Lions Week 6 Report Card: Detroit’s offense hits new low in blowout loss to Bengals
By Zach Payne
Defense- 2/5 Stars
The defensive performance against the Bengals perfectly encapsulates what expectations were for the Detroit Lions this season. Stretches of good play, a couple of flashes of brilliance, but overall still pretty bad.
After a promising first half, the defense ran out of gas in the third and fourth quarters as the Bengals opened up the floodgates.
It isn’t easy when your offense goes three and out almost every drive, but that’s the hand this unit has been dealt.
Best defensive player: S Tracy Walker III
The second straight week where Walker has made his presence felt. He’s been Detroit’s best defensive player since Romeo Okwara got hurt. And he had yet another dropped interception in this game. He’s well overdue for one, but even without any takeaways he is still flying around on the field and hitting everything in sight.
Even when games get out of hand as this one did, it’s still nice to see guys like Walker, Jerry Jacob and Derrick Barnes play well.
Detroit needs to make sure they get Walker locked up because losing him to free agency would create yet another hole on this roster to fill.
Worst defensive player: LB Alex Anzalone
This was a tough game for Anzalone in all facets. And while there are other names that are certainly candidates for worst player of the week (Will Harris), Anzalone stood out for all the wrong reasons. He struggled in coverage, being almost entirely responsible for the Joe Mixon touchdown reception on a fourth and one play in the third quarter.
Speaking of Mixon, did Anzalone bring him down once? It seemed like every time he was 1-on-1 with the Bengals running back, it resulted in a broken tackle.
This game was not at all reflective of what Anzalone can do for this defense. Expect him to bounce back next week.
Special Teams- 4/5 Stars
Last week I challenged the Lions’ returners to do more, and well at least they tried.
Kalif Raymond returned three punts for an average of 8.3 yards per return on Sunday. Tom Kennedy returned four kicks for an average of 22.2 yards. Is that particularly good? No. But the effort can be appreciated.
Punter Jack Fox did his thinga again, his longest punt going for 64 yards. Auston Seibert hit his only kick, a 35-yard field goal.
Special teams did their jobs and made no obvious mistakes, which is all you can ask for.