Lions 20, Cardinals 13: Game # 3 (2024)

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Thoughts in ****


www.mlive.com/lions/2024/09/instant-observations-fast-start-punishing-defense-lead-lions-past-cardinals.html

Instant observations: Fast start, punishing defense lead Lions past Cardinals
Updated: Sep. 22, 2024, 9:04 p.m.|Published: Sep. 22, 2024, 7:33 p.m.
Detroit Lions at Arizona Cardinals -- Week 3Benjamin Raven


By Kyle Meinke | [e-mail]

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Everyone loses eventually in the NFL. What separates the good teams from everyone else is their ability to bounce back.

And in the last 23 months, no one is better at bouncing back from a loss than the Detroit Lions.

No one.

David Montgomery and Amon-Ra St. Brown scored early touchdowns, Jahmyr Gibbs tacked on a 21-yard score on a brilliant hook-and-ladder and the Lions held on for a hard-fought 20-13 win on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. They improve to 2-1 on the season, and a league-best 8-0 the week after a loss since October 2022.


They’ve now gone nearly two calendar years without a losing streak, a franchise record.

**** Excellent job by the Lions in closing out the game after Matt Prater's 45 yard FG for the Cardinals cut the Lions lead to 20-13. It turned out to be the only points of the 2nd Half. Until the Lions closed out the game on the final possession of the game, the Lions Defense and Punt unit did a tremendous job in combining for the Cardinals not scoring a TD since their 1st possession of the game. Considering the numerous injuries on Defense for the Lions, this was one of the best Defensive performances by the Lions in a while. Especially, since the Lions Offense repeatedly failed to even get into FG range in the 2nd Half. ****

The Lions got a little too cute last week in their loss against Tampa, and wound up throwing the ball 55 times. They flew to Arizona looking to get back to who they are, opening the game with six offensive linemen and two tight ends and daring Arizona to stop their ground game. Montgomery and Gibbs ran the ball 13 times on the first 19 plays from scrimmage and finished with 188 yards on 39 carries overall, while accounting for two scores during a fast 20-7 start.

**** The strategy to heavily emphasize the run, beginning with the first play from scrimmage, was an excellent strategy by Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson. This helped set the tone of the game and it enabled the Lions Defense to remain fresh enough, despite the numerous injuries on that side of the ball during the game. ****

But the offense didn’t score again in the second half, which could have been a problem against one of the hottest offenses in the league. The Cardinals just hung a 41-spot on the Los Angeles Rams last week.

Lucky for Detroit, it now has one of the hottest defenses in the league.

The Lions allowed a touchdown to open the game, then held Arizona to just two field goals on its final 10 possessions overall. Kyler Murray threw for just 207 yards, and while he did run for 45 more yards, no one else in Arizona could manage more than 19 yards on the day.

**** After the early part of the game, the Lions did a great job keeping Kyler Murray from impacting the game with his legs. ****

Aidan Hutchinson added another sack, giving him a league-high 6.5 on the season, although he was far from alone. Safety Kerby Joseph made huge plays to stall four second-half drives, including picking off another pass in the end zone, breaking up a fourth-down pass for Trey McBride and dropping Kyler Murray 1 yard short on a fourth-down designed run.

**** Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph were certainly differential factors in the win for the Lions. ****

Cornerback Carlton Davis also snuffed out a fourth-down scramble by Murray during the second-half stand, and Arizona finished 1 of 11 on third and fourth down combined. Yes, 1 of 11.

**** Carlton Davis made two great play against the run on the possession in which Davis prevented Murray from getting a 1st Down on 4th Down and 1 at the Lions 24 yard line. Excellent decision by Dan Campbell challenging the play, after the officials ruled that Murray got yardage for a 1st Down. ****

That’s good stuff, and it’s exceptional when considering Detroit finished the game without mainstays like Alex Anzalone, Derrick Barnes, Alim McNeill and Brian Branch. This defense is so hot right now, and the biggest reason the Lions are 2-1 despite continued issues with the offense.

**** The Punt Unit was also terrific. ****

Let’s get to some more observations:




-- It’s difficult to remember the last time the Lions were this banged up coming out of a game. They played without one linebacker (Alex Anzalone), then another (Derrick Barnes) was carted to the locker room with an injury and did not return. All-Pro tight end Sam LaPorta (ankle) was also carted to the locker room, then returned to the game in the third quarter -- but made it only two plays before hobbling back off the field. Alim McNeill (shoulder), Marcus Davenport and Levi Onwuzurike also left the game for varying spells -- that’s three-fourths of the starting lineup, for those scoring at home. Onwuzurike did return, along with rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold, so at least there’s that. Then again, Brian Branch is now in concussion protocol. Needless to say, the Lions will welcome the extra rest day heading into a Monday night showdown against the Seattle Seahawks.

