to this point this season
- Joe Dahl
- Taylor Decker (mostly in run blocking)
- Jamal Agnew (mostly)
- Anyone rushing the passer not named Trey Flowers
This wound up being Stafford’s last hurrah for 2019 and it was a typical 2019 outing for No. 9: occasionally brilliant, often very good, sporadically lousy. It’s hard to know exactly where the back injury occurred; the broadcast made no mention of it. Key’s roughing penalty and the twisting blow he took on the sack later were not pretty to watch in hindsight.
Overall this was a maddening game to watch. Punting twice inside Raiders territory when within a score proved costly. Bad tackling and truly atrocious middle-of-field defense from the 2nd and 3rd round rookies (and Davis) was even more costly. Oakland did not play well either, but they put the shovel down before the Lions did in digging their own graves.