Controlling their own destiny: While Sunday's 48-42 loss to Buffalo was certainly disappointing, the Lions still control their own destiny to the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the NFC North title if they win their three remaining games at Chicago, at San Francisco and home vs. Minnesota to finish the regular season the next three weeks. Detroit remains the No. 1 seed even though they are tied with Philadelphia at 12-2 because the Eagles have two conference losses (Atlanta & Tampa Bay) and Detroit has just one (Tampa Bay).
Explosive trio: Running back David Montgomery, running back Jahmyr Gibbs and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown now each have 1,000 scrimmage yards and 10 scrimmage touchdowns on the year. They are the first trio in NFL history to do that in consecutive seasons. St. Brown had 14 catches for 193 yards and a touchdown Sunday vs. Buffalo. Gibbs had a rushing and receiving touchdown.
Missing Anzalone: Sunday was a game where I thought Detroit really missed linebacker Alex Anzalone, who is on IR with a broken forearm. Anzalone is Detroit's best cover linebacker. Buffalo's running backs and tight ends caught 13 passes for 251 yards. Backup running back Ty Johnson led the way with five receptions for 114 yards.
Defensive line play: It was that unit's worst performance of the season. Detroit's defense allowed a season-high 197 rushing yards, as James Cook became the first back to top 100 yards rushing against the Lions in two years. The Lions had zero sacks on Josh Allen and only three quarterback hits all game. They allowed Allen to break contain. That unit needs to have a bounce-back performance next week in Chicago.
Unfamiliar territory: Detroit's pass protection was solid overall — three sacks on nearly 60 pass attempts — though they struggled to get any real push in the run game. Center Frank Ragnow had a rare three-penalty game, once for a facemask and twice for holding. Ragnow said after the game he can't have those penalties and he wasn't happy about it.
Career high: Second-year safety Brian Branch recorded 15 tackles (8 solo), two tackles for loss and a pass defended Sunday. The 15 tackles were a career high.
Good company: Sam LaPorta joins Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham as the only tight ends in NFL history to record at least 125 receptions and 15 touchdowns through the first two seasons of a player's career. LaPorta had seven catches for 111 yards against the Bills.
Blaming himself: Lions head coach Dan Campbell blamed himself for Sunday's loss, saying he didn't have his players prepared and ready to match Buffalo's intensity and urgency. But Sunday felt more about Detroit's undermanned defense not being able to handle Allen and the Bills' offense than it did Campbell not having his players prepared.
