Post by D6 on Oct 28, 2019 0:39:48 GMT -5
Thoughts in ****
www.mlive.com/lions/2019/10/observations-lions-shake-off-injuries-snap-losing-streak-in-win-against-giants.htmlObservations:
Lions shake off injuries, snap losing streak in win against Giants
Updated Oct 27, 2019; Posted Oct 27, 2019
Detroit Lions vs. New York Giants - October 27, 2019
By Kyle Meinke | kmeinke@mlive.com
DETROIT -- With the way the NFC is shaping up, the Lions might need to win eight of their last 10 games to have any shot at the playoffs. That’s a daunting stretch for a team without its No. 1 running back and three-fifths of its opening day secondary.
**** With Carolina and Chicago losing today, there's a realistic possibility that a 9-6-1 record might be enough for the final ( 2nd ) Wildcard in the NFC. ****
But so far, so good.
Matthew Stafford threw three touchdown passes, one of which came on yet another successful gadget play, to propel Detroit to a 31-26 win Sunday against the New York Giants at Ford Field.Darrell Bevell, in his first season as playcaller, dialed up a halfback toss-flea flicker early in the fourth quarter. J.D. McKissic took the toss while moving left to right, then spun around and threw the ball back to Stafford, who then heaved a 41-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Golladay that put the win on ice. Golladay caught two touchdown passes overall, and Marvin Hall added a 49-yarder of his own.
The victory snaps a three-game losing streak for Detroit (3-3-1), which climbs back to .500 and keeps it fragile playoff hopes -- pegged at 9% by the New York Times heading into the weekend -- alive for another week.
**** Even after the successful Flea Flicker for a TD, the game was far from over. Highly questionable play calling and time management on Offense ( Kenny Golladay's 3rd Down Fumble then followed ) after Justin Coleman broke up a 4th and 6th pass intended to Golden Tate, led to this game being closer than it should have been. ****
Detroit was right there in losses against powerhouses like Kansas City and Green Bay, but lost both in heartbreaking fashion before getting smoked last week against Minnesota. The defense has been a wreck, then lost starting safety Quandre Diggs (traded) and Darius Slay (hamstring injury) heading into this game -- and then had its depth issues compounded when its other starting safety, Tracy Walker, left with a knee injury in the third quarter.New York had some luck picking at that depleted secondary, but Detroit got better performances from its struggling front seven, including strip-sacks from Jarrad Davis and Trey Flowers. Former New York linebacker Devon Kennard scooped up the Davis loose ball and returned it for his first career touchdown to open the scoring.
**** The Lions Defense did enough to win this game, including much improved run Defense against an elite RB ( Saquon Barkley ). However, there's plenty to be concerned about regarding the Lions Defense. Even with Da'Shawn Hand making a major positive difference against the run and as a pass rusher, the Lions have issues with all 3 units on Defense. With Safety now a huge concern. ****
Stafford stretched the lead to 14-0 on a 49-yard bomb to Hall, the fourth straight game where Hall’s had a catch of at least 47 yards. New York did cut into the deficit on a pair of touchdowns to Darius Slayton, but Stafford responded once again, finding Golladay for touchdowns of 9 and 41 yards, the latter of which was that trick play, giving Detroit a 31-19 lead with 12:21 left. New York never seriously threatened again.
**** Matthew Stafford made a bad decision on the interception on the pass intended to Marvin Jones. He ended up underthrowing the ball into double coverage. Stafford also needed to make a better throw to Ty Johnson down the right sideline late in the 2nd QTR. Tbis is even with the pressure against Rick Wagner on the play. Stafford also slightly underthrew Kenny Golladay on a 3rd Down pass ( crossing pattern ) in which Golladay made a very good catch resulting in the 1st Down. Stafford also snapped the ball with around 18 seconds left on the clock on a 2nd Down play when the Lions should have been milking the clock. Otherwise, I thought Stafford played at a very high level. His play on most 3rd Downs, which the Lions ended up converting those plays, was terrific. ****
Golladay finished with six catches for 123 yards, the third time this year he’s cracked triple digits, although he also fumbled with 5:02 left, giving New York another opportunity to climb back into this one. Rookie quarterback Daniel Jones went right at Mike Ford, starting for Slay at cornerback, with back-to-back passes into the end zone. But Ford was up for the challenge, breaking up both passes to kill the scoring opportunity.Jones hit Saquon Barkley with a 4-yard touchdown left to draw New York within 31-26 with 1:23 to go, but the ensuing kickoff was squibbed out of bounds to end the game.