**** Marcus Davenport also came back into the game. ****

-- Brian Branch has been really good since moving to safety. He’s also been really good for Kerby Joseph, who is now freed up to roam the center field of the defense and do what he does best -- go hunting for the football. On Sunday, he snagged his second interception in three games, both of which occurred in the end zone, taking potential scores off the board. He wasn’t done yet, later tackling Murray 1 yard short of the sticks on a designed third-down run, then broke up another third-down deep ball, before also punching out a fourth-down pass for tight end Trey McBride.



Joseph has always been a high-risk, high-reward safety because he took so many chances. But now that Branch is alongside him to carry more of the load, Joseph can pin his ears back and just go after the football. And it’s really, really working for both of them. Branch, by the way, led the Lions with nine tackles and two passes defended.

At this rate, it might not be long before the Lions have one of the best 1-2 safety combos in the league.

“You’re right, they do complement each other really, really well, especially for the things we ask those guys to do,” defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said this week. “We know that Kerby, his superpower is being in the back end, being able to track the ball, and being able to read the quarterback to go make plays. BB’s superpower is being down, being back, being at dime, being at nickel, being at backer every now and then, letting him go find the ball and go make plays.”

**** Much like Kerby Joseph, Brian Branch had a great game for the Lions. Hopefully, Branch will make a fully recovery from the concussion he suffered, soon. The Lions overall Secondary did a great job in this game, after the slow start by Terrion Arnold. ****

-- Make no mistake, the defense won the Lions another game. But while the offense couldn’t manage to score a point int he second half, they did make winning plays to put away Arizona for good. Goff hit St. Brown with an 18-yard strike to move the sticks on third-and-12. That drained the clock to the 2-minute warning. Needing just one more first down to put away Arizona for good, Goff took care of business himself, scrambling past the sticks for a game-clinching first down.

**** Big time clutch play on 3rd and 12 after Penei Sewell had a False Start. The Jared Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown reception that gave the Lions an enormously important 1st Down reminded me of the 1st Down that the QB-WR combination had on 3rd Down that sealed the 1st Round playoff win over the LA Rams this past January. ****

Goff finished 18 of 23 passing for 199 yards, two touchdowns, one pick and a passer rating of 113.6.

**** Jared Goff had a good game overall but not a great game. The mistake he made by throwing deep to Jameson Williams on a 3rd Down and 8 from the Cardinals 45 yard line in the 4th QTR, instead of throwing to a wide-open Kalif Raymond underneath that would have given the Lions a 1st Down, could have been very costly regarding the outcome of the game. Williams had 2 DBs close to him. ****

-- Another week, yet another flag for Terrion Arnold. Listen, the kid is probably going to be fine. No one is sounding alarm bells after three games. But the fact is he led the whole league in defensive pass interference penalties (three), penalties (four) and penalty yardage heading into the Cardinals game, then added yet another pass interference against Michael Wilson in Arizona. He just didn’t turn his head around, just didn’t look for the football, really simple stuff. It’s going to get called every time. Kid has to learn.


**** The positive is that Terrion Arnold played very well as the game moved along. He responded to adversity. ****


-- Luckily for Detroit, the other outside cornerback is playing great football. Carlton Davis was all over Marvin Harrison Jr. downfield, plus hunted down Kyler Murray for a key stop right at the sticks on fourth-and-short in the second half. After a replay review, officials determined Davis dropped MuHrray short and Detroit took over while hanging onto a 10-point lead. Huge play. While there was so much hoopla about the addition of Arnold in the first round, Davis is showing why he got a second contract in Tampa and was acquired to be CB1 in Detroit. And with Arnold struggling through rookie growing pains, there’s no telling where Detroit would be without Davis.

**** Carlton Davis put a 3rd Down Pass Interference penalty behind him. Strong performance by Davis. ****

-- Let’s not forget about special teams here. Jack Fox made sure Arizona faced some long fields against that rising defense, booming one punt 68 yards into the end zone, but otherwise giving the Cardinals field position at their own 2-, 12-, 9- and 6-yard line. That’s really elite stuff.

