Vikings 37, Lions 35: Game # 16 ( 2020 )

[D6]

www.mlive.com/lions/2021/01/quick-observations-lions-end-season-with-fourth-straight-loss-top-7-draft-pick.html

Thoughts in ****

Quick observations: Lions end season with fourth straight loss, top-7 draft pick
Updated Jan 03, 2021; Posted Jan 03, 2021


Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings – January 3, 2021

By Kyle Meinke | [e-mail]

DETROIT -- Matthew Stafford has a partially torn ligament in his thumb. Didn’t matter. He has ripped cartilage in his ribs and rolled his ankle just last week. That didn’t matter either. He played without one offensive lineman, then lost two more to brain injuries. Still didn’t matter. He didn’t even have his No. 1 receiver.

Still. Didn’t. Matter.

Stafford was marvelous once again, taking a perfect passer rating into the second quarter and near-perfect rating into the third while hitting Marvin Jones and Quintez Cephus with long touchdown passes that helped the Detroit Lions hang around.

And. It. Still. Didn’t. Matter.

**** Tremendous effort and dedication by Matthew Stafford and a performance that would have resulted in a win in most NFL games. If this turns out to be Stafford's final game with the Lions, it would help sum up most of his time with the Lions. ****

Because the Detroit Lions still have the Detroit Lions’ defense, and that thing officially became the worst in franchise history with a 37-35 loss on Sunday in the season finale against the Minnesota Vikings. The Lions (5-11) set franchise records for the most points and yards allowed in a season. Only the 1981 Baltimore Colts have allowed more points than Matt Patricia’s final defense in Detroit.

**** The good news is this Matt Patricia Defense is now history. The bad news is the difficult road ahead to even get the Lions Defense at a NFL average level.****

The Lions finish the season on a four-game losing streak and just 1-5 against the NFC North. They’re 1-9 against the division the last two years combined, leaving a lot of ground to make up for the next regime. On the bright side, the season-ending losing streak assures the Lions a top-seven draft pick, and they could climb as high as fifth based on other results around the league.

****The Lions went 1-11 against NFC North teams the last two seasons.

The Lions have pick # 7 in the 2021 NFL Draft. ****

Which is good news, because they have only five draft picks to figure out how to repair the worst defense in team history.

They actually started fast against Minnesota, forcing three straight punts, before getting ripped for five touchdowns and two field goals in the next eight series. The lone “stop,” if you can call it that, was a missed field goal. That’s it. Against a Minnesota Vikings team that was playing without star running back Dalvin Cook.

Woof.

This defense will officially go down as the worst ever to take the field in franchise history, eclipsing the 2008 team’s notorious marks for yards (6,470) and points (517) allowed in a season. They needed to hold Minnesota to fewer than 262 yards to avoid the club record for yards allowed, but got there before halftime. Justin Coleman and Darryl Roberts ran into each other on the clinching play, and Chad Beebe raced into the end zone for a 40-yard touchdown.

Detroit needed to hold Minnesota to fewer than 35 points to avoid the club record for points allowed in a season, but couldn’t manage that either. Tracy Walker looked like he might have gotten a fourth-down stop on the clinching sequence, but was flagged for roughing Kirk Cousin. Two plays later, Cousins snuck the football over the goal line to give Minnesota 37 points and send Detroit to some very ugly posterity.

Cousins, the former Michigan State star, finished 28 of 40 passing for 405 yards and three touchdowns. Yes, 405 yards. Without Dalvin Cook on the field.

**** IMHO, the number # 1 story from this game was the horrific officiating. The Lions were on the wrong end of 2 of the worst officiating calls not only in this season but in any season. Tracy Walker didn't Unnecessarily Rough Kirk Cousins. There was no proof at all that Marvin Jones failed to complete the TD catch that was overturned in the 4th QTR. This reversal was worse than the ruling of the incomplete call on the field, on the sideline pass play deep in Packers territory NOT being reversed to a Marvin Jones completion. At least with that play, the indisputable evidence standard could be stretched to the limit. Where is the evidence that Jones didn't make the TD reception against the Vikings???

