Flowers, Ragnow being evaluated for concussions

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The hits keep coming!!!

Detroit was a wounded team heading into Sunday’s 35-27 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and they left with more injuries they’ll have to deal with throughout the week.

Safety Tracy Walker, fullback Nick Bawden, kick returner Jamal Agnew, center Frank Ragnow and defensive end Trey Flowers all left the game with injuries and did not return. Lions head coach Matt Patricia confirmed after the game that Ragnow and Flowers were being evaluated for concussions.

Walker missed the last two games with a knee injury, and it was a knee issue that caused him to leave Sunday’s game and not return.

“We had done a couple of things with him through the course of the week and just really saw everything looked normal,” Patricia said of Walker being active after missing practice Wednesday and Thursday, but returning Friday in limited fashion and then being active Sunday.

“Everything looked fine from the physical standpoint. (We) had a couple of packages that we thought it would be good for him to be in and not really be in a situation where it would be high-risk from that standpoint. Certainly, then obviously in the game (he) just kind of felt a little bit of something. So, we just thought it was better to be a little bit safer there. I don’t think it was a re-injury, but it was just all kind of symptomatic.”

PENALTIES

For a second consecutive week, Patricia addressed penalties as being a big disappointment for him in his opening statement to the media following the game.

“I think the biggest thing for us right now that I’m continually talking about is the penalties and the penalty situation and just continues to hurt us,” he said. “So, put ourselves in some really tough situations by committing some of those penalties.

“Some of them, I know we can clean up. Some of them are just concentration penalties that we have to do a better job of and some of them obviously is when our technique fails, and we get outside the things that we’re supposed to do. So, we have to get that cleaned up.”

Detroit finished the game with 11 penalties for 89 yards.

KICKOFF AT 35

There was no play Sunday that better summed up Detroit’s penalty problems of late than Dallas having a kickoff from the Detroit 35-yard line following a second-quarter touchdown.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott hit wide receiver Randall Cobb on a 19-yard touchdown pass that Lions safety Will Harris was flagged 15 yards on for initiated contact to Cobb’s helmet. The 15 yards were enforced on the ensuing kickoff.

Then, on the extra point try, Lions defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That’s another 15 yards enforced on the kickoff. It resulted in Dallas kicking off from the Lions’ 35-yard line and attempting an onside kick.

Lions wide receiver Kenny Golladay recovered the kick at the Detroit 15-yard line where the offense then had to start the drive.

EXTRA POINT

  • Marvin Jones Jr. now has eight receiving touchdowns through Week 11, tied with Golladay for the most in the NFL. They’re the first Lions receivers through the first 10 games of a season to have eight touchdowns apiece since 1963 (Terry Barr and Gail Cogdill).
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First, we have a coach that thinks we should go for 2 to pull within 6…now this?

Rough day

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LOL. This team can never get it right, even when they actually DO get it right.

What a work.

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You do know the thinking on that 2-point conversion, right?

You’re playing for the win with an opportunity to tie if it fails. Otherwise you are playing for the tie, the tie and then hoping for the best in OT.

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Now that analytics have gotten involved and have shown a different way to approach the game mathematically, some people are struggling to change their mindset from the old way.

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I think the old way will still win out in the long run. Just because a few teams are trying to be cute, doesn’t mean it should be implemented all across the league. The Lions usually blow chunks in the red zone as it is, so going for 2 there is no way a 50/50 proposition in my mind. Especially with a backup QB, your #6 RB, and playing against a decent defense.

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Yeah, but it’s really not hard to connect the dots on this one. It’s aggressive but not. Going for the win with nothing to lose.

I’m sure I depart from the majority here when I support the late punt, too. There’s a show of pride in his system and faith in his personnel. When the game was on the line, he wanted it on his defense to make a stand. Do they have the horses for it? No, but you do more for the team playing like you do than taking a hail-mary type shot there. Plus, I expect the analytics shows that the defensive stand has a higher likelihood of occurring than a deep pass on 3rd and long against the team with the highest pressure percentage in the league.

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I definitely see the logic and why it all adds up. But some people are going to go to their grave with the old way permanently embedded in their brains.

Okay boomer

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That line is like Franks Red Hot sauce, you can put that shit on everything.

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Incredible insight. So thankful that you bestowed that grand wisdom upon me.

Most people kick the extra point, and IF you are going to go for 2, you do it on the 2nd TD to end the game. Most of the time…

Turns out to be a non-factor anyway…lost by more than a conversion. Just a cool story, at this point.

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Momentum matters. It didn’t feel like the right time to me. Also, from a standpoint of analytics…that’s why we see all of the bend but don’t break stuff at the end of games too. Coaches have seen statistical evidence that it increases your chances of winning the game. That said, you have to know your own personnel and when you have our OL, you end up run, run, run punt…with a D that is already tired.

Using an extreme (but real) case, to make a point. I don’t like coaching a football game like it’s a math problem. Same principle as riding the hot hand, or sticking with what works.

I perfectly understand what you both are saying. I just don’t agree that it was the right time to go for 2. Humans, with human emotions, building momentum, and capitalizing.

To me, after the TD, it felt like we could be creeping back in, but that Dallas was still fairly firmly in control.

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If you think it through, since another scoring opportunity is required to tie, the gamble on the 1st 2pt is hedged by the availability of the 2nd.

If you wait for the 2nd attempt, it’s do or die.

If the 2nd scoring opportunity is not achieved, it’s the non-factor you acknowledge it was.

If he had waited for the 2nd attempt, it would have been too much of a gamble. At that point, it’s either a desperation play on a lost season or excessively risky.

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Already thought it though. Already understand that. Did yesterday, when it happened.

All true, hence my phrasing “IF you go for 2”…as overtime is an option…and…it’s not do or die. Overtime is do or die, I’ll give you that.

If you feel you must win in regulation, your scenario is on point. My philosophy…
Kick the extra point.
If you get the next TD, have a sense of the game, momentum, how both teams are looking (confident, distraught, dejected, unstoppable, even), and decide to go for/not go for conversion at that point. Sometimes you feel more like you can win in overtime.

Microwaved… Felt like Dallas still had 75% of the momentum, confidence, faith. To me, that matters. To me, that gets factored in. We can disagree, or not.

I just think it’s funny when people don’t agree, the other guy just needs to “think it through,” and he’ll see that Im right. Literally made me smile.

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“If you think it through,” is an invitation to consider variables that would have to occur but at that point had not (and did not). Followed by several more “if’s”.

"If you feel you must win in regulation, "
That does not accurately describe the scenario, IMO.

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Is is just me, or do we seem to get an inordinate amount of concussions?

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I can’t speak for each individual situation, but a lot of concussions are caused from poor technique or being overmatched. Some are caused from being pancaked or going in for a tackle with your head down. Call me crazy, but your team isn’t chock full of good fundamental players, or guys who are in primo shape, for that matter.