The 2-3-1 Detroit Lions welcome the 2-5 New York Giants to Ford Field for a Week 8 NFC matchup.
Detroit was coming off a rough patch, losing two NFC North games in six days. The Week 7 loss to Minnesota was the worst defensive performance of the year and wasted a career day from WR Marvin Jones, who scored four TDs in the defeat.
New York had lost three in a row, including a home loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7. Other than their Week 4 win over Washington, the Giants had allowed at least 27 points in every game and ranked 32nd in passer rating allowed entering this matchup.
Pregame notes
Da’Shawn Hand made his season debut along the defensive line for the Lions. Darius Slay and Mike Daniels missed the game with injuries. Starting safety Quandre Diggs was traded during the week and is replaced in the lineup by rookie Will Harris. Kerryon Johnson was placed on I.R. During the week as well, replaced by Tra Carson. The Giants were without WR Sterling Shepard, the only regular the visitors were missing as inactive. Scott Novak and crew officiated.
First quarter
It’s obvious from the very first Giants drive that both teams are focused on RB Saquon Barkley. Jarrad Davis is deployed as a Barkley spy right away and provides great man coverage on a designed wheel route. The Lions are in a straight 4-man front with Devon Kennard playing with a hand in the turf as a traditional DE.
Nice tackles on Barkley by Damon Harrison on an interior run and Mike Ford on a safety-valve outlet pass force the punt. Devon Kennard got pressure on QB Daniel Jones twice during the drive, both off 4-man rushes.
Tra Carson immediately impresses at RB by running aggressively downhill. No jump step, no delay, he attacks the hole. Good blocks from Frank Ragnow and Graham Glasgow create a couple of nice gains.
Matthew Stafford quickly gets into a rhythm with Danny Amendola. They connect three times in four snaps, with the fourth being a coverage sack of Stafford when he can’t find Kenny Golladay down the field. One of the worst throws Stafford has ever made ends the first drive. He forced the ball downfield to Marvin Jones, who was blanketed in bracket coverage. Stafford underthrew the ball under no real pressure. Awful decision and Janoris Jenkins makes him pay for it. He had Ty Johnson open across the field on the backside of the play.
Daniel Jones apparently takes Stafford’s terrible play as a challenge to do worse. And the rookie delivers nicely. After two impressive Barkley runs, the second ended on a potential TD-saving tackle by Tracy Walker, Jones gets absolutely spooked by Davis on a beautiful delay A-gap blitz. He flings the ball in the general direction of Barkley, but it’s a backward pass. Devon Kennard plucks the ball off the turf (Barkley quit on the play) and charges into the end zone for a TD.
Matt Prater’s conversion is nearly blocked but goes through and the Lions are up 7-0. Jalen Reeves-Maybin makes one of the best kick coverage tackles you’ll ever see on Slayton and the Giants take over inside their own 15.
Walker nearly picks off Jones’ next throw but he can’t quite get both feet inbounds on the leaping grab. Outstanding range and instincts in coverage from Walker nonetheless. For good measure, on the next play Walker makes a very nice open-field tackle on a scrambling Jones just shy of the conversion mark to force the punt. Very nice 3-and-out series from the Lions defense, notably Walker and Tavon Wilson.
Sometimes the broadcasters deserve credit. This is one such instance. Kenny Albert notes that the Lions bring in Marvin Hall as a speed option to stretch the defense and that Stafford seems anxious to look deep. This was the magnificent result:
Second quarter
Walker is playing in front of the LBs whenever the Giants have a TE in-line. The Lions clearly don’t respect Jones nearly as much as they fear Barkley running the ball. Davis continues to be a Barkley spy on every pass play and it’s working. But the Giants are learning and adapting…
Great play call by New York. Give them credit. Knowing Davis will mark Barkley, they split the RB wide right. The defensive shuffle reaction winds up with exactly the matchup the Giants want: Golden Tate covered by Will Harris. Two plays earlier Harris was very late to react to a route and now the Giants smell blood. It’s a big gain and sets up the Giants well into Detroit territory.
Jones finds Slayton for a touchdown from 22 yards out after a couple of well-blocked Barkley runs. Slayton easily wins the jump ball at the 2 over an unaware Rashaan Melvin and the pair falls into the end zone before Walker can get there. It’s not a good throw and Trey Flowers got decent pressure by splitting a double-team, but bad CB play costs Detroit and it’s 14-7.