As for Kirk Cousins, his celebration with Offensive teammates on the 2nd Down QB sneak TD is bush league! Cousins and the Vikings got a gift from the Referee with the Unnecessary Roughness Call. Cousins puts up attention getting stats. But I'm convinced the Vikings would try to upgrade the QB position if it was practical to do so. ****


Let’s get to some observations:

-- There’s no more fitting way for this team to go out than with Matthew Stafford playing great football while his defense was making history for playing some of the worst football ever. Stafford’s first two passes went for minus-1 yards, then he caught fire, completing his next seven passes for 130 yards and throwing long touchdown passes to Marvin Jones (43) and Quintez Cephus (20). He took a perfect passer rating into the second quarter and near-perfect rating into the third, added a 26-yard scoring pass to Jones and had two more near-scores when Mohamed Sanu dropped a 52-yard bomb in his breadbasket and Jones had a third TD overturned by a review.

**** I don't think Mohamed Sanu would have scored if he caught the pass in question.

Great job by Marvin Jones in this game and for the most part in the last several games . If this is the end of Jones' stay with the Lions, he can also take pride in how he played in this game.

Quentez Cephus made his greatest strides yet as an NFL receiver in this game. His improved route running and ball skills were on display. ****

Still, Stafford went out the way he’s played all season -- doing enough to keep the Lions in a game despite the Lions playing worse defense than just about anybody to ever play this game. His final line: 20 of 31 passing for 293 yards, three touchdowns, one pick and a passer rating of 114.0. And with that, Stafford sails into the most uncertain future of his Lions career.

-- Stafford, making his 165th career start, became the fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 45,000 yards. He entered the day needing 174 yards to reach the mark. Stafford ranks 16th in total passing yardage in NFL history, and will pass Vinny Testaverde (46,233) early next season to crack the top 15.

****Matthew Stafford is going to eventually get into the HOF, if he continues to play like he did since Darrell Bevell became Lions interim HC, for a few more seasons. ****

-- When Marvin Jones hit free agency in 2016, he wanted to go someplace where he could prove himself as one of the NFL’s best receivers. The Lions, meanwhile, were trying to figure out how to replace the greatest receiver in franchise history. The match was a good one, and Jones proved to be one of the few Bob Quinn signings that was worth every penny. Jones caught at least one football in every game he played of that contract, the last of which was among the best. He toasted Minnesota with eight catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns, leaving him just 22 yards shy of another 1,000-yard season. And he would have gotten there had the officials upheld a 38-yard touchdown catch that still looked good even after the review. Alas.

**** The review remains a farce!****


Still, the two scores give him 36 in Detroit and move him into sole possession of third place on the franchise’s all-time list. Only Calvin Johnson and Herman Moore have ever scored more times through the air than Marvin Jones. He also caught at least one pass in every game he played for Detroit, a streak that stretches back 97 games. Only six receivers entered the weekend with longer streaks: Larry Fitzgerald (256), Antonio Brown (136), Julio Jones (127), Golden Tate (127), DeAndre Hopkins (125) and Jarvis Landry (109).

Not a bad five years of work for Jones. But now he’s expected to test free agency in March, and considering Detroit also has to take care of Kenny Golladay, it could be difficult to bring back the veteran wideout. This just might have been it for him -- and what a way to go out it was.

**** If as expected Marvin Jones is playing elsewhere next season, I plan on rooting for Marvin Jones except when he plays against the Lions****

-- Rookie Quintez Cephus is one of just two receivers under contract for another game in Detroit. The Lions have a lot of work to do at the position, but Cephus sure looks like a piece of the future. He capped a nice rookie season with another touchdown catch, a 20-yarder where he got behind the deepest defensive back over the middle of the field. Cephus is the first Lions rookie selected after the fourth round to catch multiple touchdown passes since seventh-rounder Ty Hallock in 1993.

**** Though this tidbit is about later round Lions draft picks, TE Joseph Fauria had 7 TDs as a Lions rookie in 2013. Fauria was an UDRFA out of UCLA.

Related to the FB Ty Hallock mention is the highly impressive lead & overall run blocking performance against the Vikings, in the season finale, by FB Jason Cabinda. He had definitely made a successful conversion from LB to FB. Cabinda was easily one of the Lions 5 best players in this game. Arguably, the best.****



-- On the worst defense in franchise history, Jahlani Tavai just might be its worst player. He was lost in coverage again on another long touchdown. With that, you really have to wonder whether it’ll be two-and-out for the struggling second-round pick who just lost the head coach that brought him in.

