There are two ways to walk into work Monday after a tough loss on a Sunday — bad or worse.
For the Detroit Lions, it was the former according to coach Dan Campbell, who’d just finished watching the game film before addressing reporters.
“There was a lot of encouraging things on tape,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you, after watching the tape it was better than I felt after the game, so that’s always a good thing.”
However, “encouraging” doesn’t mean it wasn’t maddening. There was plenty to be upset with; for instance, how the defense didn’t have any answers until it was too late.
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The unit allowed 39 rushes to go for 216 yards (5.4 yards per attempt) and four different Eagles to score. The pass defense wasn’t much better, as Hurts completed 18 of 32 passes for 243 yards and was sacked just one time.
Perhaps the toughest pill to swallow was the Eagles going 10-for-17 on third downs, including 8-for-12 in the first three quarters before Detroit forced two punts in the game’s final period. But unlike recent years where a talent gap was the biggest problem — though the Eagles likely had the best players on the field on offense and defense — that wasn’t what jumped out Monday morning.
“When it’s things we know we can fix, that’s what we want to see,” Austin Bryant said. “Now if it’s things beyond our control, now we’ve got problems.”
Campbell cited tackling issues as one of those fixable things.
He mentioned gap responsibility, times where the interior of the line was dialed up for stunt but only one man ran it, three instances of the fourth defender on the line of scrimmage not fitting his gap (and dropping back instead) and times where players on defense lunged at the ball carrier instead of wrapping him up.
Hurts, in particular, was the man who … hurt the Lions on those plays.
“We can’t stop our feet,” Campbell said. “It doesn’t matter he’s the quarterback, if he’s running with the football you can’t worry about is he going down, is he not, how’s he going to run this — treat him like a running back.
“I think it’s something now that we’ve seen it, we’re going to be better for it.”
The offense had its woes as well. The receiving core had nearly half-dozen drops. Logan Stenberg making his first career start at right guard received a 0.0 grade from Pro Football Focus after consecutive false starts on the game’s opening drive then allowing a pressure that resulted in Jared Goff’s pick-six.
After a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game, the Lions didn’t get a first down until the 5:20 mark of the second quarter — 19 minutes and 58 seconds of game time; nearly one-third of the game.
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Because of that poor stretch, Goff wasn’t able to get into a rhythm until late. The Lions’ second-year signal caller was 11-for-23 with a touchdown and an interception early in the fourth quarter.
By the time the offense got firing on all cylinders, the clock ran out. As Penei Sewell said Monday, they must focus on the little things.
“There’s some things to clean up details-wise,” Sewell said. “That’s what stood out the most. Obviously, we can run off the ball, things that don’t need technique, but when we cleaned up the tape today, there was just little like hand placement, not hitting the ground quick enough, pad level, stuff like that.”
But as the Lions have said since the loss, it is just the first week. That doesn’t mean close losses are acceptable or will be tolerated. It means there were good moments, too.
The Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, who just faced off in the Super Bowl, both lost in Week 1 as well. It’s far too soon for any sweeping proclamations.
“I’m always confident, I think all our guys are always confident,” Bryant said. “It’s (just) one game, it’s a 17-game season, the Super Bowl is not decided tomorrow or from Week 1. We’ve got 16 or 17 games to build and show who we are, so that’s what I hang my confidence on.
“I’ve seen the work we’ve put in this offseason, I’ve seen the team we’ve been in camp and I’m not going to let one game or one week define who the Detroit Lions are going to be — that’s not in my DNA and that’s not in their DNA.”