The day after our beloved Detroit Lions smacked an epic beat down on the New England Patriots, I woke up Monday morning asking myself a question: did that really happen, or was it all just a dream? Thankfully, ESPN and numerous other services were there to assure me that I didn’t concoct the events of Sunday evening in my head. It wasn’t a dream, and it actually did happen.
But, a few new questions have popped up in my head: what did the events of Sunday evening actually mean? Are the Patriots that bad? Had the first two weeks of the season been an apparition, and our Lions are here to stay? We won’t be able to begin answering those questions until this Sunday, but in the meantime, we can dissect what went right for the Lions on Sunday evening. Here are my three biggest takeaways:
1. Return of the running game
Hello, Kerryon Johnson. It’s nice to see ya! For the first time in 70 games (that’s almost five years in football time), the Lions can boast a 100 yard rusher. Johnson ran for 101 yards on only 16 carries, good for an average of 6.31 yards per carry. His longest run of the evening was only 15 yards, as well, meaning that the average isn’t inflated by one long run that skewed his numbers.
While it’s all well and good to talk about the efficiency of Johnson in the run game, we can’t forget to mention the job that the offensive line did as well. As well as giving Matthew Stafford as much time as he could ask for in the pocket (he was only hit one time all evening), they did a terrific job of giving Johnson and LeGarrette Blount room to run. Lost in the mix is the fact that Blount also ran for 48 yards on 16 carries, while doing the bulk of his damage in the fourth quarter.
2. Defense, defense, defense
No matter who the opponent is, if you hold them to just 70 yards in the first half, you’re doing something right. At the end of the game, if that opponent finishes with just 209 yards, you again know that you’ve done something right. The Lions defense held Tom Brady to just 133 passing yards, and the Patriots only ran for 89 yards as a team. The Patriots were also held to just two conversions on third down.
Detroit was able to sack “TB12” twice (both sacks from Eli Harold), and hit him a total of six times. Without Ziggy Ansah in the lineup for the second consecutive week, the Lions have still managed to produce a ton of pressure of quarterbacks.
Rob Gronkowski was double and even triple-teamed throughout the evening, limiting his production to just 51 receiving yards on four catches. Brady was rarely allowed time in the pocket, and when he was able to find some time, he was unable to find open receivers downfield. Darius Slay‘s interception in the fourth quarter was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for the Patriots.
3. A full four quarter effort
We’ve seen it numerous times in the past. The Lions have a perplexing tendency to take their foot off the gas pedal late in games in which they have a lead. You can’t tell me that I’m the only one who was sitting back and waiting for the lead to slowly evaporate. It’s just what we have been trained to expect. But this time, it simply never happened. The Lions dominated this game on both sides of the ball practically from the time it started until the time it was officially over. The Patriots were forced to go three-and-out on each of their first two drives, and never really fell into any kind of a groove the entire evening. While it remains to be seen if this is actually the Lions team that we can expect to see every week moving forward, it sure was fun to watch a full four quarter effort for a game.
