FIRST DOWN: BLOUGH TAKES BLAME
David Blough stood behind the podium after Sunday's 38-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, his third straight loss as Detroit's starting quarterback, and took the blame.
Blough threw two second-half interceptions, including a 70-yard pick-six with just over five minutes left with the Lions trailing by just a touchdown at the time.
"Yeah, I can't do it," Blough said of the interception that Bucs cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting returned for a touchdown to seal the game. "Can't do it, obviously. It's the play we'll come back to that we'll look at that ultimately was the dagger in the game."
Blough threw a pass intended for wide receiver Danny Amendola on an out route a little behind Amendola, and Murphy-Bunting stepped right in front of it. It came after the Lions had battled back to 24-17 after falling behind 21-0.
"I'll take it," Blough said. "It's on me. It's frustrating."
On a day when the Lions' defense gave up nearly 500 yards of offense to the Bucs (495), 10 plays of 20-plus yards and four touchdown passes, the loss was hardly on Blough alone.
SECOND DOWN: PATRICIA'S SPEECH
Jameis Winston and the Bucs' offense went 99 yards in just five plays on their third possession of the game to take a 14-0 lead after wide receiver Scotty Miller got behind the defense for a 33-yard touchdown, much to the chagrin of Lions head coach Matt Patricia.
After the touchdown, Patricia gathered the whole defense along the sideline.
"I'll probably keep a lot of that private," Patricia said after the game of what he said to his defense in that moment. "But I would say obviously not happy with where we were at and how we were starting. I don't think they were happy with it either."
Patricia said it was more about settling the players down, telling them to go out there and don't try to do too much.
"It was a situation where I was not happy and the players know that," Patricia said.
Detroit's defense played better, not great, but better from then on, allowing two touchdowns on the Bucs' next nine possessions.
"We needed it to stop and we made the proper adjustments and did get it stopped for a little while," Patricia said. "I thought that was good."
THIRD DOWN: TAKING THE FINE
Trailing 21-0 and trying to get anything going on offense, the Lions took possession midway through the second quarter at their own 25-yard line after going three and out on three their first four possessions. On this possession, their fifth of the game, Detroit started to move the ball.
It was 10 yards here, 12 yards there, and after a 10-yard completion to Amendola along the right sideline down to the Tampa Bay 39-yard line, Amendola stood up and launched the ball into the stands.
"That was just spontaneous," Amendola said. "Trying to get a spark rolling. Just trying to get some juice going."
The Lions ended up kicking a field goal on the drive for their first points of the game.
Amendola could end up being fined by the league for the action.
"I'll accept the fine," he said.
FOURTH DOWN: FINISHING GAMES
Once again the Lions were in a position late in the fourth quarter down a score to make a few plays here or there to change the course of the game. Instead, like we've seen many times this season, it was the opponent finding a way to make the plays that make the difference between a win and a loss.
The frustrating thing for Patricia and the Lions has to be the number of different ways these games have ended -- A failed fourth-down stop, a poorly-timed penalty, a dropped pass, a called timeout on an otherwise successful conversion to run out the clock. Sunday, it was a pick-six trying to mount a comeback.
For whatever reason, this is a team that hasn't found a way to finish all season long.
"We have to find an edge each week, we have to believe," Amendola said. "We have to roll into each game thinking we are going to win."
