Good game plan. Good play calls. Generally good, absolutely.
I disagreed with how they handled the end of the 1st half but understand Campbell’s mentality. He wanted to be ultra aggressive against a really good team - fair enough, I’ll never complain about that.
The end of the 2nd half was bad though. You can’t say anyone who would have played that differently “doesn’t understand the game”.
If you’re going to be ultra aggressive all game, why let up on the last drive? They kicked that fg from 51 yds with 2 TO’s in their pocket. No way they should end the game with those TO’s in their pocket.
The Chark ball on 3rd/1 was nearly identical to the Josh Reynolds play a few weeks back. I don’t love it, but again I’m not going to nitpick that call. I do like the mentality behind it.
The problem was that they just let the clock bleed out on themselves prior to that.
Rich Eisen knows a thing or two about football…i think he nails it here. Id love to see anyone here suggest Rich “doesn’t understand the game”.
I don’t think the coaching was “bad” overall yesterday - not at all - but saying the game was handled properly at the end is definitely debatable.
Just a few things i still think they can clean up and do better so this team wins these games rather than blowing them.
This is football 101 stuff. They didn’t manage the end of the game well at all on offense or defense.
Really good otherwise though. Was a great game and I’m excited to see the lions start to win these ones. I think they will once they clean up a few more things and continue to improve.
So we should have called time outs and left Josh Allen and the Bills what? . . . A full minute for the last drive instead of 23 seconds? That would have been better?
Eisen is saying we need to call time outs to preserve time, but not to leave Allen time on the clock? Maybe he had a little too much Thanksgiving cheer.
I tried to explain that in the game thread and Dan explained it in the post gane. They were trykng to thread the needle time wise. Leave yourself enough to operate but don’t give Josh too much. Very tricky tp do.
I didn’t see Chark’s potential catch on that 3rd and 1 as a game winning catch. Perhaps it could’ve led to a win in regulation. But Chark only had a step on the CB.
My only real coaching complaint was not letting the clock run down to the two-minute warning from the 2:32 with a full play clock. It would have burn another 32 seconds off the clock, and given Buffalo less time on their final possession, because odds were they were going to get the ball back… the less time the better.
They couldn’t have known that when they called the play. Regardless, with a reception it gives them the ball with 30 seconds down around the 10 yard line.
The clock management was atrocious from the Lions. I’m just not sure that Dan is smart enough in this case to understand clock management while multi-tasking. Maybe he needs help. Will his ego let him accept help?
Sorry but I gotta disagree a bit here. There were moments of poor time management but I think that was in the first half when we snapped the ball before the two minute warning and threw an incompletion essentially giving the Bills two more timeouts.
The end of the game management was good IMO because remember Dan bled some time of the clock after it appeared that St.Brown picked up the first. We took a late timeout, but still had time for a few shots at the endzone however when the call was reversed and with the timeout it added like 15 more seconds onto the clock. Now even if we never get the TD and still settle for the FG, there is no time for Allen and the Bills to drive for the win. Too me the overturn of the first down ruling threw the time management into disarray.
IF you all are going to try and find the negative , your going to find SOMETHING to complain about. lol come the hell on, It’s The Lions. but you can make a choice not to be negative most the time to.
We had 3 timeouts. The clock management was atrocious. Like a guy who completely forgot to use them. There was no need to run out of time on that drive. We were down 3 points, use the timeouts, no rush at all, no reason to rely on a prayer pass that has little chance of connecting, certainly not on 3rd and short, get the first down. It was awful.
All I ask is that you consider that Rich, several other posters and I aren’t complete idiots who had too much Thanksgiving cheer before reading.
Drive begins with 2:40 to go. Plenty of time.
2:40 - Lions hand off to Williams for gain of 3.
2:11 - Lions throw a cross-field screen to Swift. Swift makes a BEAUTIFUL play for a gain of 14 + 1st down and gets out of bounds 1 tick before the 2m warning.
Lions hand off to Williams for a gain of 4. 2m warning. Ball on the Lions 46.
1:57 / 2nd/5 - Goff sees immediate pressure. Swing pass to Swift to the right. Loss of 1, tackled in bounds. (Tackled with 1:50 left + 3 timeouts)
Lions allow 35 seconds to run off the clock.
(No time out here? Let’s just let 35 seconds run off the clock and not talk about a critical 3rd down?)
3rd and 6 - Lions snap the ball with 1:15 left. (Could have been 1:40)
1:15 - Handoff to Swift. Gain of 4, tackled with 1:11 on the clock. Tony Romo says “Take a timeout Detroit” as time is running off the clock. Clock stops at :56 for refs stoppage. 15 more seconds off the clock.
Ref review. Confirm Swift was short of the 1st and add 4 seconds back on the clock. 4 seconds are added - 1:00 left in the game - Clock begins to run at refs signal. Lions allow 15 seconds to run off the clock before next snap.
:45 / 4th and inches when Lions snap the ball (15 more seconds off the clock with 3 TO’s on the board). Beautiful play call and execution with a handoff to St. Brown for a gain of 7. St Brown out of bounds at the Bills 42 with :40 left.
