FIRST DOWN: ACCOUNTABILITY
The Detroit Lions have very specific processes in place for when they spike the ball or try to rush the field goal team on the field when the clock is running late in a half or at the end of a game.
For whatever reason, they didn't follow those rules at the end of the first half Sunday and it ended up costing them in a 20-16 loss to Tampa Bay.
With 18 seconds left on the clock at the Tampa Bay 17-yard line, Detroit faced a 2nd & 10. They completed a pass to wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown at the Tampa Bay 9-yard line and rushed to spike the ball. As they lined up and snapped it with four seconds left, the field goal team had inexplicably run out. The Lions were flagged for too many men on the field. They didn't have a timeout left and that meant a 10-second runoff to end the the half.
"I asked for improvement from last week. That was the story," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after the game. "And we did improve, and the coach cost them. Their head coach cost them. Critical error at the end of the half 100 percent on me."
Pre-snap, Campbell said if the clock is at 18 seconds, they'd have time to clock it, which the clock was at. They can push it to 14 seconds. There was enough time on the clock to snap and spike it and that's what they should have done and finished the half with a chip-shot field goal. Bringing the field goal team on was a massive error because they were never going to get set up and get the snap off with that little time left anyway.
That play ended up changing the complexity of the game late. Had Detroit just needed a field goal to take the lead, the game might play out differently.
"There was no way to justify this," Campbell said. "It's a massive error on my part and no one else's. It was just between hurry-up field goal and clocking it and it was 100 percent my fault."
Though you never want those kind of mistakes to factor into the final outcome, it does go a long way with the players that Campbell stood behind the podium and took accountability.
"He's at the top of the pyramid here and when the guy at the top takes accountability like he has throughout his career – even today, it makes it a little easier for everyone else to take accountability when they're at fault," quarterback Jared Goff said.
"I know he did take accountability for that, but we had plenty of opportunities to overcome that and make the plays to win the game and I know he's going to be hard on himself. As players, we got to be better, I got to be better. I have got to pick him up, I have got to pick up other guys, the other guys got to pick up me, that's how we win. Unfortunately, we couldn't overcome too many mistakes today."
SECOND DOWN: RED-ZONE WOES
Detroit ranked third in the NFL last season converting in the red zone over 60 percent of the time.
That wasn't the case Sunday, as the team's struggles in the red zone are probably the biggest reason why they find themselves at 1-1 to start to the season and not 2-0.
Detroit out-gained Tampa Bay 463 to 216 in total yards of offense. The Lions notched 26 first downs to the Bucs' 14, but Detroit was just 1-for-7 in the red zone, and in a close, one-score game that's how teams get beat.
"Offense we double (them) up in yardage, and we get down in the red zone and can't get TDs and that was kind of the story of the game," Campbell said.
The Bucs did a good job changing up their coverage down in the red zone and really pushed the ball out to the flats and rallied to tackle there. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson never found a counter, and Detroit couldn't find the softer spots in the seams consistently enough.
After going 2-for-4 last week in the red zone in a close overtime win over the Rams, Detroit is now just 3-of-11 (27 percent) in the red zone to start the season. This offense is too good with too many weapons to leave that many points on the table.
"That's ultimately the difference in the game," Goff said. "We get down there, we score touchdowns, we'd probably win the game and unfortunately, we didn't. You tip your cap to them – they had good, stingy, red-zone defense and we didn't make enough plays down there."
THIRD DOWN: HUTCHINSON'S BIG DAY
There were some positives to take away from Sunday for the Lions despite the loss, with the play of third-year defensive end Aidan Hutchinson tops among the list.
Hutchinson was a one-man wrecking crew, finishing with 4.5 sacks on Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield Sunday, the most for a Lions player since Keith Ferguson's four against the Eagles in 1986.
"It goes without saying his motor is unbelievable," Campbell said of Hutchinson. "To be able to play at the rate he plays at that intensity for that many snaps in a game is rare.
"He's continued to develop his different moves. He's got the long arm, he's got the spin, he can dip and rip, he can chop, he can swat. So if you ever get one-on-one, he's going to eat you up."
His 4.5 sacks are the second most a Lions player has ever logged in a single game.
"He's a hell of a player," Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said of Hutchinson after the game. "You see the same things that you always see. We tried chipping him, we tried to do a lot of things. He makes plays. He made our life miserable over there. Hats off to him, and we still stuck together and fought it out and got the win."
FOURTH DOWN: GOFF'S PERFORMANCE
The first interception Goff threw Sunday on the first offensive play of the game for the Lions was not his fault as Clay Martin and his officiating crew clearly missed a pass interference or illegal contact call with Jameson Williams getting bumped off his route.
The interception he threw later in the fourth quarter at the Bucs' 18-yard line was Goff's fault on a poor throw. Goff had a couple other throws that could have been picked off in the contest as he finished 34-of-55 passing for 307 yards with no touchdowns, those two interceptions and a passer rating of just 61.7. He only had one game last season with a lower passer rating than Sunday – a Week 14 loss at Chicago (54.6).
"He'll rebound," Campbell said of Goff's performance Sunday. "Has he played better? Yeah, he's played better. But I just know him, and he never stays down. He's going to be in immediately. He's going to look at it tonight. He's going to come in tomorrow and take ownership and he's just going to be better. That's the way he's wired and it's what makes him who he is."
