My Takeaways from the Game Tonight

[DarkVictory23]

1.) Can we not do the 'every team has injuries, no excuses' thing anymore? I think this game settles that if basically your entire front seven is sitting in a hospital room (and you lose a starting safety during the game), that's a giant issue. Flat out. It seems like the only time people want to admit an injury matters is when it's a QB, but I think losing a whole freakin' D-Line should be somewhat considered equivalent.

2.) It's borderline criminal that we have Geno Smith playing behind that offensive line in this state going on a second season in a row now. On the other hand, how impressive were he and Kenneth Walker at actually making stuff happen in this circumstance?

3.) This team fights to the end. Gotta give it up to them.

4.) I wasn't overly pissed at the officiating this game, but that no-call PI on DK Metcalf in the end zone cost us 7. That was as blatant as pass interference gets and Monday Night Football officiating commenter guy: Your job isn't supposed to be to cover for referee incompetence.

5.) Going for 2 wasn't actually a bad call. There are reasons to do it. It allows us to tie (if we ever got stops) with two field goals and it puts us in the driver's seat to play for a win if we get it. The only reason I don't trust that call is because with this O-Line, we don't have a consistent short yardage running game which I think you need to keep a defense honest in that situation. (It was, however, a mistake not to challenge the ruling that it wasn't a catch. But rookie head coaches make mistakes.)


Fun, but really, really frustrating game.

 

[Ozzy]

Agreed on everything. I said it in the game day forum but the analytics agreed with it. If they make the right call it increases our chances.

The one take away i have is this team faught their asses off. That’s extension of their coach. I was harder on Pete than many in here but he had the ability to do that too, his teams always fight til the end.

It was a weird game. A couple of bad calls go the right way, DK doesn’t fumble and this game is super, super close and maybe you win without your whole front line playing.

I think this team will be fine moving forward

 

[JGreen79]

Interestingly enough, despite how bad the defense was and looked today. They only allowed 30 more passing yards and 20 more rushing yards than their average this year.

Really weird game just looking at the stats.

 

[Fresno Hawk]

I think that Grubb needs to call a more balanced game. Can't have Geno throwing 56 times in the game. That's way too much in my opinion.

 

[sutz]

I think that Grubb needs to call a more balanced game. Can't have Geno throwing 56 times in the game. That's way too much in my opinion.

Understand, but once we fell two TD's behind, establishing the running game takes too much time. We actually did run fairly well in the 2d half.

 

[DarkVictory23]

Agreed on everything. I said it in the game day forum but the analytics agreed with it. If they make the right call it increases our chances.

The one take away i have is this team faught their asses off. That’s extension of their coach. I was harder on Pete than many in here but he had the ability to do that too, his teams always fight til the end.

It was a weird game. A couple of bad calls go the right way, DK doesn’t fumble and this game is super, super close and maybe you win without your whole front line playing.

I think this team will be fine moving forward

I think you could fix any one of like two or three moments in this game, we could have straight up won.

It sucks to get your first loss, but on the road, stacked with injuries all located in one specific area, against a tough team who are custom built to take advantage of those injuries, and you seriously are one bad call or one fumble away from winning? I think, honestly, you've gotta feel confident coming out of this.

I think that Grubb needs to call a more balanced game. Can't have Geno throwing 56 times in the game. That's way too much in my opinion.

Sure, but I mean, we'd love to do that, but as said, you can't do that when you are constantly trying to get out of a 2 score deficit. Plus... my man dropped nearly 400 yards on them (over if you count the scrambles).

The problem with our offense is the same as last year: The offensive line sucks. Geno can counteract that somewhat with quick throws, but a run game needs push to get going. We are stuck doing what we did last year, which was hoping Geno could start to throw the defense into giving us running lanes, which actually happened this game.

We can be more balanced when our defense can actually get stops.

 

[Flyingsquad23]

Interestingly enough, despite how bad the defense was and looked today. They only allowed 30 more passing yards and 20 more rushing yards than their average this year.

Really weird game just looking at the stats.

5-5 in the RZ is the glaring difference.
Hawks had 38 first downs, I can’t remember a time they had that many.

 

[Fresno Hawk]

Understand, but once we fell two TD's behind, establishing the running game takes too much time. We actually did run fairly well in the 2d half.

Yes we did run well in 2nd half. I just feel like his play calling in the first half is what cost us the game. Even when we were down 14-0 we had plenty of time to establish the run.

 

[mistaowen]

Geno is a superstar and deserves to be in the MVP race at the moment. His OL does him no favors and he masterfully manipulates the pocket to keep this offense alive. Just absolutely ripping it tonight.

DK, JSN, and K9 will hopefully be a trio of offensive studs for the next decade.

We always knew going into Detroit against a top 3 OL without a bunch of starters, especially on the DL, would be tough. The fill ins were terrible, the locker room will not be a pretty sight, nor will film review this week. I think a lot of guys proved tonight they will not be a part of the long term plans for this organization. Let’s hope they get some guys back before the 49ers.

