Free Press sports writer Carlos Monarrez answers three questions from the Detroit Lions’ 35-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Monday night:
What did you think of the Lions’ aggressiveness on offense?
I loved it. Coach Dan Campbell and offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn showed the kind of never-punt boldness usually found in video games. From the time the Lions won the coin toss and elected to start on offense, they stayed aggressive when they had the ball. It paid off with a 46-yard pass to Quintez Cephus on third-and-1 and a 75-yard opening drive that resulted in a 7-0 lead. They also went for it on fourth-and-1 when they were only down, 21-17, in the third quarter and should have converted if Jared Goff had made a better read and thrown to a wide-open D’Andre Swift. It’s good that Campbell is setting the tone for his team and understands that playing it conservative will realistically never give his team a chance to win.
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How bad is this defense?
Well, it certainly didn’t get any better with rookie cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu — already a substitute for Jeff Okudah — leaving the game in the third quarter with a thigh injury. We knew the defense was going to be a work in progress, but the lack of talent and depth has been even more apparent with injuries starting to pile up in the secondary. With the safeties playing deep and helping the cornerbacks, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers exposed the linebackers in the middle of the field with runs and passes. Green Bay faced only two third downs in the first half and went 5-for-8 on third downs for the game. The harsh truth is there’s not much the Lions can do about their undermanned and banged-up defense other than hope for better luck and lots of help from the offense.
What was the most promising part of the Lions’ performance?
It wound up a lopsided loss, but let’s not forget the Lions shocked the NFL world by taking a 17-14 halftime lead. And a lot of the credit for that goes to Goff, who showed improvement from Week 1 by playing better early. He finished the first half 13 of 16 for 137 yards with two touchdowns and a 141.9 rating. Yes, he didn’t see Swift on that fourth-down pass, he still seems hesitant to air it out, especially on the run, he lost a fumble on a handoff and he fumbled another ball in the rain while dropping back to pass. But he showed enough promise early in moving the offense and sustaining drives that should give the Lions hope to win a game soon, especially against a non-playoff caliber team.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.