**** Even factoring in Jahlani Tavai's coverage issues in this game, to his credit, he forced 2 fumbles, made a possible TD preventing tackle because of hustle, after two teammates failed to tackle Justin Jefferson ( Also, good job by Austin Bryant with his hustle on that play ). Tavai's lack of speed was on display when he couldn't prevent Alexander Mattison from eventually going the distance on a reception. I hope the next coaching staff asks Tavai to play at a lighter weight. He's not going to live up to his draft billing. But at a lighter weight, he could be a noticeably better LB than he currently is.****

-- One guy who hasn’t struggled for that defense is Romeo Okwara, who added another sack against Minnesota. That gives him 10 on the season, and he should finish right around the top 10 on that list. The problem, of course, is he’s headed for free agency too, productive pass rushers cost a lot of money and the Lions may not have a lot of money to throw around.

**** Hopefully, a contract agreement can be made that is good for both parties. ****

-- The Lions set the franchise record for points allowed in a season after Tracy Walker was flagged for roughing the passer on a fourth-down stop. I would just like to go on record as saying that’s nonsense. Yes, Walker landed on top of Kirk Cousins. But he also rolled over him. He clearly, clearly didn’t drive him into the ground with his full weight, which is the spirit of the rule. Yet, Walker was flagged for roughing the passer on a pretty routine tackle. Cousins snuck into the end zone two plays later for the final score that sent this defense into the history books.

**** That horrible officiating call might have cost the Lions the game. Regardless of the Lions picking higher in the draft because of the loss to the Vikings, this loss is unsettling. ****

-- Jamal Agnew has been great this season, averaging the second-most yards per punt return in the league and scoring the fifth return TD of his career, a league high since he turned pro in 2017. He tacked on a 70-yard kick return against Minnesota too, his longest of the season, and finished with 1,000 total yards in a season for the first time in his career. But he went out with a bad fumble too, losing the football even though the defender barely made contact. That’s the second time in three weeks that’s happened to the Lions, with D’Andre Swift also losing one at the goal line like that.


**** The fumble could have been costly. But the Lions Defense forced a Vikings Punt despite them starting with great field position following the fumble. Good job by Jamal Agnew in putting the fumble behind him. ****


-- Number of touchdowns for former Lions second-round pick Ameer Abdullah against his old team this season: Two. Number of touchdowns for Ameer Abdullah against the rest of the league: Zero.

**** Not acceptable but not surprising. **_*

-- Matt Prater is the greatest long-ball hitter in Lions history. On Sunday, he became the greatest long-ball hitter in NFL history. Prater broke Sebastian Janikowski’s record for most 50-yard field goals when he drilled a 54-yarder in the second quarter. Prater, also the most accurate kicker ever from beyond 50 yards, now has 59 career makes from that distance. It’s been a rough year for Prater -- who missed another extra-point attempt on Sunday, his third of the season -- but there’s no disputing his place as the best, most accurate long-ball hitter in the history of this league.

**** Matt Prater came close to missing another PAT. He missed far more kicks than in a typical season. Yet, never more than one in a game. Dan Bailey had another nightmarish performance for the Vikings. It's safe to say that at the very least, there will be viable competition for Bailey if he's even with the Vikings in training camp this coming summer.****

-- What a dreadful year for Halapoulivaati Vaitai in Detroit. The lifetime backup was handed a $45 million contract to play right tackle, more money than Bob Quinn gave anyone else in free agency this year. But Vaitai opened the season on the bench with an injury, then played right guard when he finally did see the field. He battled injuries to his foot, brain and dehydration throughout the season, and wound up playing just four full games all year. On Sunday, he left another game to be evaluated for another brain injury. Matt Nelson finished the game at right tackle.

**** I feel for Big V. To his credit, he tried to play, when he easily could have called it a season. ****

-- Rookie Jonah Jackson also left the game to be evaluated for a brain injury, leaving the Lions down three offensive linemen in all. Tyrell Crosby didn’t suit up because of an ankle injury. Still, Matthew Stafford was sacked just once all game. Give first-year position coach Hank Fraley a lot of credit for Detroit’s offensive line playing pretty well this season despite injuries to everyone at one point or another.

**** The Frank Ragnow had a strong all around game. He certainly was missed in the previous two games. The Lions Oday Aboushi finished the season strong. Taylor Decker played at a winning level. The RT position was winning level caliber in this game. Jonah Jackson wasn't consistent enough as a pass blocker. Evan Brown did a good job after Jackson's day and season ended. ****

-- Defensive tackle Danny Shelton started the game after spending the last four weeks on injured reserve with a knee issue, but he left the game in the second half with a triceps injury.

