Lions Reports 11/17/2025

Lions Report: Well, we have our answers now, or at least most of them. That was a bummer of a game, and a bit unwatchable, from both teams. The clash of the 4 big teams in the NFC (Rams, Seahawks, Lions, Eagles) resulted in some pretty poor offensive displays. If you’re a defensive purist, you came out happy. So, what did we learn?

Jahmyr Gibbs catching the ball out of the backfield is extremely fun to watch, and explosive.

Jahmyr Gibbs running the ball between the tackles against a capable defensive line is mediocre. I don’t get it. Both John Morton and Dan Campbell feel compelled to try and make Gibbs a grinder. At one point in the game, before he got some junk runs in the 4th quarter, Gibbs was averaging less than 2 yards a carry. David Montgomery averaged 4.5 yards a carry. Sometimes, football is a complicated game. And sometimes it’s not. Give the ball to Montgomery between the tackles.

Riverboat Dan Campbell. What can I say? I was afraid he was going to show last night, and it happened in spades. Zero for five on fourth down attempts, including an awful fake punt. Listen, I don’t mind going for it occasionally, but that was going to be a tight game. Sometimes, you’ve got to punt and play for field position. And Campbell’s play calls on those 4th attempts were terrible. On the fake punt, in your biggest game of the year, you direct snap it to Grant Stuard? Who’s Grant Stuard? I had to look him up. Which leads me to….

Dan Campbell is not Ben Johnson. Yes, it was interesting how the offense looked better last week with Campbell calling the plays against the Washington Commanders. The key words there are “Washington Commanders”. Is he better than John Morton? Probably. However, I didn’t see any significant adjustments by Campbell all game. In fairness, losing Sam LaPorta was a blow but guess what? Every team has injuries now.

Jared Goff. Yeesh. That was ugly. It wasn’t all on him. The offensive line was a train wreck. Even with that, Goff was not good. He was rushing throws, his footwork was bad, and he had a glazed look in his eyes. And 10 blocked passes? Goff is 6’ 4” tall. C’mon. And for all you Matt Stafford haters out there, here’s his stat line from the January 19 playoff game against the Eagles (AT PHILLY), which the Rams almost won: 26 of 44 passing attempts, 2 TD’s, 0 picks and a rating of 97.2. Goff last night: 14 of 37 passing attempts, 1 TD, 1 pick and a 60.1 rating.

Jameson Williams. Really, really fast. And really, really, dumb.

It wasn’t all bad. The Lions defense showed up, and in a big way. The beat-up secondary kept the Eagles passing attack (giggle, giggle) in check. And the Lions linebackers were beasts all game. Kelvin Shepherd is really doing a nice job on that side of the ball. Campbell kept putting his defense in bad situations, and Shepherd got out of most of them.

We’re 6-4, and looking up at all the good teams in the conference. With Carolina (Carolina?) nipping at our heals. Great.