Week Fifteen: Buffalo Bills (10-3) @ Detroit Lions (12-1)

[number20]

First game this year the Lions didn't gain over 100 rushing yards

 

[Motown Bombers]

1 minute ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Last week in the Vikings-Cardinals game the announcers quoted the Vikings DC as saying that he doesn’t run a man defense every week because he doesn’t think it’s sustainable.

I think this kind of output gives some truth to that.

Especially with the injuries now. Looks like Davis and Dorsey are done for the year. You are going to have to rely on Vildor or Moseley. 

[lordstanley]

The Davis and McNeil injuries depress me more than the loss. I was hoping that Green Bay was the nadir with respect to depletion and that the defensive personnel would only get better week by week as players returned. 

[RandyMarsh]

Rapoport says that Davis' injury is a "jaw injury". Assuming it's a broken jaw I think that takes up to 2 months or more to heal, don't know if you can play through it though before it's full healed. 

[RandyMarsh]

The Lions defense is going to have to rely on creating turnovers or hope the opponent makes mistakes(bad throws, penalties etc.) cause it simply doesn't have the horses to stop teams without help. If neither happen they are going to get carved up just like we saw today and in the 2nd half against GB. 

[ben9753]

This season has really impressed on me how brutal the game is. Snapped legs, broken jaws, torn ligaments. Man, it's crazy what these guys go through to play this game.

[Jason_R]

 

[NYLion]

Campbell said that the McNeil and Davis injuries could be season ending. It might be time to panic now, they absolutely can't afford to lose those two in addition to not having their starting edges likely for the entire playoffs as well.

[RandyMarsh]

This may sound crazy but with how Glenn likes to play man defense the loss of Davis may hurt more than the loss of Hutchinson even though Hutch obviously is the better player in a vacuum. Glenn is so reliant on having corners that can play on an island and while not being prime Darrell Revis Davis was good enough to hold his own, same with Arnold as of late.

 

[lordstanley]

1 minute ago, RandyMarsh said:

This may sound crazy but with how Glenn likes to play man defense the loss of Davis may hurt more than the loss of Hutchinson even though Hutch obviously is the better player in a vacuum. Glenn is so reliant on having corners that can play on an island and while not being prime Darrell Revis Davis was good enough to hold his own, same with Arnold as of late.

 

Host of Lions’ radio post-game show said pretty much the same thing. So if you sound crazy so does he. You don’t sound crazy. 

[Motown Bombers]

9 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

This may sound crazy but with how Glenn likes to play man defense the loss of Davis may hurt more than the loss of Hutchinson even though Hutch obviously is the better player in a vacuum. Glenn is so reliant on having corners that can play on an island and while not being prime Darrell Revis Davis was good enough to hold his own, same with Arnold as of late.

 

Moseley is a good man corner if he can stay healthy. 

[Sports_Freak]

The injuries test our depth. A few, yeah, we can cover. But 3/4 of the defense injured? Not many teams can overcome that many.

[Sports_Freak]

The Lions still control their destiny. Win out and we get the bye as the #1 seed.

[Klondike]

52 minutes ago, number20 said:

First game this year the Lions didn't gain over 100 rushing yards

 

They haven't run well the last couple of games. It's actually quite discerning considering the Bill's were suppose to be terrible against the run.

[Motown Bombers]

The Bills aren't terrible against the run. The thing is, they are among the best at stuffing the run for no gain. They also are among the worst in giving up big runs. The key is to keep running against them, and you will break some runs. The problem was the Lions got behind early and couldn't stick with the run. 

[RandyMarsh]

1 minute ago, Motown Bombers said:

The Bills aren't terrible against the run. The thing is, they are among the best at stuffing the run for no gain. They also are among the worst in giving up big runs. The key is to keep running against them, and you will break some runs. The problem was the Lions got behind early and couldn't stick with the run. 