**** Danny Shelton was a bright spot on Defense for the Lions. Even in pass rushing, he caused at least one incompletion directly. I also gave Sheldon credit for not shutting it down after suffering the knee injury in the Thanksgiving Day game vs. the Texans.

Nick Williams went down earlier in the 2nd half. Offensive Dan Skipper was even used at DT on at least a couple of plays. Injuries certainty contributed immensely to the Lions being at the bottom of the NFL on Defense. ****

.......

This new thread is a continuation of the following thread:

Lions vs. Vikings preview: Game # 16 ( 2020 )

detroit-lions-forum.proboards.com/thread/861/lions-vikings-preview-game-2020

[D6]

Inside the locker room: Lions players express disbelief in late controversial calls in loss to Vikings

......

Even with this game not hsving 2020 season playoff ramifications, the officiating from this game needs to be one of the NFL lead stories from Week # 17 ( Game # 16 ) of the season. Imagine what the response will be if officiating this bad occurs in an upcoming playoff game!!!

[D6]

Grading Detroit Lions' loss in finale: Dreadful defense, awesome offense. Coaching?

....

I believe the RB unit Grade should be at least a B +. Good to very good all around performance by the unit.

Jesse James' committed a false start after a 6 yard rushing gain on first down by D'Andre Swift. The false start contributed greatly to the Harrison Smith interception. Matthew Stafford made a bad decision in trying to get the ball to Marvin Jones without effectively getting Smith out of harm's way. However, the 3rd Down interception likely doesn't occur if James is more focused when it was 2nd and 4.

Kevin Strong also split a double team to get in on the tackle with Reggie Raglans on the 3rd and Goal from the 1 play, prior to the 4th Down horrible Officiating call against Tracy Walker. Strong was inconsistent in the game. But this was the best he's played since the 4th QTR of the comeback win at Chicago.

The screen pass recognition by Jahlani Tavai mentioned in the article is another play that Tavai came up big.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin had a very disappointing performance on Defense with limited snaps. Both with tackling and getting off blocks. If the Lions re-sign him, it will be because of Special Teams value.

Good job by Julian Okwara in keeping contain on a Kirk Cousins bootleg.

The tackling problems by the Lions Defense was probably the worst facet of the overall Defensive performance. Terrible job by the 3 Lions DBs at fault for the Chad Beebe TD. That play is a microcosm of the Lions franchise for a long, long time.

Going for the 2 point conversion in the first situation it was attempted was indeed a mistake.

[frenchylions]

"This defense will officially go down as the worst ever to take the field in franchise history"
Bad tackling, lack of speed and costly penalties in this game.
As you've said in another post, Emerson Griffen has an history of offsides and this again proved costly in this game.

"Where is the evidence that Jones didn't make the TD reception against the Vikings??? / The review remains a farce!"
Maybe you don't know it but I've been officiating here for about 5 years, with 3 years as a white cap (NCAA rules), I've more than 100 games under my belt so I'm very well aware that it's easy to make mistakes on split-second judgment calls ... but in this case, the review didn't show clear evidence to overturn the TD call.  Only option is that officials had additional viewing angles on the play ?

"Romeo Okwara, who added another sack against Minnesota"
One of your fear ... RO has made another splash play and upping his total sacks to 10 for the season, entering the top 10 of NFL pass rushers (first is TJ Watt with 15 sacks).

According to Spotrac, he would have a "calculated market value" of 10M/year.
www.spotrac.com/nfl/detroit-lions/romeo-okwara-19531/market-value/

"I'm convinced the Vikings would try to upgrade the QB position if it was practical to do so."
The main problem with Kirk Cousins is more his huge contract than his playmaking abilities.

"Jesse James"
I would have preferred to see Hunter Bryant on the field.

"Walker was flagged for roughing the passer on a pretty routine tackle"
This was another horrible flag for roughing the passer but unfortunately this is the way the NFL has been drifting for years, QBs can be barely touched now. 

"Harrison Smith interception"
This guy is a veteran, he knows Stafford' tendencies inside out. A few minutes earlier, Anthony Harris nearly picked Stafford apart on a similar play.

