Detroit Lions grades: High marks for front seven despite loss to Lamar Jackson, Ravens

Quarterbacks

Jared Goff got off to a slow start for the second time in three weeks and seemed out of synch with his receivers early. He was off the mark on passes to Darren Fells and Kalif Raymond on the game’s opening series, and twice completed balls to Raymond in which he did not give his receiver a chance for yards after the catch, including on a crucial third-and-2 play just before halftime. Goff was much better in the second half. He finished 22 of 30 passing for 217 yards and played his first turnover-free game of the season, but he needs to string two good halves together for the Lions to beat good teams. Grade: C-plus

Running backs

D’Andre Swift was the Lions’ best offensive player Sunday. He led the Lions in rushing (14 carries, 47 yards) and receptions (seven for 60 yards) and fueled their first touchdown drive with three catches and a 2-yard TD plunge. Swift and Goff had a miscommunication on a wheel route that had big-play potential, but the second-year back had his way Ravens linebacker Tyus Bowser on two pass plays, making Bowser miss with a stutter-step on a 11-yard swing pass then beating him on a circle route on the same series. Jamaal Williams scored his third touchdown of the season on a 1-yard run, but either he or Goff turned the wrong way on a second-and-6 handoff that went for no gain. Grade: B-plus

CARLOS MONARREZ: Lions’ defense did enough to beat the Ravens. The offense did not

Wide receivers/tight ends

In Goff’s defense, he does not get much help from his receiving corps. Raymond and Trinity Benson had drops Sunday, and Raymond was the only receiver with a catch that went for longer than 9 yards. T.J. Hockenson (two catches, 10 yards) had an unusually quiet day as the Ravens bracketed him at every turn. Hockenson was overpowered by Broderick Washington on a run block when Williams was stuffed for a short gain, and Fells had a costly false start when the Lions lined up to go for a fourth-and-1. Quintez Cephus and Amon-Ra St. Brown had quiet days catching the football, but they had the key blocks on Swift’s 9-yard catch on third-and-6 that kept alive the Lions’ second touchdown drive. Grade: D-plus

Offensive line

The Lions weren’t quite as good up front as they were in last week’s loss to the Packers, but the unit continues to play at a collectively high level. The Ravens had two sacks Sunday, both by free blitzers in overload situations. Halapoulivaati Vaitai was left blocking no one on the first sack, so there was some sort of communication error, while Swift was responsible for the second sack. Vaitai did open a big hole for Williams’ 14-yard run, while he and Jonah Jackson were overwhelmed on the Lions’ first rush of the second half. Jackson had a rough second quarter, when he was called for a holding penalty that negated an 8-yard run and had a person foul on the same series. And Penei Sewell had a careless false start penalty when the Lions lined up to go for another fourth-and-1 just before halftime. Grade: B

SHAWN WINDSOR: Lions’ indomitable spirit wasn’t enough to hold off history. But it was so close

Defensive line

The Lions held Baltimore’s vaunted rushing game in check because they got good play from a front seven that adhered to a disciplined game plan. The Lions mostly stayed true to their rushing lanes up front, and they were relentless coming after Jackson on the game’s final series. Austin Bryant, Romeo Okwara and Charles Harris had sacks, and Julian Okwara had a good day rushing even though he did not record a tackle. The Ravens finished with 116 yards rushing and averaged 5.3 yards per carry, but they had just one big rushing play, when Michael Brockers left Jackson a big lane to run through. Grade: A-minus

Linebackers

The Lions’ new-look linebacking corps deserves credit for the solid defensive performance against the run, too. Rookie Derrick Barnes made four tackles in his first career start at inside linebacker. He shed a block by fullback Patrick Ricard to make his first tackle, on Devonta Freeman, and played through what appeared to be a stinger he suffered early in the game. Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who split time with Barnes at the Lions’ buck position, made a tackle-for-loss on his first play, when he correctly identified a zone-read handoff and made a beeline for the ball. Because they were so in tune to stopping the run, the Lions left some big passing lanes in the middle of the field, including when Reeves-Maybin did not get enough depth on Mark Andrews’ 41-yard catch. Overall, though, this was the best the unit has played this season. Grade: B

AT HALFTIME: Fans booing Fords made Calvin Johnson’s Hall of Fame ring ceremony a hard watch

Defensive backs

Jackson finished with 287 yards passing and easily could have had 100 more. Marquise Brown dropped three touchdown passes, including what should have been a 76-yard bomb on Bobby Price, and Jackson missed a wide-open Mark Andrews in the end zone in the third quarter. Price did appear to get his fingertips on a shot play to Sammy Watkins in the first half, when he was in blanket coverage, but the Lions secondary gave up too many easy receptions for the third straight week. One of A.J. Parker or Will Harris busted the coverage on Devin Duvernay’s touchdown, when both followed Mark Andrews inside. Park made a good third-down stop in run support to force a 49-yard field goal that Justin Tucker missed in the first quarter, and made another heads-up play to trip Jackson up from behind on a third-down scramble. Dean Marlowe saw his most extensive playing time of the season as the Lions’ safeties were effective against the run as well. Grade: C-minus 

Special teams

There’s nothing to fault the Lions on about Tucker’s game-winning 66-yard field goal. That’s just an amazing play by the best kicker in the NFL. But the Lions had some costly special teams mistakes otherwise. Jack Fox pinned the Ravens inside the 5 on his first punt of the game, then shanked his second out of bounds. The Lions drew an illegal formation penalty for not having enough players on the line of scrimmage on one punt, and Jerry Jacobs was called for a costly penalty after he ran out of bounds to avoid a block, negating a Marlowe recovery. It wasn’t a long kick, but Ryan Santoso showed some fortitude burying a 35-yard field goal with 1:04 to play to give the Lions a brief lead. Grade: D

Coaching

There are no moral victories in the NFL, but Dan Campbell and his staff deserve credit for their team’s gutsy performance Sunday. The Lions executed a well-designed defensive game plan against the best rushing team in the NFL and made enough changes offensively to come within a whisker of pulling off the day’s biggest upset. Anthony Lynn continues to show creativity on offense, mixing personnel packages to make up for the Lions’ shortcomings at receiver, but there were some game management issues to nitpick. I did not like Campbell’s first-half challenge of the spot on a third-and-2 completion that was just short of the sticks, though I get how critical that call was. The fourth-quarter challenge was a risk, too, when the Lions needed to conserve timeouts to stop the clock (though that did allow an injured Frank Ragnow to re-enter the game at center). The bigger mistake was rushing three on the late fourth-and-19, after the Lions had sacked Jackson twice in the previous three plays. Grade: C-plus

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.