I may be misremembering or not playing close enough attention but to me it felt like when the Lions did run the ball they were pretty vanilla in doing so as well. Like I don't remember many if any times where Jameson or St. Brown could come presnap like it was going to be a jet sweep or fake throws leading to delayed handoffs like they often do. To the untrained eye it felt like nothing but straight handoffs between the tackles. 

[Klondike]

It was a game they couldn't afford to STICK with anything. They got behind 14-0 early and the defense didn't exist so running the ball out of the gait and scoring big early was imperative. They were owned on both lines all game. 

[Klondike]

3 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

I may be misremembering or not playing close enough attention but to me it felt like when the Lions did run the ball they were pretty vanilla in doing so as well. Like I don't remember many if any times where Jameson or St. Brown could come presnap like it was going to be a jet sweep or fake throws leading to delayed handoffs like they often do. To the untrained eye it felt like nothing but straight handoffs between the tackles. 

It was a lame game coming off a 10 day rest to be honest. It seemed like they conceded a loss right from the get go

[RandyMarsh]

I just want to also say that sometimes you have to credit the opposition and I think the Bills deserve a lot of credit. They played great, didn't turn the ball over, didn't make many dumb or costly penalties, their RBs didn't miss the holes that were created and Allen didn't miss open receivers. They were an elite team that played as close to flawless as you could on offense with their only real miscue being the missed kick. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

This is the first time all season I've really, truly felt bad about the direction of this team and worried about our Super Bowl prospects. At some point you simply can't overcome this amount of injuries and expect to win every single game that breaks down into a shootout.

[Klondike]

I know. And I was told for the last ten days that just wait and see the Bill's are due for a down game. They played flawless offense for 2 straight games and Allen has been GOAT material. Well, that didn't happen.

[Jason_R]

15 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

I just want to also say that sometimes you have to credit the opposition and I think the Bills deserve a lot of credit. They played great, didn't turn the ball over, didn't make many dumb or costly penalties, their RBs didn't miss the holes that were created and Allen didn't miss open receivers. They were an elite team that played as close to flawless as you could on offense with their only real miscue being the missed kick. 

This is true. The Bills played a flawless game. The Lions played their worst game of the season. The Lions had gaffes on offense, defense, special teams, and coaching. And still scored 42 points and were very close to recovering the inside kick that would have given them a chance to win. 

[MichiganCardinal]

It might sound crazy after this game, but I think I like the Lions' odds to make it to New Orleans better than the Bills.

Lions still have the inside track to the first-round bye, which might be huge with these injuries. If they finish the season 3-0 (and I think they will), their path is probably a Packers or Vikings Divisional Round Game (after going 2-0 against those teams in the regular season), and then either an 8th divisional game on the season, or an Eagles NFCCG. The run defense will absolutely need to figure their **** out by that point (especially against Saquon), but I don't think today makes those any less of winnable games. If anything, as has been said, the injuries are worse than the loss itself if we indeed can't get guys like Alim and CDIII back for that game.

Meanwhile, the Bills are losing sight of any possible first-round bye, and their path will likely look something like Chargers-Steelers/Ravens-Chiefs. The Bills have given up 86 friggin' points in the last two weeks, but have come out of it 1-1, because Josh Allen is playing out of his mind. Now, maybe he can continue that. He's the clear frontrunner for MVP. But it's hard to just expect your offense to score 45 points every week. And with that defense possibly playing Herbert, Lamar, and Mahomes in three consecutive weeks? I could easily see a 45-42 heartbreaking loss in there.

The Lions' defense will bounce back. Since Campbell and Glenn took over, they always have, even in the darkest days.

[MichiganCardinal]

7 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

This is true. The Bills played a flawless game. The Lions played their worst game of the season. The Lions had gaffes on offense, defense, special teams, and coaching. And still scored 42 points and were very close to recovering the inside kick that would have given them a chance to win. 

Bucs was worse, but that was for different reasons than just playing badly. I agree with your points generally.

[MichiganCardinal]

Bears GDT will be posted after their game tomorrow night, so we can keep this pity party going for another 24 hours or so.