Detroit – You can’t hit what you can’t catch.
And even if you’re one of those delusional fans that still view the Lions as a team that can’t catch a break, this was a game that had to leave you staggered.
Just like the stat sheet that Dan Campbell was staring at Sunday as he tried to make sense of what we’d all just watched in the Lions’ 31-27 loss to Miami at Ford Field.
The Dolphins’ dynamic duo at wide receiver – speedsters Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle – shredded Detroit’s defense all game. But as the Lions’ head coach searched for answers in his postgame press conference he also was scanning the final numbers.
“Shoot, man … 300 yards of offense?” he said, shaking his head.
Yep, but he knew that was just the offense those two receivers had produced, combining for 20 catches and 294 receiving yards even though they were the two guys the Lions knew they had to stop if they wanted to have any chance of snapping a four-game losing streak Sunday.
Needless to say, things didn’t go as planned.
“We didn’t want to turn it into a track meet,” Campbell said. “And it was a track meet.”
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It’s one the Lions lost, even with a head start, as Jared Goff and the offense staked Detroit to a 14-0 lead early and a 10-point halftime margin before strangely deciding to pad around the field in stocking feet in the second half.
The Lions scored on all five of their first-half possessions, posting the sixth-highest halftime score (27 points) in the NFL this season. Then they managed just five first downs and 52 net yards the rest of the way, paving the way for Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins’ comeback.
Tagovailoa, the quarterback the Lions could’ve had three years ago in the draft, finished the day with a near-perfect passer rating, throwing for 382 yards and three touchdowns as he picked apart the Lions’ secondary. He averaged nearly 10 yards per attempt and almost never looked flustered Sunday.
There were quick throws, roll-outs left and right and all sorts of pre-snap motion that had a dizzying effect on Aaron Glenn’s crew. But to a man, the Lions all insisted there was nothing there that they didn’t expect. And in Glenn’s case, as the architect of what is once again the NFL’s 32nd-ranked defense (both in yards and points allowed), it’s indefensible now.
Yes, the Lions are missing key starters due to injury, none more indispensable than safety Tracy Walker. And yes, Glenn’s working with four rookie starters at the moment, which is both the right approach for this franchise and a losing proposition in this league.
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Still, watching this group try and fail, again and again, it’s hard to imagine any of this will get fixed yet this season.
Consider that Tagovailoa was 10-for-12 passing on third and fourth downs Sunday, and one of those two incompletions still moved the chains due to a Lions penalty. He also scrambled 18 yards to convert another third down, threw two of his three touchdowns on gotta-have-it plays, and when asked about head coach Mike McDaniels’ game plan afterward, he smiled, “I think we felt really comfortable.”
Of course they did. The Lions have a knack for making teams feel right at home on the road, even with a crowd of 60,000-plus trying its best to do the opposite.
The Lions were determined to slow down the Dolphins by jamming them at the line of scrimmage, but that hardly worked with Hill or Waddle, who’ve given everyone fits this season. (They’ve combined for 1,840 receiving yards thus far, an NFL record for a pair of teammates through the first eight games of a season.)
“Yeah, we didn’t hit them,” Campbell said. “We didn’t hit them at the line. That was part of the game plan. We didn’t disrupt. We did not disrupt, and when you let them do that and get into your defense …”
Well, then, you’re going to have problems. Amani Oruwariye, who’d bounced back in Dallas after getting benched before the bye week, got beat on Hill’s two longest receptions of 42 and 36 yards Sunday, while A.J. Parker had a rough day trying to cover Waddle in the slot. Rookie safety Kerby Joseph did force a fumble on Miami’s opening drive to help the Lions’ build some early momentum. But those plays were few and far between for most of the rest of the afternoon.
And when asked who’s to blame for that, Campbell did what he usually does.
“It’s all of us,” he said. “When this is the result, it’s on every one of us, including myself.”
The Lions’ inability to deal with speed crossing them up in the middle of the field remains a glaring problem. And I’m not sure we’ll see them come up with a solution until Brad Holmes addresses the personnel in free agency and the draft next spring.
Campbell certainly sounds ready to give second-year corner Jerry Jacobs, who recently returned from last year’s ACL injury, a longer look as a starter.
“We’re going to be looking at Jerry,” he said. “We’ll be looking at everybody.”
But beyond that, the options are limited. And if you’re a Lions fan looking for answers, that’s the troubling part. Two months into their second season of trying to find a solution, the defense is still an insurmountable problem.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo