Lions vs. Colts Report Card: Grading Detroit’s loss in preseason finale

Special Teams-5/5 Stars

Last week, I criticized the Lions’ punt/kick coverage for giving up a few too many good returns. This week? The Lions gave up an average of 20 yards on kick returns, and just 2.5 yards on punt returns. That is pretty phenomenal for this unit.

Jack Fox did what he always does, he had three punts and averaged over 50 yards on them which is very respectable work.

The interesting note was that Randy Bullock did not make an appearance, Zane Gonzalez kicked the Lions’ lone field goal along with the pair of extra points. As this was the last stage of the kicker competition it will be interesting to see who Detroit elects to go with.

Coaching Staff- 3.5/5 Stars

I’ve echoed some form of this statement in the previous two weeks but I have to repeat it one last time, it’s pretty difficult to form any sort of opinion on how the coaching staff performed in the preseason.

The reason I’ve bumped them up from the previous two weeks is because of how the Lions started, last week they were absolutely brutal in the first half and this week they actually played very well.

So while they did have trouble maintaining that level of play, I will give them credit for having their team start a lot stronger.

Final Thoughts

We all know preseason doesn’t matter, but it still is frustrating to watch the Lions lose. While we see the Baltimore Ravens set records with 19 straight preseason wins, the Detroit Lions haven’t won a preseason game since 2018.

At least it’s over now, and we now start the clock as we await Dan Campbell’s official coaching debut in a few weeks.