The Detroit Lions had to win their Week 15 contest against the Los Angeles Rams in order to keep their postseason hopes alive headed into Christmas Day.
Instead, they're walking away from SoFi Stadium with a loss, having gotten completely run over in the 2nd half by the Rams and Puka Nacua and leaving with a loss by a final score of 41-34.
Jared Goff was relentlessly pressured after a sizzling start from Detroit's offense, which led to a ton of errant passes and the Lions trying - and failing - to get Jahmyr Gibbs involved to take the load off of Goff. Ultimately, the team completely fell flat after a great first two quarters of football, and now, they absolutely must win out to get a shot at making a Wild Card spot.
3 losers (and 2 winners) from Lions' huge loss to Rams
Loser: Dan Campbell
Campbell has taken over playcalling from John Morton, which has mostly seemed like the right call considering how flat things felt for this high-flying Lions offense under Morton's control. In today's game, though, Campbell continued to spam screens and Gibbs against a Rams defensive line that was clearly not letting up on their run defense.
Several of these calls killed critical drives in the third quarter when Detroit couldn't buy a stop against Nacua and Matthew Stafford. Being conservative in those moments seemed to sap whatever confidence Goff had from the first half.
Loser: D.J. Reed
Reed has left a lot to be desired with his coverage since coming back from injury, often losing his assignment mid-play and having to recover by being extra-aggressive on the pass catcher. This is leading to more penalties than the Lions can afford, and Reed has simply not been impactful enough in his first year with Detroit to make up for these follies.
With so many injuries hitting the Lions' secondary, he has to be a lot cleaner in coverage and more impactful as a turnover threat with Detroit struggling to find something that works amongst their mash-up of starters.
Loser: Lions' 3rd quarter offense
Tying back to Campbell's woes in this contest, Detroit essentially buried themselves in the 3rd quarter. They didn't score at all in the 3rd quarter, whereas they allowed the Rams to pick up two touchdowns and a field goal. They entered with a 24-20 lead, and left tailing 24-34.
Again, conservative play-calling and not exploiting what had been working for them all day on offense with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams made this a difficult 12 minutes to try and overcome.
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Loser: Lions secondary
All Lions fans knew that this game would be a humongous challenge for a secondary that has now lost both its starting safeties and one of their two starting cornerbacks for the season by this point in time. Shutting off Nacua's water is a tall task, and one that an even more watered-down version of the Legion of Whom couldn't handle.
The Lions secondary gave up 368 yards and two receiving touchdowns to the Rams, with 181 of those yards given up just to Nacua. Multiple back-breaking defensive possessions came at the hands of the Rams' weapons in their wide receiving room, with the team taking full advantage of the banged up Lions.
Winner: Jared Goff
Despite a loss, Goff didn't necessarily have a bad game. He finished up with 338 YARDS and three touchdowns on 25-41 passing efficiency in a huge game, and in another homecoming for him to Los Angeles. He is often predicted to fold under these lights, but it would be hard to place this loss entirely on his shoulders.