Week One: Los Angeles Rams (0-0) @ Detroit Lions (0-0)

[RedRamage]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

Stafford was getting the ball out in 2 seconds.  Its astonishing how successful he was without an OL. 

He got a LOT of practice with that his first 12 years in the league so he knows what to do.

[NYLion]

8 hours ago, buddha said:

i didnt think that was impressive.  a win is a win in the nfl so we'll take it but it wasnt impressive.  they had the same problems as last year: couldnt get to the qb and couldnt cover.

that rams team was not a "playoff team."  they lost both starting tackles, their starting guard, and then their backup tackle.  plus nakua got hurt in the first half.  stafford showed what a great qb he is.  just like when he played for detroit he made chicken salad out of chicken ****...

...and lost.

the offense was out of sync.  goff didnt play particularly well and no one but jamo could get open.  and the rams were playing without their starting corners too.

perhaps they are rusty because they didnt play in the preseason?  hope so.  the rams front isnt that bad, so it was nice to see the lions all over them in the run game even if goff did get some pressure.

the nfl is a week to week league.  they have time to get a third receiver up and running from the practice squad.  that should open things up a bit.

turn the page and beat the bucs.

The Lions beat a very good team (albeit without Nucua for most of it) without getting much of anything from St. Brown and LaPorta. Yeah there's a lot to clean up but winning without much from those two was impressive in itself. 

I thought they got plenty of pressure, Hutch, Davenport and Levi especially early were creating lots of pressure, but Stafford got the ball out very quickly on those short throws and he made some unreal throws with guys in his face. The biggest issue is that the secondary severely lacks experience and will need time to gel with a completely new CB group but we sort of knew that going in. I thought the defensive line outside of McNeil who was surprisingly quiet was very good.

Edited September 9 by NYLion

[Motown Bombers]

Hutchinson and Davenport combined for 1.5 sacks, 8 QB hits and over a dozen pressures. That was with Stanford taking quick drops and getting the ball out to his first read 5 yards down the field. The Rams were helped by penalties and a two yard catch they broke for 63 yards. 

[RedRamage]

4 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Hutchinson and Davenport combined for 1.5 sacks, 8 QB hits and over a dozen pressures. That was with Stanford taking quick drops and getting the ball out to his first read 5 yards down the field. The Rams were helped by penalties and a two yard catch they broke for 63 yards. 

That was really a killer there... That one just HURT because there were at least 4 defenders who could have prevented that from being a long YAC and they all missed or ran into each other.

[NYLion]

8 hours ago, buddha said:

its better to be detroit today than green bay....or atlanta....or cincinnati.

or carolina but theyre the worst team in the league.  again.

The Giants were the worst of all. I was watching the early games with some Giants fans and they were losing their ****. That was an all time clunker in a home opener against a mediocre opponent, the only other game Darnold had like that in his career was against Patricia just to put in context how awful the Giants were.

[Jason_R]

Almost the whole secondary is new, and holdovers like Branch are in new positions. They were out of sync. The offense was out of sync. The DL harassed Stafford all night which is great. He was smart and talented enough to get the ball out fast. 

It is great that the team has a smashmouth running game to fall back on when it is needed. 

[Gozer]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Gutsy rookie post.

Been here for years.  A part of the silent majority.  Guess I just forgot how bad it can get on here:)

[Gozer]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Gutsy rookie post.

Been here for years.  A part of the silent majority.  Guess I just forgot how bad it can get on here during games:)

[MichiganCardinal]

The game reminded me most of the Seahawks game last year. Loud crowd for the home opener, mediocre performance against a team with a depleted offensive line whose game plan was just quick dunks down the field. Went to OT and lost last year, went to OT and won this year.

Which, even if it's directly related to the coin toss, I'll take it.

[buddha]

1 hour ago, NYLion said:

The Lions beat a very good team (albeit without Nucua for most of it) without getting much of anything from St. Brown and LaPorta. Yeah there's a lot to clean up but winning without much from those two was impressive in itself. 

I thought they got plenty of pressure, Hutch, Davenport and Levi especially early were creating lots of pressure, but Stafford got the ball out very quickly on those short throws and he made some unreal throws with guys in his face. The biggest issue is that the secondary severely lacks experience and will need time to gel with a completely new CB group but we sort of knew that going in. I thought the defensive line outside of McNeil who was surprisingly quiet was very good.

st brown and laporta were blanketed by backups.  not a good game.  give their track records, i'm more likely to attribute it to rust than a problem.  although not having a legit X receiver threat could be an issue to watch moving forward.  hopefully one of their recent pickups helps.

as for the defensive ends getting pressure, THEY BETTER!  theyre playing guys who are going to be out of the league in 3 weeks.  they performed as expected and were only thwarted by stafford.

to the points on the secondary being young, yes they are.  that's going to be an issue all year, imo.  i like the players, but it takes time to grow corners.

on the brightside, at least its not cam sutton and kindle vildor.

[Motown Bombers]

Guess I’m not sure what was so bad about the secondary. There was nothing open deep and all Stafford did was throw short and for the most part they tackled. Penalties and one big run after catch accounted for most of their points. Stafford threw the ball 49 times and only had 317 yards, 63 of those coming from a completion only two yards past the line of scrimmage. 

[NYLion]

37 minutes ago, buddha said:

st brown and laporta were blanketed by backups.  not a good game.  give their track records, i'm more likely to attribute it to rust than a problem.  although not having a legit X receiver threat could be an issue to watch moving forward.  hopefully one of their recent pickups helps.