**** Jack Fox had an NFC Special Player of the Week caliber performance. ****

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This new thread is a continuation of the following thread:

Lions at Cardinals preview: Game # 3 (2024)

detroit-lions-forum.proboards.com/thread/2257/lions-cardinals-preview-game-2024

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From Brian Branch to Alim McNeill, everything we know about the Lions’ injuries

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Considering that the Seahawks are 3-0 and are coming off a 24-3 home win over the Dolphins, the Lions injury situation is that much more concerning for at least the short term. Especially, with the Seahawks recent history of defeating the Lions in the last 3 seasons (including the last two games in Detroit) and putting up a huge amount of points in all 3 games.

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Inside the locker room: Officials explain why they waved off Jared Goff pick-six

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The Lions did indeed get an immense break with whistles blown on the play that would have been a Cardinals Interception Return for a TD by LB Mack Wilson. Having said that, whistles definitely were blown during the play, as I heard them on the Fox Telecast of the game. Some of the Lions players stopped.

Playing ahead was indeed a key to the Lions winning this game.


The Lions overall Offensive Line did a great job of run blocking in this game. Penei Sewell was a force as a run blocker. Kevin Zeitler has been a huge positive addition for the Lions.

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Studs and Duds for the Lions win over the Cardinals

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The Lions RB tandem of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs is at the very least in the conversation of which is the best RB tandems in the NFL in 2024? I think Montgomery and Gibbs are at present the best pair of RBs for a team in the NFL.

One thing in particular the Lions must improve on moving forward is avoiding False Starts. With the Lions fans negating the Cardinals home crowd advantage, crowd noise probably wasn't a factor in any of the 4 False Starts (one each by Sam LaPorta, Taylor Decker, Graham Glasgow, and Penei Sewell).

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3 things we learned: Lions have one of the best safety duos in the NFL

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D.J. Reader is making a huge positive difference in the Lions Run Defense. Considering that Reader was on the PUP List for all of training camp, after coming off a torn Quad Tendon, Reader performed as well as anyone could have realistically hoped for in his first 2 games (since he was cleared to play in a game). The drop-off from Reader to Kyle Peko has been enormous.

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x.com/AtoZ_Payton/status/1838250546404241741

Mike Payton
@atoz_Payton
Lions offensive line got the highest grades on offense for the most part this week.

Sewell got an 84.9
Zietler got an 83.1
Ragnow got an 81.3
Glasgow got a 61
Decker got a 67.8

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Even factoring in the False Start Penalty, I thought Taylor Decker played better than the 67.8 PFF Grade Reflects.

[batchrules10]

Hi Lions Forum! I’m back! I’m actually writing this in the Phoenix airport as we speak! Yes, I went to the game and have a full report! This was my 3rd time in AZ and it was by far the best time in Arizona! I’ll spare you the details of the fun I had but Arizona certainly has changed in 5 years. Including around Glendale! I’d say 80% of the Lions fans I ran into have been living in AZ for quite sometime. Only ran into a small handful of fans that traveled from Michigan like me. Some insights from the play on the field:

I’m pretty sure they were using Jamo as a decoy. Goff didn’t look his way too often. Maybe his ankle was still hurting?

Amon-Ra St Brown did a great job running routes. I was worried that we may have seen the Amon-Ra of the first game.

Lions need to do trick plays once in a blue moon. Not twice in a blue moon…..they will be predictable. It showed that Arizona did not want to be tricked again when they attempted another play.

Brian Branch was a difference maker. Saw him walk off the field by me on his own power and he seemed upbeat interacting with fans in my section. I think he will be ok

Ragnow might be having his worst season yet.

2 minute warning was legit. I knew they were trying to see if they can get a free play and had no intention on running an actual play.

Besides the Hutchinson sack, AZ had a good game plan to not have him get to the QB.

I met a friend after the game who knows Bill Ford personally and also talked with Sheila’s husband. He said that the NFL knows our offense now and we can’t get away with the stuff that we did last year. This is something Ben Johnson needs to pick up quickly.

Terrion Arnold is using subtle pass interference moves throughout the season where it might get away with in college but NFL is different. He rebounded nicely in this game. He might have gotten hurt too because I saw him on the sideline spending a lot of time with the trainer getting stretched out, etc.

This was a big game to win. We didn’t want to be down 1-2 going against Seattle! Hope everyone is doing well!

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Sept 23, 2024 14:32:59 GMT -5 batchrules10 said:

Hi Lions Forum! I’m back! I’m actually writing this in the Phoenix airport as we speak! Yes, I went to the game and have a full report! This was my 3rd time in AZ and it was by far the best time in Arizona! I’ll spare you the details of the fun I had but Arizona certainly has changed in 5 years. Including around Glendale! I’d say 80% of the Lions fans I ran into have been living in AZ for quite sometime. Only ran into a small handful of fans that traveled from Michigan like me. Some insights from the play on the field:

I’m pretty sure they were using Jamo as a decoy. Goff didn’t look his way too often. Maybe his ankle was still hurting?

