3 Detroit Lions game balls for Week 9 vs. the Packers

Coming off Sunday’s win over the Green Bay Packers, here are our three Detroit Lions game ball recipients for Week 9.

A low-scoring game was not what anyone expected at Ford Field on Sunday, all the way up to the over/under total for sportsbooks (49.5 points on most, if not all). But that’s what happened, as the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers 15-9.

Detroit’s defense defined bend-but-don’t-break on Sunday, shutting the Packers out in the first half despite never forcing a punt. Green Bay had 389 yards of offense to 254 for the Lions, while possessing the ball for nearly 35 minutes.

But the turnover battle was a plus-two for the Lions. Even without a deep dive, it’s safe to say the Lions haven’t had many games where they were plus-two in the turnover battle lately.

Lions game balls haven’t been an absolute every week thing here at SideLion Report, but coming off the second win of the season is a good time to give them out if there ever was one.

Here are our three, and only three, game ball recipients for the Detroit Lions in Week 9.

Detroit Lions game ball recipients for Week 9

3. TE James Mitchell

Mitchell has an opportunity in front of him after the trade of T.J. Hockenson, and Sunday was his first “showcase.” Brock Wright led Lions’ tight ends in snaps by a good margin with 50, with the rookie Mitchell playing 13 snaps and Shane Zylstra playing 16.

Zylstra deserves a hat-tip here, as he caught Detroit’s first touchdown of the game. But Mitchell reeled in the decisive score, and he described the play after the game.

"I had to maneuver around a couple of guys,” Mitchell told the media, breaking down the play. “There was a guy on the backline that I kinda had to work my way around, and once I cleared him, I knew I had a shot to get it. And JG (Jared Goff) ripped it in there and I pulled it in.”"

https://twitter.com/Lions/status/1589353301123923968?s=20&t=xTMcrbaLYCw9RLrMfsGhDA

2. LB Derrick Barnes

Before Sunday Barnes had a limited role for the Lions, never playing 25 defensive snaps in a game and playing less than 20 in each of the previous three games. But with Malcolm Rodriguez going down early due to what looked to be an arm injury, opportunity knocked for the second-year man and he answered the door.

Barnes played 50 defensive snaps against Green Bay, with a team (and career) high 12 tackles and one sack as be appeared to be everywhere at times. Highlights, apart from the sack of Aaron Rodgers, included a goal line stuff and a lucky deflection off his helmet that Kerby Joseph intercepted in the end zone.

Barnes got a solid 76.1 grade from Pro Football Focus for his work on Sunday (fourth-best among Lions’ defenders), and head coach Dan Campbell mentioned him by name after the game.

"And Barnes, every week, has improved. Every week he’s improved,” Campbell said. “And we all want it to be at a certain rate, but the bottom line is, he has. He just keeps coming on. It was good to see him out there running around"

Finding room for Barnes to play with Rodriguez healthy is surely a problem the Lions would welcome having. But in the here and now, he the Purdue product gets a Week 9 game ball from us

1. S Kerby Joseph

Joseph has stepped into a starting spot after Tracy Walker suffered a season-ending torn Achilles in Week 3, and he has stepped up. Sunday made it three games in a row responsible for a takeaway for the rookie out of Illinois, with two key interceptions as well as a terrific pass breakup. Oh, and he also had 10 tackles (second on the team after Barnes).

Joseph is the first Lions’ rookie with two interceptions in a game since 1986 (Devon Mitchell), and the first Lions’ safety with two interceptions in a game since 2013 (Louis Delmas).

Lions safety DeShon Elliott had high, slightly profane, praise for his rookie teammate after the game.

"Kerb a big-ass kid, but he a big-ass athletic freak kid. I think Kerb is going to be playing in this league for a very long time, bro. Man, so proud of that boy, so happy for him.”"

Joseph did leave Sunday’s game with a head injury after a “friendly fire hit from Jeff Okudah, and he went into concussion protocol. So his status for Week 10 against the Chicago Bears is tentative right now, but his Week 9 performance gets him the No. 1 Lions’ game ball for the week.