The Detroit Lions scored a huge 20-17 win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 7, gutting out the victory in spite of a tense game that went back and forth until the final seconds.
A big reason the Lions were able to win was the performance of their offense. Detroit was able to get what they wanted most of the day through the air and on the ground as evidence by the 415 total yards they put up. Their star players stepped up and showed out.
Despite that, there was still a feeling that the Lions could have done better than scoring 20 points. The Lions had a pair of untimely fumbles, one before halftime when trying to score and the other immediately out of the locker room. They also whiffed on a pair of fourth-down conversions, one mysteriously in the shadow of their own end zone in the fourth-quarter.
Had the Lions scored touchdowns on most of those sequences, the game is never close, and Detroit blows the Packers out. At times, it felt as if the teams didn't belong on the same field. The repeated self-inflicted wounds kept Green Bay close, and nearly allowed them to escape with a victory.
Dan Campbell was pleased with the win, but wasn't happy with some of the situations that came up. He singled out all of the bad scenarios that took place, and admitted that he is very frustrated with what played out.
"Offensively, we really played pretty good until the two turnovers and then we had one of those drives that we messed up. That was not good. We didn't convert on the fourth-down and then (had) the two takeaways. Really, we had some good things going. We just couldn't finish it out, and that's frustrating."
Even the coach understands that the Lions needed to tighten the screws on offense. A random fumble is going to happen, but there was no excuse for the sloppy way the Lions handled the end and beginning of a half, which could have served as a momentum blast in the wrong direction. Additionally, the Lions could have applied more pressure with another touchdown in the red zone instead of a whiff on fourth-down, as well as a field goal earlier in the game.
The good news? The Lions won the game, and have a chance to be even better on offense, even against one of the top teams they have played thus far. There's plenty of meat left on the bone as Campbell would say, which is a huge net positive. That's very different than where the Detroit offense was at just one year ago.
Jared Goff wants to see Lions' offense start fast again in Week 8
Even though things were a bit hairy, the Lions finished strong, grinding out the win by running the ball down the throat of the Packers, and completing passes they needed to. They were able to bleed the clock to the end, and kick the game-winning field goal as time expired.
Despite the struggles, Goff was happy with what the Lions were able to achieve, especially on the first drive. Going into next week against the Minnesota Vikings, he wants to see some of the momentum carry over. As he said, another good start would go a long way to keeping some of the momentum rolling in another critical game.
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"Play good in the first-quarter next week? That would be the answer. I thought we did a good job of trying to pull back some of that momentum in practice this week that we had in Arizona (in Week 5) and build that into this game. I think it starts up front with the offensive line. I thought they had a great game. Moving the line of scrimmage and then giving me a nice pocket. When those guys do that, certainly in the first drive, we can do anything."
There is a feeling that the Lions can do anything they want on offense, but the little things are holding them down. That's the kind of thing that will cost them against an elite defense like the Vikings currently possess. The Lions did grab a huge divisional win, but still have plenty they can do better.
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