Goff Report
Not Goff’s best game ever, but this is in no way a bad game. Goff completed 72.2% of his passes for 269 yards. The Colt definitely planned to get Goff out of position in this one and they succeeded, still Goff was able to get some really good throws off on the move and continues to just add levels to his game that we’ve been constantly told aren’t there.
Injuries on a short week could be a major problem on Thanksgiving
Lions suffered some very key injuries in this game. Carlton Davis went down with a non contact injury, Kalif Raymond missed the rest of the game with a foot injury. Taylor Decker got hurt and came back, but there’s still concerns there once the adrenaline goes away. David Montgomery got hurt and left the field for a while before coming back.
The Lions play the Bears in four days. These are some very big injuries to keep an eye on for that game.
The Vildors were wide open for a while
Man, Kindle Vildor did not have a good day on Sunday. The Colts attacked him almost exclusively in the first half and he gave up three catches for 61 yards on five targets. Not great at all. The Lions need to hope they can get Terrion Arnold back next week and hope Emmanuel Moseley can fill in when needed.
Vildor did have a much better second half. He did not allow a catch in the third or fourth quarters. Still, the Lions need their guys. Pay attention to what’s going on with Terrion Arnold and Carlton Davis. The Lions can’t have a game like that against a good quarterback.
Running Quarterback test
This was a big one that everyone was wondering about. Can the Lions defense be better against a running quarterback than they have been in the past? We got some answers against Kyler Murray and the Cardinals. Anthony Richardson managed to get some decent designed runs going, but the Lions for the most part were able to stop him. He had 35 yards on the first drive and then just 21 yards after that. They passed the test today.
No drop off at all with Jack Campbell and the green dot
Campbell had a very good game against the Colts on Sunday. He had five tackles and added a pressure of his own. With Anzalone out there was some concern that there would be some drop off in play at the green dot, but Campbell handled his business all day. This linebacker corps is just super deep right now.
Tim Patrick
Patrick had himself a day. If the Lions needed a first down, they went to Patrick and he was getting them. Patrick finished the day with four catches for 55 yards. Three of those catches went for a first down.
Za’Darius Smith was as advertised in this one
Smith may have got a sack against the Jaguars, but he was so much better in his second showing as a Lion. Smith had five pressures, four hurries and a quarterback hit. That hit was a huge one in the first quarter. It caused Richardson to overthrow his man in the end zone and kept the Colts from scoring a touchdown.
Alim McNeill is a bully
McNeill was killing the Colts interior offensive line all day long and it really hurt what Richardson was able to do on the ground and through the air. He had three pressures, two hurries and and a quarterback hit.