The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Week Seven

The Detroit Lions won their third straight game of the season on Sunday, beating the Washington Redskins by a score of 20-17.  Matthew Stafford – playing in his 100th game – once again carried the team back from a lost lead in the 4th quarter, upping his comeback total to 24 in his career. 

The defense took advantage of a few miscues from the opposition, and overall had their best performance to date.  While most of us thought this game would turn into a shootout, (cough, whoops) the two offenses took their time in scoring, and the two defenses did enough to avoid disaster.  Luckily, the Lions have Matthew Stafford as their quarterback, and sometimes, that’s all that is needed.

So take a look back at Sunday and the Lions win, with this week’s good, bad, and ugly.

The Good

Matthew Stafford

100 games played.  24 fourth quarter comeback wins.  Two throws that maybe one other quarterback in the league could make.  Legit league MVP candidate.  If you have any doubts about Stafford’s ability to conduct this team, be it as a leader or a winner, I am not sure what else could persuade you.  With the way this team’s defense has been playing all year, he has had to be nearly perfect for the Lions to win any game.  Sporting a 105.7 quarterback rating thus far in the season, he’s coming close.  Provide this man with a defense that can make an occasional key stop, and who knows what he can accomplish.

Marvin Jones’ catch(es)

Josh Norman mostly swallowed up Jones until his 52-yard reception in the 3rd quarter, but he made two key catches in that second half to help the Lions win.   On that 52-yarder, Norman was interfering him with as well.  Later on, it was Jones’ catch that started the game-winning drive.  While he had a rough first half not even receiving a target, it was his play down the stretch that was more important.

However, I mostly wanted to talk more about those throws that he caught.  Just take a look at this insanity.

Swoon.  Stafford threw that ball 60 yards in the air, with the soft touch of a mother holding her newborn for the first time.  The spiral as tight as the President’s secret service on a trip to Iraq.  The up and down trajectory as perfect as Ken Bone’s fame.  You do not wine and dine these throws, you buy them a ring after your first date.

Khyri Thornton

Thornton had his best game of his short career on Sunday.  He helped the defense create actual pressure on the opposing quarterback for one of the few times this year.  Thornton also created Washington’s second lost fumble on the day, by forcing their interior lineman back enough to step on Kirk Cousins and make him trip.

The Lions freely rotated their defensive tackles on Sunday, with no one receiving more than 36% of the total snaps.  Thornton played 34% on the day, which makes his production even more impressive.  The Lions defense is simply trying to find out who can make even minuscule differences on that side of the ball.  Thornton needs to keep playing like he did on Sunday to secure more valuable playing time.

Sam Martin

Martin has proven all year that he was worthy of the contract extension he received this offseason.  Against the Redskins on Sunday, he performed no differently.  Martin averaged 51 yards per punt on the day, with a long of 58.

While the defense is not taking advantage of Martin’s punts on the year yet, having a punter with Martin’s pedigree is a luxury.

Turnovers

Usually, this section would go into the bad or ugly portion, but this offense has done an admirable job lately of cutting them down.  In the past three games, the Lions have only turned the ball over once.  On the other hand, they have forced five.  Undoubtedly, this has been one of the biggest reasons for the team’s turnaround these past three wins.

The Bad

Darius Slay’s injury

Ezekiel Ansah, DeAndre Levy, Haloti Ngata, Jon Bostic, and now Darius Slay.  If anyone was having doubts about why this defense is so putrid now, here is your answer.  Teryl Austin has not helped matters with his inane schemes, no doubt.  But when your defense is down their best five defensive players, it’s tough to mask.

If Slay is out any longer than a few games, making the playoffs would be an almost impossible task.  Stafford can only carry an entire team so far.  The Lions are last in nearly every defensive statistic this year, and losing Slay for an extended period of time would only exacerbate the situation.

Offensive line

If it seems a bit harsh to place the whole line here, it might be.  Graham Glasgow received his second start of his career.  Travis Swanson has been outstanding all season.  Larry Warford is coming off an injury.  Taylor Decker was the highest-graded offensive player on the day according to Pro Football Focus.

However, excuses don’t block opposing defensive linemen.  They don’t open holes for running backs. Washington came into the game ranked 31st in rushing defense according to DVOA.  The Lions’ running backs could not take advantage of that area at all, toting the ball 17 times for 62 yards, good for 3.6 yards per carry.  Stafford helped skew the rushing data with his two for 32 yards, both runs coming from a collapsing pocket.  The offensive line also allowed 3 sacks on the day, completing their below-average performance.

Certain linemen are more at fault than others, but the group executes as a unit, and deserves praise and fault the same.

The Ugly

Pass defense

To be quite honest, there was not a whole lot of ugly in the game, aside from the usual.  The teams combined for eight total penalties.  The refereeing was not a topic of discussion.  The offense was not turning the ball over.  Overall, this was a fun game to watch.

However, the usual suspects reared their ugly heads yet again.  Kirk Cousins, he of “I will throw one awful interception per game” fame, only missed nine of 39 passes on the day.  Jamison Crowder topped 100 yards in a game for the first time in his career.  This is all expected by now.  It’s only upsetting if you believe in the defense anymore.  Don’t take Journey’s advice.  Stop believing.

The Lions play the Houston Texans away next week.  If Cousins, Marcus Mariota, Case Keenum, Brian Hoyer, and Carson Wentz all can top a 100 quarterback rating on this defense, so can Brock Osweiler.  The key to the next game will be shutting down their rushing attack.  Matthew Stafford playing like he is now gives this team a chance in any game, and the Texan’s are not unique in that way, especially without J.J. Watt.  The Lions will have a good chance to go for four straight wins next week.

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