The Detroit Lions were trending in the right direction entering this afternoon’s tilt at Ford Field against the Indianapolis Colts. They’d improved their record to 3-3 following last week’s improbable come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Falcons, and were in prime position to improve above the .500 mark for the first time in 2020.
However, the Colts had other ideas.
Philip Rivers and the rest of his Indianapolis teammates carved up the Lions defense en route to a 41-21 win, improving to 5-2 on the year while dropping Detroit back to a game under the .500 mark.
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For center Frank Ragnow, it’s personal.
“A lot of things, really come down to us, whether it’s starting fast, we never really got in a roll and there was some communication, just some things we got to get going,” Ragnow said after the game. “Like, we don’t know how many opportunities we’re going to get to get going. If we don’t get going, it’s hard to ever get that run game going. It’s a lot of us upfront. Hats off to them, very talented front as you guys saw, but a lot of things that we as an offensive line can improve on for sure.
“I could have done a lot better communicating some things, some looks. We’ve got to start faster. We never really got in a rhythm. We never really got it rolling and just not good enough and we need to be better next week. I think we had a few plays, whether it was myself or someone else, doing the wrong thing and if we don’t have all guys up front doing the right thing, it’s hard to get it rolling.”
For safety Duron Harmon, it’s simply a matter of being better and consistent.
“We got to be better. I mean, we wasn’t consistent at all, on any level — offense, special teams, especially defense. We just got to be better,” Lions safety Duron Harmon said. “We talk about what we want to be and how good we want to be, and that starts with consistency and at no point were we consistent. At the end of the day, we got to just watch the film. The good thing — I mean we got a game next week against the Vikings. Learn from this and just be better next week.
“If you look at the film, we had chances to get off the field and we just didn’t do it. We were hurting ourselves — penalties, not communicating the way we needed to. Wide-open receivers downfield and we can’t do that. I mean, it’s already hard enough to play a team like the Colts who is, you know, not only fundamentally sound but good on all three levels of the team. Defense, offense, special teams. When you’re giving it to them, you know you’re just putting yourself in a tough spot and that’s what we did. We couldn’t get our footing after the first quarter.”
The Lions will look to get back to the .500 mark next week when they head to Minnesota to take on the Vikings.
– – Quotes via Benajmin Raven of MLive Link – –