 

[NoGain]

We sucked on defense, but so did they. We had a key turnover, and they didn't. The refs really effed up on two key calls. We were down a lot of starters on D. They weren't. They were at home, we weren't.

Not a bad loss. I mean, losses always suck, but this wasn't a terrible one. There's a lot to build from. There's a lot of re-focusing to do. I'm optimistic.

 

[DarkVictory23]

One Bonus takeaway I mentioned in Gameday chat:

6.) We got a lot of 2nd (heck, even 3rd) string guys experience starting and we got valuable tape. As mistaowen points out, this is going to be a VERY unhappy locker room to be a part of on this short week. But if this team has post season aspirations (and I think they should), this is the type of experience some of these guys will need.

It was smart to keep guys out if they need it, even if it ultimately cost us this game. We have too many games in too few days to risk blowing up our season with long term injuries on weeks 4-6. But we still aren't going to be 100% healthy all the way down the stretch. Some of these guys will grow from this.

Some of these guys are going to get tossed for this. I think we can be stronger for it, though, if our coaching staff takes the right lessons from it.

 

[bileever]

I had hoped that the Lions being without their Pro Bowl center would make a difference, but I guess having 4/5th of a great O-line is still pretty good.

I know we were down a few players, but it would have been nice if the defense could have made a few more stops, gotten a turnover, or at least forced Goff to have an incomplete pass.

We couldn't stop the run or the pass. I hope that it's a learning moment for the defense and Macdonald.

 

[knownone]

#1 is always tricky. Injuries are not a good excuse for giving up 42 points. They certainly played a huge role. But Macdonald never took his foot off the pedal, and we got absolutely torched when his blitzes failed to hit home. Goff had a nearly perfect passer rating, didn't have an incompletion, and had an average of 16.2 ypa against a secondary that was perfectly healthy for three quarters. Those are absurd numbers, even for a defense missing multiple starters.

Now, does it mean anything going forward? No. But it was by no means a good showing, and injuries certainly don't excuse what was a pretty lousy game by the defense.

 

[Maelstrom787]

5-5 in the RZ is the glaring difference.
Hawks had 38 first downs, I can’t remember a time they had that many.

The most by a losing team in NFL history.

 

[HawkinNY]

My takeaway is 18 for 18. Our so called secondary could swat a single ball. We don’t have talent on this team and it showed. I bet teams will run the same exact plays all year and we don’t win more than 2 more games. Defense is a joke and it starts with the lack of talent.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

The play that really hurt imo, was right after the O made it a one score game. They actually diagnosed that pass to Montgomery perfectly but not being able to get him to the ground turned little or no gain into a 40 yarder. It just killed any momentum from coming out in the third quarter and making it a 1 score game.

 

[DarkVictory23]

#1 is always tricky. Injuries are not a good excuse for giving up 42 points. They certainly played a huge role. But Macdonald never took his foot off the pedal, and we got absolutely torched when his blitzes failed to hit home. Goff had a nearly perfect passer rating, didn't have an incompletion, and had an average of 16.2 ypa against a secondary that was perfectly healthy for three quarters. Those are absurd numbers, even for a defense missing multiple starters.

Now, does it mean anything going forward? No. But it was by no means a good showing, and injuries certainly don't excuse what was a pretty lousy game by the defense.

No, it was not a good showing, but the fact is, Detroit's a good offense. We weren't going to hold them scoreless even with our full roster. That said, yeah, we did keep getting torched by the same screens every time we dialed up extra pressure, so that's a lesson for Macdonald to take. He drew up something that probably drops Goff if we have Mafe or Nwosu in the game but was a mistake with a guy like Gipson.

Some of that was desperation, but it's an opportunity for him to learn as well.

But it absolutely does explain a heckuva lot of why we looked the way we did. You can diagnose these plays happening in real time where you see the injuries making a difference: If Mafe is here, that's a sack. If Murphy is here, this he's holding two guys himself at the LOS and that running lane never opens up. If Nwosu is there, that trick play never gets called (or is an interception when it is).

 

[TheLegendOfBoom]

I said it in the other thread and I’ll say it in this, this was Detroits regular season Super Bowl….the Lions have wanted to beat Seattle for the longest time now…..so they hired some ref help for a guarantee! Lol…..

 

[Bear-Hawk]

Lions are not invincible. Just too many injuries, though.

I honestly thought Bears would be better than the Hawks this year. I was wrong. I am looking forward to the Seahawks games more than Bears this season. Don’t complain about the Seahawks offensive line until you see the Bears!

 

[DarkVictory23]

Lions are not invincible. Just too many injuries, though.

I honestly thought Bears would be better than the Hawks this year. I was wrong. I am looking forward to the Seahawks games more than Bears this season. Don’t complain about the Seahawks offensive line until you see the Bears!

Our offensive line is the 31st rated in both Pass Block Win Rate and Run Block Win Rate. Only the Patriots are worse.

Bears O-Line is bad, too... but ours is actually worse, believe it or not. Our QB is just better (and also not a rookie learning NFL game speed).