There were winners and losers in the Raiders-Lions game. Las Vegas’ attack got a big L.
There are times when I feel like I’m repeating myself because Maxx Crosby keeps playing so well. He is the main reason why the squad is still in games this time around.
Crosby got another great score from Pro Football Focus. His 90.1 grade puts him in fourth place among edge guards for the week.
This season, he has also been one of the best run defenses in the league, earning a 91.5 PFF mark and making seven stops toward the run. In Week 8, those were the most important numbers for him.
Crosby has been having an All-Pro season and now has the third-highest edge grade (91.6) from PFF. He is tied for the most defense stops (27) and is number one in pressures (47) for the season.
He has thrown an interception within every game and now has nine, which is the most in the NFL even though he missed two games.
What’s worse than ever is his happy feet in the pocket, and hanging on to the ball for so long doesn’t help.
One example is Garoppolo, who had the sixth-longest time for a throw (3.03 seconds) in Week 8. Five of the six times he was fired, it was because he held on to the football for 2.5 seconds or more.
If he had success on deep passes, those numbers wouldn’t be as important and would make more sense.
But on Monday night, he was 0-4 on throws 20 yards or more past the point of scrimmage, had a PFF score of 27.6, and intercepted a pass.
Almost everyone who has paid any attention to the Oakland Raiders this season wants to know when they will stop playing Jimmy G while offering Aidan O’Connell a chance to start.
Most polls still had the 49ers from San Francisco winning that title, but the Detroit Lions had a chance.
Only once did they lose, and that was in OT to the good Seattle Seahawks. Detroit looked good when it won, like when it beat the Kansas City Chiefs in 2010.
Last week, many good teams looked bad and some even lost. The Lions’ win over the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay was amazing. It was the team that Lions fans had been waiting hundred of years for. At last.
Then, on Sunday, old worries came back. The Lions looked dumb without Lamar Jackson, Detroit’s offense disappeared, as well as the Baltimore Ravens beat the Lions 38–6.
There was one team in Baltimore in Sunday that looked like it could win the Super Bowl, and it was not the Lions.
Like a stretch the Lions had last year when they lost to the Patriots 29-0 and then to the Cowboys 24-6, this was awful. But which Lions team had lost its first six games.
It wasn’t such as this team, which lived up to all the summer hype and made people wonder when they were really for the Super Bowl.
It has looked nice at times. But on defense, the Lions let the Seahawks score 31 points at home, and on Sunday, they let the Ravens score 38 more.
The ball failed on both sides. When they were on attack, the Ravens achieved whatever they wanted in the beginning of the game. Detroit’s defense was bad last year, but they did quite a bit to make it better this year.
Lamar Jackson threw for 357 yards and two scores and ran for one touchdown. He probably could have had more if the second half had been even slightly competitive.
Before Sunday, Detroit’s offense had always been good, so how they played against the Ravens was strange. There were four punts, two turnovers in downs, and a pick-6 in the Lions’ first seven drives.
It didn’t matter that they didn’t score up until the fourth quarter. The offense of the Detroit Lions had a bad day today, but it’s easier to believe that they’ll get better.
However, this does bring back memories of last season, when the offense went away for no apparent reason.
Head coach of the Lions, Dan Campbell, was honest about the loss: “They beat our ass.” But his saw a good thing about a team that was getting plenty of good press lately.
It should be okay for the Lions. But people should stop saying that they are as good as the 49ers or the Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s not often that elite teams are down 35-0 in games, but Detroit was down that way on Sunday.
The Lions would have had a great season if they won the NFC North or perhaps even made it to the playoffs.
But after what we saw on Sunday, excited Detroit followers might have to go back to having lower hopes.