The Lions first offensive play makes me want to throw my cat at the TV. It’s a shotgun handoff to a static RB in Paul Perkins, who might have the slowest acceleration of any RB in the league at that time. It’s a slow-developing run play to a runner who is standing completely still when he gets the ball. This is Jim Bob Cooter’s trash offense and I hope it never rears its ugly head again.
Thankfully Stafford finds T.J. Hockenson on a nice crosser to redeem the dreadful 1st down. Hockenson blew past Jabrill Peppers in coverage. Another nice throw to TE Logan Thomas over the middle gets the Lions into FG range. A chop block call on Hockenson (good call, it was obvious) stalls the drive. To make things worse, Prater pushes the 53-yard FG attempt wide right. The snap was not great but Sam Martin’s hold was excellent.
The Giants score another TD on almost exactly the same play as their first, just on the other side of the field. Hand gets nice pressure up the gut on Jones but he still feels confident enough to float a should-be jump ball to Slayton on Melvin. Once again, Melvin never figures out that the ball is up for grabs. Slayton catches it and lands in the end zone before Harris and Wilson can get there. Ruins an otherwise solid series from the Lions defense, notably Hand. He played a very good series on the shaded nose.
Fortunately the Giants miss the extra point to keep the Lions in front, 14-13.
Nice play design from the Lions offense. They align in bunch formation, trips right. Golladay drags across behind and deeper up the field than Amendola and Stafford slings it in. The throw is a bit behind Golladay but he makes a nice catch. If the pass is out in front Golladay easily goes for another 10-15 yards.
Every run play now is an absolute gift for the Giants defense. The New York LBs are sitting on it and swarming the box with more than the Lions can block. Stafford gets sacked again, another coverage sack. He didn’t come off his first read fast enough and the backside slot CB blitz catches him.
Martin acts his way into extending the Lions possession. A Giant dives into the general vicinity of his feet and Martin sells it well. The Lions keep the ball and up-tempo drive into FG range, no thanks to poor play from Decker at LT (well-earned holding penalty and a QB hurry allowed). Stafford just missed a wide-open Ty Johnson down the right sideline on 3rd down. Prater makes the FG and the Lions go up 17-13.
The Lions dodge a bit of a bullet when Slayton drops a nice throw from Jones on New York’s next play, which could have encouraged them to keep driving and try to score. Instead they kneel out the half.
Third quarter
The first drive is a tale of two outcomes. Run plays are unmitigated disasters. The Giants see the TE lined up in-line or a FB in the game and they sell out stacking the box with one more defender than the Lions have blockers. Every. Single. Time. Some of the OL blocking isn’t bad at all, but there just isn’t anywhere to go.
Passing the ball, however, is great. The Giants LBs have no answer for Amendola underneath. Stafford goes back to that well and it works well again. Using Marvin Hall’s speed, it opens up Golladay up the left seam for a really nice throw and catch. Stafford had to thread the ball over the rush, over a leaping safety and in front of another DB to wedge it in and did it beautifully. It’s a throw not many QBs can make.
After trying to ram Carson into a 10-man box from a jumbo formation, the Lions spread it out in the red zone and Stafford makes picture-perfect throws to Marvin Jones and then Golladay for a great toe-tap TD in the front right corner of the end zone.
Another exceptional instance of kick coverage on the ensuing kickoff. Reeves-Maybin and Miles Killebrew were excellent.
I love the first play from the Giants strictly from an Xs and Os perspective. Lions playing base 4-2-5 with Davis and Christian Jones at LB. Giants pull each out with route action and then slip Barkley on a circle route out of the backfield. Watching Jones try to catch up to him in coverage and then after the catch is like an elephant seal chasing a squirrel, and Davis is far too late to react to help. Really nice scheme from the Giants that exploits the Lions’ weakness at LB.
Walker narrowly misses an INT, Davis gets called for a dumb (but correct) personal foul, Davis badly whiffs on what should have been an easy sack on Jones, and the Giants finally capitalize on letting the Lions continue to make dumb mistakes. The red zone run defense is stout but Jones hits an uncovered Evan Engram for the 2-yard TD.
