What a way to welcome in the change of season to autumn! The Detroit Lions improved to 2-1 with a highly impressive and largely unexpected road win in Baltimore on Monday night, besting the perennial AFC contenders 38-30.
This was a proving ground type of game, and the Lions proved up to the challenge. Detroit won a road game against the Ravens for the first time ever, vanquishing some painful memories of failed past visits to Baltimore. Dan Campbell's team never trailed, looking very much like a team that can beat anyone, anywhere, thanks to loads of talent on both sides of the ball and a strong, team-first coaching sharpness that makes all that talent shine even brighter.
Here's what I took away from watching the game in real-time on Monday night. These are shorter than the standard postgame format in order to get more of them in.
Lamar Jackson has been legit nightmare fuel for the Lions over the years. Nothing that prior coordinators have tried to slow down the ridiculously talented Ravens QB has worked. And while Baltimore still scored 30 points, the Lions defense did a great job against Jackson and the Ravens offense.
New Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard schemed up a fantastic game plan. The front did a disciplined job of controlling Jackson's escape lanes. The decision to send second-level defenders, primarily LBs Derrick Barnes and Jack Campbell, on delayed, contain-style blitzes was a wrinkle that frustrated Jackson all night. Run blitzes off the edges kept Derrick Henry from rolling, and the strong cutback lane discipline minimized the explosive runs the Ravens rely upon so heavily.
Not everything worked, but Sheppard tweaked the scheme quite effectively to win this game.
The new OC had himself a night, too. Morton kept the Ravens defense guessing all game with a smartly conceived game plan that took full advantage of all of Detroit's considerable weaponry. Starting out with two explosive plays (20+ yard passes) to Jameson Williams on the first drive and then mixing runs with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, play-action to Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta, the Lions the the terms of how the game would be played. The two long touchdown drives, combining for 194 total yards and just under 15 minutes of game clock, are the new blueprint for how to hammer the Ravens.
Morton busted out some gadget plays too, a nice shot across the bow to anyone who still thinks the Detroit offense will be uncreative and unsuccessful without his predecessor, Ben Johnson. After a rough Week 1, Morton has dialed up two master classes in a row with a very talented Lions offense.
Lamar Jackson is a master escape artist. Aside from being one of the best pocket passers in the NFL, he's the most dangerous runner amongst all quarterbacks. Jackson is very difficult to sack, brought down just 23 times a year ago. Detroit's oft-maligned pass rush rewrote the script in this one.
Sacking any quarterback seven times in a game is impressive. Sacking Lamar Jackson seven times? Are you kidding me?! So many Lions defenders scored individual wins in the pass rush, and they finished. Al-Quadin Muhammad was outstanding, bagging 2.5 sacks and generating seven QB pressures from PFF's initial scoring. Aidan Hutchinson matched the seven pressures and picked up 1.5 sacks of his own.
Marcus Davenport was not missed, not on this night. The Lions pass rush was effective and impactful, even with Jackson still making some great plays. He's that good. On this night, the Lions defense was better.
The year-to-year decline in the Lions punt and kick units is stark. It did not get better in Baltimore. Kalif Raymond made a brutal decision to field a punt inside his own 5-yard line, quickly getting bowled over, thanks in part to poor blocking. Kicker Jake Bates had to make another TD-saving tackle, his second in three weeks, as the middle-of-field kick coverage remains problematic. Grant Stuard took a good holding penalty to keep one of Jack Fox's punts from being blocked on a pretty simple inside rush concept.
I thought the biggest key to victory was how dominant the Lions offensive line looked against Baltimore's defense. Granted the Ravens were without top DT Nnamdi Madubuike and top pass rusher Kyle Van Noy, but there's still considerable talent on the Baltimore front seven. The Lions line had their way with them all night long.
It was especially encouraging to see the young guards, Christian Mahogany and Tate Ratledge, each have strong games. Together with veteran center Graham Glasgow, the interior line ran several duo blocking concepts quite successfully. Mahogany was explosive off the snap and powered open big holes. Ratledge stayed engaged nicely and showed his physcality and brute strength. The initial watch looked like the Lions were running more advanced run schemes more often in this one, and the youngsters were up for it.
Then there's the pass protection. Goff didn't get sacked. I recall two passes where he was impacted by pressure. The cohesion and pre-snap calls were very good. Not perfect, but close enough to perfection to put up 38 points against a Ravens team many told you going into the week was the best team in football.
Even in victory, there are still areas where the coaching staff will find room for improvement. Jackson hit three TD passes, two of which were blown coverages. The Lions still have some communication and transition issues on horizontal routes. Cornerback Terrion Arnold had a rough game, particularly in the first half. Safety Brian Branch dropped an easy INT, a gifted mistake from Jackson that doesn't come along very often. D.J. Reed later dropped an end-zone INT, too.
The end of the first half was a clock management misstep from Campbell, Morton and the offense. After getting a red zone stop on defense with under 90 seconds to play, the Lions threw two quick incompletions and a rushed short pass that set up the Ravens for the tying touchdown. Jake Bates just missed the 67-yard field goal attempt on the Lions final try, and a near-miss on what would have been an NFL-record long kick is not something to hold against Bates.
--Sione Vaki left the game after suffering a groin injury on a special teams rep. He had missed the first two weeks with an injury and didn't make it into the third quarter of this one.
--Jameson Williams was targeted just once after the opening drive, and it wasn't really an intended throw.
--Jared Goff at halftime: 14-of-17, 135 yards
--It wound up not mattering, but the 41-yard field goal by Ravens kicker Tyler Loop sure looked wide left from every broadcast angle.
--The Lions had 7 carries for 108 yards in the third quarter
--Jackson didn't throw a pass to a WR covered by anyone other than Arnold in the first half. There were only four passes to Ravens wide receivers in that half.
--Zay Flowers and DeAndre Hopkins combined for 3 catches and 26 yards on five targets. As maligned as Arnold will likely be from this game, he was a big part of that impressive shutdown coverage, too.
--LB Trevor Nowaske returned from missing Week 2 and recorded a critical sack on Jackson
--The Lions have just one giveaway in three weeks and are 7-of-8 on fourth downs, including a perfect 3-for-3 against the Ravens. None was bigger than Goff-to-St. Brown at the 2-minute warning to lock up the win in Baltimore.
--Jack Campbell's brilliant play to force a Jackson fumble on 4th-and-goal also featured a really smart alignment adjustment from CB D.J. Reed that threw off Jackson's desired primary option.
--The officials appeared to egregiously miss a forward pass by Goff that was ruled a backward pass. As a result, Gibbs took a 9-yard loss to his rushing average. At one point, it left Gibbs with 9 carries for 11 yards. He finished with 67 yards on 22 carries. It should be 76 on 21.
--Ravens TE Mark Andrews caught all 6 of his targets, netting 91 yards and two TDs. The first TD came against very solid coverage by Alex Anzalone but a better throw and catch.
--Brian Branch was penalized for a defensive low block, a personal foul. Except Branch didn't actually make contact with anyone on the play. Brutal call.
--The Lions held the ball for 19:48 of the 30:00 in the first half, their largest time of possession advantage in the first half of a game in the Dan Campbell era (since 2021)