The Lions Dominate Tampa Bay

The Detroit Lions are 5-1 for the first time since 2011 and have now taken a 3 win lead in the NFC North division race with their dominant 20-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was the Lions 4th straight win and their 4th straight win of over 14 points. The Lions are now 3-0 against the NFC South this season and all wins have been by at least 2 scores.

 

The Lions defense had their 6th straight game of allowing less than 100 yards, the first time the Lions have done this to start the season since 1932. The Lions held the Bucs to under 200 total yards until the final drive of the game where they played prevent defense and just let them stay in front of them to hold on to their 2 score lead. The most rushing yards for the Bucs was 26 by Rachaad White and their other 3 runners were held to under 10 yards each. It was a rough day for the Bucs offense, getting held to 2-12 on 3rd downs and having to punt 6 times. Isaiah Buggs batted a ball at the line from Baker Mayfield and Will Harris came up with the huge interception. This was the only turnover of the day for either team.

 

On the offensive side of the ball, David Montgomery went down with a rib injury in the second quarter and the Lions had to rely on the passing game without their top RB and his backup, Gibbs, being out. Craig Reynolds was the top Lions rusher with 15 yards but his massive block on an Amon-Ra St Brown catch and run led to the first TD of the game. Jameson Williams also came up with a huge circus catch for a 45 yard TD and the Lions ended up with 380 total yards. QB Jared Goff had a great game with 353 yards and 2 TD passes. St Brown had 12 catches and 124 yards for a TD in his first game back from injury. 6 Lions had at least 2 catches and 4 others had at least one catch. Goff was sacked 3 times but most of that was the great coverage by the Buccaneers talented secondary. The Lions also held the ball for 36 minutes compared to the Bucs 23 minutes, which is a huge advantage to the Lions defense.

 

The Lions will be back on the road next week against the Baltimore Ravens who are 4-2 and in first of the AFC North. The Lions are 3-0 on the road this season. The fans in Honolulu Blue have taken over the 3 stadiums they have traveled to this year, turning all away games into Lions home games.