On the TD play, Walker was scrambling to get across the formation in coverage as Engram motioned out. There was confusion all over the defense. Walker tried to stop, Jones ran into him and Walker went down with a knee injury on the friendly fire. This is Marinelli-era Lions ineptitude on defense. The Giants miss the conversion pass and it’s 24-19 Detroit.
I said it earlier but it’s even more evident now that every single time the Lions run the ball is an absolute gift to the Giants defense. New York invariably has an extra defender that Carson can’t make miss on his own. This is the legit best run blocking I’ve seen from Wagner all season, Dahl and Ragnow are sharp, there are just too many defenders. Giants safeties completely sell out on the run when the Lions use an inline TE and it smothers any chance to run.
General game observation: when Jarrad Davis only has to worry about Barkley on a play, he’s been very good. On this Giants drive Davis suplexes him to the ground behind the line on a run where his eyes never left No. 26. Two plays later he does a great job of inside contain to stop any cutback.
The Giants mix in a nice flea-flicker to Tate. A better throw from Jones might have led to a TD but Tate had to wait an eternity for the ball to arrive. It came one snap after Coleman sacked Jones but the sack was negated by a Melvin holding penalty.
Amendola fields the punt return instead of Agnew. Quarter ends with the Lions still up 24-19.
Fourth quarter
All the kvetching about the run…it’s a trap! A toss play to McKissic to the right that is dead to rights turns out to be a stroke of brilliance. McKissic laterals back to Stafford who finds Golladay down the field for a 41-yard TD strike. Just one DB is within 30 yards of the action down the field. It took a frustratingly long while for the setup to pay off, but the Lions go up 31-19 on the trick play.
Really nice work by Hockenson and Wagner to sell the run blocking on the play, too.
Flowers snuffs out the ensuing Giants drive with back-to-back sacks. The second one is a cheapie as Jones stumbles and almost falls into him, but the pressure from Flowers and Hand working the right side gaps is very impressive. It allows the Lions to survive Harris missing two tackles on Barkley and Killebrew with one of the most embarrassing tackle efforts you’ll ever see on 3rd-and-26 that almost allows the conversion.
Detroit’s drive reverts to abject ineptitude…
- First play: McKissic on a jet sweep gets spun to the ground for a loss of six.
- Second play: Dalvin Tomlinson sacks Stafford after faking Ragnow out of his jockstrap with a jab and sidestep.
- Third play: Golladay fumbles after catching a shallow crossing route, and the Giants recover in Lions territory.
The defense escapes damage. Hand is a major load inside and it’s made Flowers a much more effective and creative rusher off the edge. Two Jones passes thrown at Mike Ford in coverage come up empty. Ford gets away with interference in the end zone on 4th down thanks to Jones’ throw being so far off-target. That’s a call Aaron Rodgers gets without hesitation in Detroit, but the Giants are not the Packers.
Stafford and the offense clearly have but one purpose on this drive: make the Giants spend their timeouts. That mission gets accomplished, but it eats just 50 seconds off the clock, sees Stafford get sacked again and has Martin punting from deep in his own end zone. Good punt and better coverage. Lions still up 31-19 with 2:30 to go.
New York strikes quickly. Just inside the 2:00 warning and after Coleman interferes with Tate to move the ball into the red zone, Jones finds Barkley in the right flat for the TD. Christian Jones got picked by his own man in coverage pursuit. It likely wouldn’t have mattered. 31-26 after the conversion.
The Giants go for the onside kick. Aldrick Rosas, who has not had a good game at kicker, hooks the ball sharply out of bounds. Stafford kneels in victory formation and the Lions win!
Good games: Danny Amendola, Da’Shawn Hand, Rick Wagner, Sam Martin, Jalen Reeves-Maybin (on special teams), Tavon Wilson, Trey Flowers, Kenny Golladay (aside from the awful fumble), Tracy Walker (mostly)
Bad games: Rashaan Melvin, Taylor Decker, Christian Jones, Will Harris, Matt Prater, A’Shawn Robinson, Frank Ragnow
Jarrad Davis was all over the map in this one. So was Matthew Stafford, who for the second week in a row wasn’t quite as impressive as the final numbers suggest but also made several key plays and tough throws that others simply cannot.
The win elevates the Lions to 3-3-1 and keeps them firmly in the crowded NFC playoff picture. For now…
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