"Going for the 2 point conversion in the first situation it was attempted was indeed a mistake."
There were still plenty of time and this was not mandatory but you can hardly blame this aggressive call, Bevell played for the win.

[frenchylions]

Last play - Rams @ Seahawks game - Wild Card 2021 - with Fox putting his full body weight on Russell Wilson ... any resemblance with Tracy Walker's sack on Cousins ?
Adrian Hill, would you have flagged this one ?

[D6]

.........

Frenchy, thanks for your thoughts and the info you provided about the game. It's always appreciated! I plan on getting back to this thread by Tuesday.

Regarding the bogus penalty on Tracy Walker, the NFL not fining Walker speaks volumes of the officiating call by Adrian Hill.

[D6]

Frenchy, from the perspective of someone who has officiated over 100 football games, do you believe like I do from a long time fan perspective that the NFL should use Full Time Officials? If the NFL Officials were able to prepare for games with around the same number of hours that players prepare for a game, I feel that they would get a noticeably more amount of calls correct on the field. Having a greater depth knowledge of the tendencies and techniques that teams and specific players use should help identify what transpired on plays in real time.


Even though Romeo Okwara helped his market value with his 10th sack, at least this sack was against Vikings RT Brian O'Neill ( who I believe is the Vikings best Offensive Lineman ) when the outcome of the game wasn't remotely close to being decided

A $ 10 million a year contract for Romeo Okwara is understandable, providing the guaranteed money doesn't go higher than $ 30 million.

Though I agree with you that the main problem with Kirk Cousins is his contract, I still feel the Vikings would try to upgrade over Cousins if the contract was taken out of the equation. While the QB is the # 1 key player on most NFL playoff caliber teams, there's no question on this end that RB Dalvin Cook is the key player on the Vikings Offense.

Harrison Smith ranks with the best all around Safeties in the last decade. While Eric Kendricks is the glue to the Vikings LB unit, Harrison Smith has been the same for an even longer period of time to the Vikings Secondary. Smith turns 32 next month and is entering the final season of his contract with the Vikings. With Smith due a base salary of over $ 9 million, it will be interesting to see how the Vikings proceed with him.

[frenchylions]

Considering the level of professionalism in the NFL, they deserve Full Time Officials as you're advocating.
I cannot tell you how much time it took me to know these rules inside out, revising it every pregame to get these penalties right ... not to mention the management of the other officials mechanics.
Moreover, if a bad call could go unnoticed at our modest level, in the NFL every call is scrutinized and bad calls are heavily highlighted resulting in officials bashing.

As for Romeo Okwara, I would feel more comfortable with a reasonable base salary coupled with lucrative incentives.  It won't happen but how many times have we seen a fluke being offered a huge contract and not playing up to it afterwards ?

Another player the Vikings could cut is LT Riley Reiff, costing a lot of money while Ezra Cleveland is already ready to take up the position for much less.

[D6]

Frenchy, thanks for providing insight from a football officiating perspective. One additional thing in particular about NFL decision making, when it comes to officiating, that I strongly disagree with, is the so called All Star crews that are used in playoff games. What you mentioned about being in sync with the other members of an officiating crew becomes a much more difficult task when officials that didn't work together during the regular season are officiating a playoff game.

Even factoring in injuries, Nick Williams likely is an example of a player who got a much better UFA contract than his overall NFL career reflected. A much better season by Williams in 2019 with the Bears, at age 29, led Bob Quinn to give Williams a 2 year / $ 10 million in March, 2020. Though Romeo Okwara has a greater body of quality NFL tape than Williams, the stakes are higher with Okwara ( because of the much more lucrative contract that will almost certainly come his way ).

There's no question that for Riley Reiff to have any chance of not being a salary cap casualty in 2021, he will have to restructure his contract downward again.

If the Vikings decide to cut Reiff or move him to another O-Line position, in addition to Ezra Cleveland, Brian O'Neill could be a candidate to be moved to LT. Cleveland is high athletic but he needs to add bulk strength.

[frenchylions]

"All Star crews that are used in playoff games"

I guess Full Time Officials should be able to get along on the fly but the "crew chemistry" is very important.
Officials are communicating on each and every play and everyone has to be sure that his fellow official will do the job properly (where to position, where to look, what to look for, give the appropriate signals, etc)
Even at our amateur level, we had developed our proper sign language to communicate quickly and efficiently between snaps and speed up games.