**** Kenny Golladay tried to do too much on the 3rd Down play in which the ball was stripped. There was no realistic way Golladay was getting the 1st Down. He should have gone down instead of fighting for a few extra yards.****
Mike Ford got away with a Holding penalty on 3rd Down and the Lions were fortunate that a officials decision ( picking up the flag against Ford for Pass Interference, worked in the Lions favor. It was the right decision to pick up that flag. This officiating crew was far from perfect. But it was better than most in Lions games.****
Here are some more instant observations:
-- Another week, more history for Matthew Stafford. Last Sunday, he became the fastest member ever of the 40,000 yard club and passed Joe Namath to move into 20th on the all-time passing list. Today, he passed Joe Montana to move into 19th on that list. Stafford entered the day sitting on 40,277 yards, leaving him 277 short of Montana. He got there in the third quarter on an 18-yard pass to Kenny Golladay.
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**** It's an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Joe Montana, let alone pass him in the NFL record book. **** - The start was Stafford’s 135th in a row, by the way, moving him into second on the active list because of the missed start from Matt Ryan on Sunday. The only player ahead of Stafford right now is Philip Rivers (216). The streak is sixth longest all time for a quarterback.
- **** Tremendous career accomplishment.****
- With Kerryon Johnson going on injured reserve with a knee injury, there was some debate all week over whether Ty Johnson or J.D. McKissic would get the start at running back. Instead, it was Tra Carson, the former Packers back who was signed just a couple weeks ago. And he came out humming, too, gaining 7 yards on the first play of the game, moving the chains with a 4-yarder on the next play, then breaking off 12 more yards on his next touch. But the Lions went away from him after that, giving him just three more touches (for 3 yards) in the first half. He finished with 12 carries for 34 yards, as Detroit’s issues deepened in the running game. It finished with 59 yards on 25 carries as a team.-
**** Tra Carson started off very well. But reality set in soon after. I'm not sure what Ty Johnson's upside is as a rusher. But he's probably the only Lions RB who even has a chance to be even remotely a feature back. The Lions probably need to make a trade at RB. Dolphins RB Kenyon Drake plays on MNF in Pittsburgh tonight. If Drake isn't traded before then, this is an opportunity to watch a RB who the Dolphins probably will trade before tbe Tuesday Afternoon trade deadline.****
- J.D. McKissic wasn’t good enough to break camp with the Seahawks. Marvin Hall wasn’t good enough for the Bears. And now both are coming up big on the end of Detroit’s roster. Hall has been especially explosive, including getting behind New York’s defense for a 49-yard touchdown -- a play where he was clocked at 19.82 mph according to Next Gen Stats. That’s cookin'. Hall has now played in four games for Detroit, and caught a pass of at least 47 yards in all of them. New England has made a living over the years turning others’ trash into their own treasure, and Bob Quinn and his staff deserve a lot of credit for doing some of that here.
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**** Marvin Hall is one of the Lions best finds off the street ( figuratively speaking ) in a long time. The Falcons trash is the Lions treasure in this case. ****
- With a decimated defense and nonexistent running game, Matthew Stafford continues to carry this team. He’s been so good all year, and aside from an errant downfield pass that was picked off in the first quarter, he was crisp again against New York. He finished 25 of 32 passing for 342 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. His passer rating was a toasty 129.4.-
**** It feels like the days of Dan Marino and John Elway, for much of their HOF careers. They far too often had mediocre at best Running Games and Defenses. Matthew Stafford is fortunate to have better WR's this season than Elway usually had in Denver.****
- The Lions’ secondary struggled in its first game without Quandre Diggs. Of course, that also might have something to do with playing without star corner Darius Slay (hamstring) too, then losing safety Tracy Walker to a knee injury in the third quarter. That left Tavon Wilson and a pair of rookies -- Will Harris and C.J. Moore -- as the only healthy safeties left. And then Wilson battled an injury of his own in the fourth quarter, forcing Miles Killebrew onto the field. Killebrew hadn’t played a defensive snap since 2017.