Amon-Ra St Brown did a great job running routes. I was worried that we may have seen the Amon-Ra of the first game.

Lions need to do trick plays once in a blue moon. Not twice in a blue moon…..they will be predictable. It showed that Arizona did not want to be tricked again when they attempted another play.

Brian Branch was a difference maker. Saw him walk off the field by me on his own power and he seemed upbeat interacting with fans in my section. I think he will be ok

Ragnow might be having his worst season yet.

2 minute warning was legit. I knew they were trying to see if they can get a free play and had no intention on running an actual play.

Besides the Hutchinson sack, AZ had a good game plan to not have him get to the QB.

I met a friend after the game who knows Bill Ford personally and also talked with Sheila’s husband. He said that the NFL knows our offense now and we can’t get away with the stuff that we did last year. This is something Ben Johnson needs to pick up quickly.

Terrion Arnold is using subtle pass interference moves throughout the season where it might get away with in college but NFL is different. He rebounded nicely in this game. He might have gotten hurt too because I saw him on the sideline spending a lot of time with the trainer getting stretched out, etc.

This was a big game to win. We didn’t want to be down 1-2 going against Seattle! Hope everyone is doing well!

Batchrules, thanks for sharing your experience at the Lions game in Arizona. On TV, it looked like at least 35 % of the fans at the game were Lions fans, with as much as 50% being Lions fans.

I think that the impact that Jamo had in the first 2 games this season helped open up opportunities underneath for other Lions skill players.

Amon-Ra St. Brown certainly stepped up. He was a key to the Lions win. Very strong all-around game for # 14.

The more trick plays are used, the greater the chance the opposition is on the look out for trick plays.

I strongly agree about Brian Branch being a difference maker for the Lions. Hopefully, he will make a full recovery from the concussion.

The Cardinals being down to their 3rd and then to their 4th RT were in a difficult spot against Aidan Hutchinson. All things considering, I thought they did a good job with their strategies against Hutch.

I thought Frank Ragnow had a noticeably better game at Arizona than he did vs. Tampa Bay. The partially torn pectoral he suffered in the Cardinals game is a major concern moving forward. Ragnow is as tough as nails. The key question I believe is whether Ragnow is at risk for a complete tear or a different injury, if he plays before the partially torn pectoral heels?

I certainly agree with you that the 2 minute warning was legit. I heard the whistles will watching/ listening to the game on the Fox telecast.

The NFL is very often about adjustments. Opposing teams had another off-season to study the Lions Offense under Ben Johnson.

Terrion Arnold suffered a knee injury during the game. He came back into the game after a couple of Cardinals possessions. Arnold did indeed rebound after some rocky early moments in the game. Definitely encouraging.

It was definitely a huge win for the Lions, especially with the Vikings and Packers winning, and injuries piling up for the Lions.

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Detroit Lions grades vs Arizona Cardinals: David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs ace their test

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Even factoring in the missed PAT by Jake Bates, I believe the Lions Special Teams grade should have been an A- instead of a B +.

A solid case can be made that the Lions Coaching grade should be an A instead of an A-.

Being that Dan Campbell was told by Lions coaches that David Montgomery didn't get a 1st Down on a 3rd and 1 run, I'm glad Campbell didn't challenge the play. Being that it was likely the Lions would lose a timeout, the risk of challenging the play was clearly greater than the reward.

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Top and bottom PFF grades for Lions in Week 3 vs. Cardinals

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Two surprises on this end regarding the Lions PFF grades in the win at Arizona are as follows:

1. Brian Branch not having at least a 70 PFF grade.

2. Sam LaPorta having a PFF grade as high as the lower 80s. Especially, when factoring in his limited tangible receiving production and that it didn't seem like he had a high blocking grade (assuming for now that he did).

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NFL fines Lions DB Brian Branch for two illegal actions in Week 3

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With Brian Branch being fined on the play that resulted in concussions for him and for Trey McBride, the latter also should have been fined. Both led with their helmets at the point of contact.

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Snap counts, PFF grades: Lions found ways to survive 2 big losses at linebacker

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Tim Patrick appears to be the Lions primary 3rd WR.

The Lions depth on Defense was tested at all position units in the win over the Cardinals. The collective effort by the Lions Defense was very good, especially when factoring in the Lions injuries, and the Cardinals abilities on Offense.