Detroit Lions Week 11 report card: Confident Lions run over Giants

The Detroit Lions marched into East Rutherford and ran all over the Giants en route to a 31-18 win. Here’s our report card for Detroit’s third consecutive victory.

Just like that, the Detroit Lions have won three games in a row for the first time since 2017. They will leave New York with a convincing win over a seven-win team at that. Even though this game proved the Giants are indeed the paper tiger many thought they were, it’s still a pretty impressive win for the Lions.

The two areas Detroit invested in the most over the past two seasons have been the trenches/the run game and the defensive front. So it was encouraging to see those two facets be the driving force in a win.

In a weird way, this game felt a lot like the win against the Cardinals last season. Detroit took a big lead in the second half, and just when it feels like momentum could be moving the wrong way a big turnover changed the tides in the Lions’ favor. At the end of the day, the Lions end up with a convincing multi-score victory.

Here’s the Lions Week 11 report card.

Detroit Lions Week 11 report card

Offense

Run offense: 4/5 stars 

For the last few weeks, the run game had been trending in the wrong direction for the Lions. On Sunday they put up 160 yards on the ground, averaging 4.9 yards per carry (not counting Jared Goff kneel-downs).

For the second week in a row, the Lions leaned on the ground game to close out a win. For the second week in a row, the ground game delivered in a big way. This is what the Lions want their identity to be, and it paid off against the Giants.

Pass offense: 4/5 stars

It was a weird game for the passing game. The Lions ran the ball often and didn’t ask Goff to do much. When called upon he delivered, with Amon-Ra St. Brown (seven catches for 76 yards; eight targets on 26 attempts) as his go-to target.

There were a few head-scratching decisions, such as Goff electing to throw a deep shot into double coverage late in the game when the Lions were trying to run out the clock. However, on the whole, this was a positive game despite limited work for the passing game.

Best offensive player: RBs Jamaal Williams/Justin Jackson

Jamaal Williams’ career year continued, as he found the end zone not once, not twice, but three more times on Sunday. He’s now up to a league-leading 12 rushing touchdowns on the season.

As for Justin Jackson, this was his best game as a Lion thus far. He looked explosive and was taking advantage of the open running lanes the offensive line created.

Worst offensive player: RB D’Andre Swift 

Yes, Swift had a big 16-yard run to set up a touchdown and found the end zone himself. However, it’s time to talk about an alarming trend in the last few weeks. Swift’s indecisiveness as a runner has returned. Far too often he’s drifting laterally instead of pushing north-south when there’s a clear gap to be hit.

The indecisiveness cost the Lions at least one first down and drove them back two yards at the goal line before Swift redeemed himself and scored. As Swift gets healthy, this coaching staff isn’t going to put too much on his shoulders until he can cut the indecisiveness out. We saw in the first two games this season what happens when Swift makes every cut with a purpose and shows decisiveness, and it’s time he get back to that.