 

I think they missed Josh Reynolds. When the middle of the field is covered like it was last night, Reynolds was a guy that was a threat to make the tough catches when the top guys weren't open and I thought it was a missing element on 3rd down passing situations last night. Hopefully Tim Patrick can get up to speed and somewhat fill that void because Tom Kennedy sure as hell ain't the answer.

[Motown Bombers]

 

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

Guess I’m not sure what was so bad about the secondary. There was nothing open deep and all Stafford did was throw short and for the most part they tackled. Penalties and one big run after catch accounted for most of their points. Stafford threw the ball 49 times and only had 317 yards, 63 of those coming from a completion only two yards past the line of scrimmage. 

he didnt have time to throw deep.  so take away the short stuff.

that's the theory, at least.  i dont know what that would entail in practice.

[Motown Bombers]

10 minutes ago, buddha said:

he didnt have time to throw deep.  so take away the short stuff.

that's the theory, at least.  i dont know what that would entail in practice.

Earlier you said they couldn’t get to the QB, now the QB had no time to throw deep. Stafford completed 69% of his passes. I’m fine with that when Cupp is averaging less than 8 yards per reception. This is like the 2019 version of Goff. No need to dare Stafford to go over the top. 

[MichiganCardinal]

My notes:

• Ford Field was LOUD. I’ve never before thought about bringing ear plug but I had the thought for future games. It was as loud as a concert.
• Sean McVay is a really good coach. He’s a douche too, don’t get me wrong. But there’s a reason he was 6-1 on week one. Given time to prepare, he was going to have a solid game plan, and he did. They ran a ton of pre planned routes, where you couldn’t point to any blown coverage, it was just well designed plays to get Kupp open.
• Sans one flukey play, I thought the defense was really good. They held a good offense to 20 points. You should win most games when you hold your opponent to 20.
• The offense was rusty, but they’ll get there. I loved seeing Jamo lead the team in targets. There are teams that will effectively limit ASB and LaPorta. Last year, that would lead to a pass to Reynolds for 15. I am confident in Jamo’s ability to fill that hole.
• I want Hutch to do more in year three. Pass rush rates are great against a practice squad OT, but I need him to consistently finish.
• In all, I would like to have won this game in regulation. The Rams offense was really decimated. One less 3/out, or taking out that interception, or taking out the fluke 80-yard check down, and we are right there. But it’s the NFL. A win is a win. Plenty to work on.

 

[Tigeraholic1]

Nice Baldy breakdown 

 

 

[Sports_Freak]

8 hours ago, Gozer said:

Hey TP,

Maybe take next week off.

Sincerely,

Everyone

It got much more quiet and much more friendly when he was put on my ignore list. Negativity is OK at times but constant belly aching is a headache.

[buddha]

2 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

Earlier you said they couldn’t get to the QB, now the QB had no time to throw deep. Stafford completed 69% of his passes. I’m fine with that when Cupp is averaging less than 8 yards per reception. This is like the 2019 version of Goff. No need to dare Stafford to go over the top. 

they couldnt get to the qb because he got rid of the ball so quickly to open short routes.  take away the shoer routes and they would have gotten to stafford because he would have nowhere to throw quickly.  

again, that's the theory.

[Sports_Freak]

15 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Losing Jamal Williams was truly a gift in disguise it would seem. 

I don't think they "lost" him. It was like a decision to move on from him, knowing they were targeting Montgomery. The same as moving on from Swift, who's a good runner when he's healthy. He's just had too many injuries...

[Sports_Freak]

The beginning of OT was cut off by commercials on my TV. Here is the entire OT without any commercial interruptions;

 

[RedRamage]

This one is for you @chasfh

At this point as the Lions are driving down in OT to try and get a TD to finish it without the Rams even getting a chance. They had 1st and 10 from the 18 yard line and Cris starts talking about if the Lions should start thinking about kicking the FG.

"You start thinking about it right, you start thinking how much do you need before you're going to go line up and kick it. You start thinking about which side do you want your kicker to be able to kick it from. But it's coming so easily right now I don't think you'll see them take big changes. I just think they'll play under control till they get the third down and maybe kick it there."

 

[chasfh]

6 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

This one is for you @chasfh

At this point as the Lions are driving down in OT to try and get a TD to finish it without the Rams even getting a chance. They had 1st and 10 from the 18 yard line and Cris starts talking about if the Lions should start thinking about kicking the FG.

"You start thinking about it right, you start thinking how much do you need before you're going to go line up and kick it. You start thinking about which side do you want your kicker to be able to kick it from. But it's coming so easily right now I don't think you'll see them take big changes. I just think they'll play under control till they get the third down and maybe kick it there."

 

I'm so ashamed ... 😏

[Motown Bombers]

You know the Lions have arrived, as they are now featured on the Today Show. 

 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, RedRamage said:

This one is for you @chasfh

At this point as the Lions are driving down in OT to try and get a TD to finish it without the Rams even getting a chance. They had 1st and 10 from the 18 yard line and Cris starts talking about if the Lions should start thinking about kicking the FG.

"You start thinking about it right, you start thinking how much do you need before you're going to go line up and kick it. You start thinking about which side do you want your kicker to be able to kick it from. But it's coming so easily right now I don't think you'll see them take big changes. I just think they'll play under control till they get the third down and maybe kick it there."

 

that was weird. Collinsworth obviously forgot the rules. Tirico just ignored it.