There were some predictable struggles, too. Mike Ford started for Slay at cornerback, which moved Rashaan Melvin into the CB1 role -- and man, did he have some problems. Melvin was beat twice for touchdowns by Darius Slayton in the first half, then picked up a holding call at the end of the third quarter that wiped out a big third-down sack by Justin Coleman. Detroit’s secondary has been pretty good most of the year, but the last two weeks have been a struggle. And the trade of Diggs -- depleting a secondary that has now caught the injury bug -- certainly didn’t help. Daniel Jones finished 28 of 41 passing for 322 yards, four touchdowns, no picks and a QB rating of 124.2. That’s a career high.-
- But Jones also coughed up the football twice, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Devon Kennard. That’s Kennard’s first touchdown since he was still a running back a Desert Vista High School in 2008, and it came against New York, the team that drafted him in the fifth round in 2014. Kennard added a team-high seven tackles.
-- Trey Flowers racked up two sacks, one of which forced a fumble as Detroit made its fourth-quarter push. The Lions couldn’t recover that fumble, but it was a big play that led to a late third-down stop. This just might have been the best game for the $90 million man.
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****The Lions pass coverage problems were a combination of good execution on a number of passing plays by the Giants and sloppy play by the Lions. At times, the pass rush needed to be more effective. The # 1 concern moving forward are the injuries to two key starters ( Darius Slay and Tracy Walker ).
Trey Flowers came up big on that key Giants possession. Yet, Flowers isn't used enough in big spots ( See the next Giants possession following Golladay's fumble. ****
****
- We know Sam Martin can punt the air out of the football. Now we know he can act a little bit, too. Giants linebacker David Mayo fell at his feet, maybe sniffed his socks a little bit, but that didn’t stop Martin from spinning to the ground either. The sell job worked, too, drawing a 5-yard penalty that gave Detroit a first down late in the second quarter. And the Lions were able to drive for a 52-yard field goal from Matt Prater that stretched their lead to 17-13 right before halftime. Martin is now a favorite for best supporting actor at this year’s Emmy’s.-
**** It was good acting. But contact was made. It's good to see the Lions finally get a couple key officiating breaks in a game. ****
- Sticking with special teams for a moment, give some credit to Steve Longa. He missed all last year with an ACL injury and then couldn’t make the roster coming out of camp this year, but has put in good work on the practice squad, earned the call-up this week -- then began Sunday’s game by dropping Giants kick returner Darius Slayton at the 19-yard line on the opening kickoff. Welcome back, Steve.
**** Steve Longa did a very good job on Special Teams Coverage in this game. The Lions need to figure out a viable way to keep him on the 53 man roster. With injuries piling up, it's hard to predict what will transpire with Longa. ****
-- Golden Tate made his return to Detroit and was greeted with a proverbial shrug of the shoulders. His first catch, a 5-yarder, was greeted with no reaction at all. There was no booing, and no cheering, throughout the day for Detroit’s fifth most productive receiver of all time. Tate finished with a team-high eight catches for 85 yards -- yet fell to 0-4 in games he’s played this season. But hey, at least he got paid, right?
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**** Though Danny Amendola has been a very good replacement for Golden Tate at a much more favorable salary cap figure, Tate demonstrated in this game why he has been amongst the best WRs in the NFL much more often than not since at least the time he came to Detroit as an UFA in 2014. Tate is a huge asset for Daniel Jones, in the rookie QB's growing process. Whether the Giants will be a serious contender for the Super Bowl during Tate's stay with the team as a player remains to be seen. My respect for Tate as a player and competitor is HIGH.****
- Ninja, a professional video games player, was the honorary captain and at midfield for the pregame coin toss. What a time to be alive.
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This new thread is a continuation of the following thread:
Lions vs. Giants preview: Game # 7 ( 2019 )
detroit-lions-forum.proboards.com/thread/443/lions-giants-preview-game-2019