Lions Need One Thing To Have Hollywood Ending: Improved Pass-Rush
The Detroit Lions aren't showing any signs of slowing down.
Coming off the bye, they emerged victorious in a shootout with the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday. It marked the Lions’ seventh win in nine games, including their fourth victory in five road games.
It came on the heels of an impressive offensive display from Jared Goff & Co. Goff made big throw after big throw, leading the Lions on seven total scoring drives, including three crucial ones in the second half. Detroit needed each one of those drives, too, as the final six possessions of the game each ended with points, including 21 points from the Chargers.
It surely wasn't just Goff that came up big on Sunday, though.
Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, in his return from injury, each also produced several explosive runs. The duo was electric all afternoon long, and combined for 193 yards on the ground, including three scores.
You couldn't have asked for a better day from Montgomery, who hadn't played since Detroit's Week 6 win in Tampa Bay. The veteran back ran the ball just 12 times, but amassed 116 yards, highlighted by a 75-yard touchdown run that saw him evade multiple defenders on the way to the end zone.
The Lions wouldn't have prevailed victorious on Sunday without either of their top two backs or their lead receiver, Amon-Ra St. Brown.
St. Brown delivered a career-best performance, finishing the Week 10 affair with a career-high 156 receiving yards. It marked his sixth time, in seven games played this season, with 100 receiving yards. He became the first Lions player to achieve that feat in a seven-game span since Calvin Johnson in 2012.
St. Brown caught eight of his nine targets from Goff on Sunday, including a 46-yard bomb from the veteran signal-caller on the team's opening drive.
The third-year pro has become one of the most dependable receivers in the NFL, a sentiment that his head coach, Dan Campbell, echoed after the game.
“He is the most steady, reliable guy that you can find in this league,” Campbell said of St. Brown. “I mean, I’d love to know somebody that is more reliable than him, because I don’t know if there is (anybody).”
St. Brown has now gone over 100 receiving yards in four consecutive games (and once again, he's the first Lions player to do that since Johnson).
“I feel as good with him as I’ve ever felt with anybody,” Goff said of his go-to receiver in the postgame. “He’s a stud. He gets himself open. He has great hands. I could go down the list of things we all know about him. I think, ultimately, I trust him. It’s a credit to the way he practices and the way that he goes about his business.”
Meanwhile, Campbell's defense showed little-to-no resistance all afternoon long, surrendering 38 points and 421 total yards of offense.
And, most notably, the team's pass-rushing unit was MIA once again. It produced zero sacks and just three hurries of Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. And, in case you were wondering, all three of those hurries came from second-year EDGE Aidan Hutchinson, who failed to record a sack for a fourth consecutive game.
Prior to this Week 10 tilt, Herbert had been sacked at least once in seven of the Chargers’ first eight games this season, including five times a week ago against the N.Y. Jets.
Detroit, however, generated a very lackluster pass rush on Sunday. Subsequently, Herbert, who is one of the best passers the league has to offer, had an ample amount of time to dissect and carve up the Lions’ secondary. He ended up passing for 323 yards and four touchdowns against Detroit's shoddy defense.
Additionally, the majority of his completions ended up in the hands of his go-to target, Keenan Allen. The star Chargers wideout could not be stopped by the Lions’ defensive backs, including the likes of Cam Sutton and Jerry Jacobs. Allen finished the contest with a game-high 175 receiving yards and two scores.
Aaron Glenn's unit did very little right against the Herbert-led offensive attack, and it nearly prevented Detroit from capturing the win Sunday.
Luckily for the Lions, their offense made up for all the defense's shortcomings against Los Angeles. This likely isn't a sustainable way of winning football games, though, especially as the competition stiffens for Detroit at the end of the season. The team's end-of-the-season schedule features two games in three weeks against Minnesota and a Week 17 primetime matchup with Dak Prescott and the Cowboys.
You can't bank on Goff and the team's offensive weapons to bail out poor performances from Detroit's defense on a weekly basis.
Instead, Glenn's unit needs to clean up its issues, plus develop a reliable pass-rush. Hutchinson can't be the only Detroit defender getting after the quarterback on a regular basis.
The 2023 campaign has the makings of being a special one for the Lions organization. It very well could be the year in which Detroit wins its first playoff game since the 1991 season.
However, if Campbell's squad continues its erroneous ways on defense, its season could be over far sooner than its fanbase would like.
