Detroit Lions Week 16 Report Card: Lions capture first division title in 30 years

Two years ago, the first year of the new Detroit Lions’ regime. A young roster lacking talent sputtered through its first season. Through 11 games, the Lions had failed to pick up a single win, holding a record of 0-10-1.

In Week 13 that season, the Lions hosted the Minnesota Vikings. In dramatic fashion, the Lions pulled off a miraculous win on a walk-off touchdown. The first win of the Dan Campbell era. Two years later, it’s a win over that same Vikings team that propelled the Dan Campbell era to a height the Lions had not reached in 30 years. A division championship.

Without further ado, here's our Lions report card for Week 16.

Detroit Lions Week 16 Report Card

Offense: 4/5 Stars

There is something special about watching this offense with the offensive line intact. Against a blitz-heaving Vikings' defense, the offensive line went to work. There were countless instances of the line perfectly picking up pressure and allowing Jared Goff to survey the field. They also had another great day paving the way for the ground game, as Detroit ran for 143 yards.

The vast array of weaponry also had a good day. Amon-Ra St. Brown racked up a dozen catches to get his season total to 106, matching a career-high. Jahmyr Gibbs continues to produce at a high level.

One contributor that’s been on the rise the last few weeks is Jameson Williams. Over the past two games, he has become entrenched as the WR2 behind St. Brown. In the last two games, he has nine catches on 13 targets for 90 yards. There haven’t been many explosive plays, but he’s getting used more in the short-to-intermediate passing game. What that shows is the coaching staff trusts him more to be a featured part of the offense, and not just as someone who gets a couple of deep shots every week. So don’t fret, the explosive plays will come as Williams continues to see this level of volume.

Offensive player of the game: QB Jared Goff

Not nearly as flashy of a stat line as the Broncos game for Goff, but he was very efficient. Unlike last week, he trusted his protection from the start. He even stepped up to avoid the rush a few times

There were some issues with delay-of-game penalties in this game, in a noisy U.S. Bank Stadium, but aside from that Goff was very good on Sunday. He performed exactly as he needed to for the Lions to win.

Defense: 3.5/5 stars

Talk about exciting for right and wrong reasons. The defense managed to step up in big moments, racking up four interceptions and four sacks at critical times.

The issues with explosive plays continued though. Allowing Nick Mullens throw for over 400 yards with what wound up to be an injury-depleted group of pass catchers is not ideal.

But the good outweighed the bad.

Defensive player of the game: S Ifeatu Melifonwu

It is remarkable how good Melifonwu has been over the last two games. Against the Vikings, had a pair of sacks as Aaron Glenn continued to dial up safety blitzes for him. He had a few nice pass breakups, including one against Justin Jefferson on the final drive, and of course the game-sealing interception.

With his play, Melifonwu has clearly carved out a role in this defense when C.J. Gardner-Johnson makes his return.

Rookie report

As mentioned earlier, Jahmyr Gibbs is playing at an absurd level right now. The rookie now has averaged at least 5.3 yards per carry in the last four games and has scored five touchdowns in his last three. He’s up to 872 rushing yards on the season, which is just 38 yards behind David Montgomery despite having 41 fewer rushing attempts. Despite losing a fumble in this game, Gibbs was playing so well that Montgomery didn’t see the field for almost an entire quarter. They even kept Gibbs on the field for goal-line work. He’s quite simply been incredible.

With no Derrick Barnes in this game, Jack Campbell saw an increased workload. But he was used a lot more on early downs as an off-ball linebacker and moved to SAM on obvious passing downs. The Lions seem to like the juice he can bring off the edge as a situational pass rusher, so that’s something to monitor heading toward the playoffs.

Sam LaPorta had a down game. Held to just three catches for 18 yards for the second time this season. It wasn’t that he did anything wrong, as he was still very good as a blocker. The Lions just didn’t need him as a receiver this week.

Brian Branch started Sunday’s game on a very low note. On the Vikings' first drive, he got flagged for holding on third-and=goal which gave Minnesota a fresh set of downs. The very next play, he dropped what would have been an interception with a lot of green in front of him. After that though, he bounced back with an interception. All in all, a very mixed day for Branch.

Needs improvement: Limiting explosive plays on defense

Because nothing can ever be easy, the Vikings (mainly Justin Jefferson) made life extremely difficult for the Lions by generating a number of explosive plays. The Lions could have won this game in a much less stressful fashion. But time and time again, when it looked as though the Lions were about to pull away, the Vikings hit a big play to stay alive.

Against a team with a quarterback who isn’t as prone to mistakes, the Lions will be in trouble if they don’t settle things in the secondary.

Play of the game: Ifeatu Melifonwu’s game-winning interception

January 30th, 2021. The Detroit Lions traded Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for Jared Goff, two future first-round picks, and a 2021 third-round pick. Fast forward to Sunday, and that third-round pick ends up making the play to clinch the Lions' first division title in 30 years.