:40, 1st and 10 from Bills 42. Goff misses Swift in the right flat.
:37, 2nd and 10 from Bills 42, 3 timeouts. False start on Sewell.
:37, 2nd and 15 from Bills 47, 3 timeouts. Beautiful pass to St. Brown for a gain of 15! Tackled with 32 seconds left.
The Lions again choose to not call a timeout here. They opt to let the clock run down to 21 seconds before a whistle blows. Tony Romo and Jim Nance are both shouting for a timeout.
Jim: "Why aren’t they taking a timeout here!? They’ve got 3 of them in their pocket!?
Tony: “Ooooh that was silly. Oh my goodness, the timeout happens now. They should have been prepared for that before. A few times today they haven’t done it perfectly with the clock management.”
Jim: “They lost 5 or 6 seconds. (was really 11 seconds) I mean, you’re sitting there with 3 timeouts. Unless you’re trying to play for the tie? They could have literally called a few timeouts and had a chance to close out the game.”
Tony: “It’s literally a full play. Like they just threw and incompletion or 15 yard out route.”
Clock stops at :21 for a ref review. Fortunately for the Lions this allows them to put 11 seconds back on the clock + use a timeout.
3rd and 1 / 32 seconds left (Imagine if they still had over a minute) on the Bills 32. Goff misses Chark on a deep pass to the right.
Now, this is where the Lions could have had a 3rd in 1 on the Bills 32 with over a minute left + 2 timeouts. This is where they could have picked up a 1st down, called another TO and had multiple chances to continue down the field, but they didn’t. They held onto their timeouts and played for a long FG with an average kicker.
Tony Romo: “I can’t believe that right there. To do that right there, Jim? Do you really want to take a shot like that? Just get the 1st down and go on to the next one!”
Badgley kicks 51 yarder with 23 seconds left. Great job, Badgley.
The point is that the Lions were kicking with 23 seconds left rather than taking shots at the Bills endzone. They could have preserved time to extend their drive. They could have opted to pick up the 1st and continue to bleed time so they could either 1) win or 2) kick the FG with little to no time left.
Nance, Romo, Eisen, countless others disagreed with how the Lions managed that last drive. Several others did as well.
Maybe we’re all idiots who “know nothing about football”, or maybe the Lions could have managed it all better.
Allen to Diggs in 1 shot, Bills win.
You play for the tie when you have 23 seconds left. You play for the win when you have 2:40 left. Especially if you’re a pushing an aggressive mentality. I have no doubt the Lions could have at least had a few shots at the endzone or kicked from a closer distance with little to no time left and no timeouts left if they simply managed that last drive a little better by using their timeouts and picking up easy 1st downs.
I’m not saying fire Campbell. I’m not saying the Lions are clowns or idiots. I’m saying they can continue to improve and when they do, when they finally figure out how to close out a game, they are going to be one of the better teams in the NFL.
But we never ran out of time on that drive. We easily could have ran the ball, picked up the first and then started using the time-outs to take shots at the endzone so not really seeing this as mismanagement. The 3rd down play was a good play and we had three legit options, Goff just needed to throw a better ball and if we had anything other then third string guards maybe he has the time to do that…but it was a bad pass and they have said they weren’t on the same page.
Point is there was no guarantee we pick up the first running but yes that play but running takes time off the clock. However if we lose yardage perhaps we never make the kick in the first place.
How many times do we hear that this staff lack a killer instinct and won’t keep the petal down? We called a good play that took Buffalo by surprise, but we just did not execute it. I guarantee if we convert there everyone is loving it and NO ONE would be saying “yeah but we should have taken the higher percentage run play”. No coaches are perfect but you should be able to see the strategy we were going for at games end.
Would you think it was a good strategy to go for the endzone and settle for a FG if we convert the third and one with about 20 seconds left on the clock?
Because that’s exactly what the strategy was until St.Brown’s catch was marked short.
I think the Lions should have had a lot more than 20 seconds left on the clock by the time they got to that point of the field is my primary point.
I think the Lions should have been looking at 1st and 10 from the Bills 31 yard line with nearly a minute left and at least 1 TO, not 3rd and 1 with 23 seconds left and 2 TO’s.
But yes - I think putting yourself in a position to win the game is a great strategy, absolutely.
Practice Squad RG, Practice Squad LG, Rags is still playing hurt, Okuda out, Jacobs injured in game, Chark obviously rusty, and they played hard and nearly won, against the consensus best team in the league.
Sorry, but, some of you are ridiculous and petty.
Nice post. You laid that out beautifully. I wasn’t willing to put in that much effort. Although that last part about the Lions figuring it out. I think that is very wishful thinking. When did Jim Caldwell ever figure it out? Yeah, that’s right, he didn’t.
And yeah - I agree that the coaches did a good job yesterday. The game plan was really good, some of the play calls were outstanding and they definitely had the team ready to play.
I’m hoping my critique of how they handled the final drives (O and D) don’t make it seem like I don’t absolutely love everything else they did yesterday.
To me, I see improvement with a few areas they still need to clean up and get better at before we’re the team kicking the end of game FG’s to crush opponents. I genuinely believe they are close and will get there. (And can’t friggin wait!)
