Lions – Chargers: Second Watch Observations
Now that Week 2 of the NFL season is in the books, it’s time to take a look back at the Lions and Chargers mistake-fest and see what we learned.
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In a shocking role-reversal, the Los Angeles Chargers did their best Detroit Lions impression on Sunday. The Chargers let the Lions hang around, despite not scoring for nearly a full 3 quarter stretch. The Lions made them pay with a 4th quarter filled with aggressive coaching, offensive execution, and big plays from star players. We’ll flip the order from last week and get the bad out of the way first, and finish with the champagne and strawberries.
Biggest Bum: Jamal Agnew
Our runner up from last week takes home the crown! It is likely we have seen the last of Angew as the Lions return man, and for good reason. Ball security issues have been an issue throughout his career, but you could overlook those to an extent when he was making the type of plays that made him a first-team All-Pro in 2017.
Agnew has been an utter disaster this season (preseason and camp included), putting the ball on the ground or being brought down by the first defender on the reg. With his latest fumble and subsequent benching, it looks to be the end of an era. To be fair, as merely a fifth-round pick in 2017, he has far exceeded his value on the whole. He was a dangerous and game-changing weapon in his rookie season, and for that, we salute you. Here’s hoping you don’t get released.
Biggest Bum Runner-Up: Matt Prater
Prater missed a 40-yard field goal and an extra-point. Points were at a premium in this game, and yet both kickers missed a total of four kicks, in a dome, from 41 yards or less. At least L.A. had an excuse for their kicking struggles since they were using their punter-by-trade for kicking duties due to injury. Although that isn’t much of an excuse. How do you not sign a kicker?
Prater has been so good, so clutch, for so long in Detroit. In Week 2 he dodged a bullet, as Detroit escaped with a win. However, this performance shines a spotlight on some strange-but-true facts about Matt Prater.
#1 – Prater’s 40-yard FG miss in the 2nd quarter widens the gap between his career accuracy from 40-49 yards (70.1%) and 50+ (75.8%). That’s a bizarre statistic, given the fact that there are a handful of 60+ yard attempts included in there as well.
#2 – Prater’s missed XP in the first quarter was his seventh since 2015, which is more than the number of 50+ yard field goals he has missed in that span (6).
Hidden Bum: Taylor Decker
Last week’s biggest bum didn’t play in this game, so he couldn’t make himself look bad. Unfortunately for Decker, Tyrell Crosby did that for him. Crosby, picking up the start for Decker after a smelly preseason, kept the likes of Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram off of Matthew Stafford and the stat sheet. Not a good look for Decker.
Mild concern: The defensive line
Maybe surprise is a better word than concern. This group, who many expected to be a top-5 unit in the NFL this season, just hasn’t made many impact plays in the first 2 weeks. They have one combined sack, which was shared by A’Shawn Robinson and Romeo Okwara, and zero tackles-for-loss in 2 games. Speaking of Okwara, he led the D-line in snaps by a wide margin. Okwara, a 2018 waiver claim from the New York Giants. Not Trey Flowers, the prized free agent. Not Mike Daniels, the former Pro-Bowler. And certainly not “Snacks” Harrison, who saw a slight uptick from Week 1 but still only saw the field for 51% of the defensive snaps.
I’m going to dip my toes into the hot take waters here, just to see how it feels. In his very first game after being traded to Detroit last season, “Snacks” was on the field for 62% of the defensive snaps. His snap percentage went as high as 76.5% as the season progressed. Only once, in a meaningless blowout win in the finale against Green Bay, did Harrison log fewer than 51% of the defensive snaps. Maybeeeeeeee this guy needed those offseason workouts and the minicamp he skipped while seeking a contract extension. Just sayin’…..
See what happens when you start spitting fire like that? People get incinerated. Let’s douse that fire with an oscillating spray of coachspeak and cliches from Matt Patricia.
I think they’re working really hard. They’re trying to get it right. I’m just happy for them that we won. I think they deserve that. They’ve worked really hard. It’s not easy to do in this league. It’s really hard to win in this league. There are good teams everywhere.
Does reading that give everyone a headache, or just me? That’s a whole lotta nothing being said in a very condensed space. Speaking of Matt Patricia…
Coaching decisions
This will be the transition to the blue skies portion of the article, as we have some positives and some negatives.
The negatives
With the Chargers pinned on their own 4-yard line, 2nd and 9 and 1:15 left on the clock, Matt Patricia elects not to use timeouts in an effort to get the ball back before halftime. You are essentially telling your defense it is more likely that the opponent will dig itself out of its own end zone and march the length of the field than it is that you will force them to punt. The Chargers appreciated this decision, given that they let the play clock run down before calling their own timeout.
There are so many things that can go right in this situation. A safety was still in play, and forcing a punt would give the offense the ball near midfield with a minute to go. I just don’t understand how coaches can preach the confidence and trust they have in their players, yet the in-game decision making doesn’t reflect that sentiment.
*Full disclosure: The above decision worked out, as the Chargers picked up a first down and then connected on a bomb to put them in field goal range. I still don’t agree with the risk/reward logic here.
My final beef with the coaching is, for the second week in a row, the deployment of the running backs. Overall this was trending in a direction that I liked, with Kerryon Johnson dominating the carries and rookie Ty Johnson spelling him as needed. Then, with the Lions trying to get one final first down to seal the victory, they went ultra-predictable and handed the ball off to C.J. Anderson. Two carries. Four yards. 3rd and long. They got what they deserved. Apparently nothing was learned from the LeGarrett Blount experience last season.
*Annnnnd news just came in that the Lions have released C.J. Anderson. How fitting. One minute you trust him with the game on the line, the next he’s cut.
Speaking of that 3rd and long, now we can begin to pivot to some reasons why the Lions were able to pull this one out.
The positives
There were some aggressive calls throughout the second half of this game, none more so than that 3rd down call that sealed the victory. A quick huddle play-action pass to Jesse James was a breath of fresh air and a break from the predictable. So often teams like to overcomplicate things by playing the “what if?” game. Sometimes it is just easier to go out there and execute one play and go home happy. Me likey dat.
Last week Matthew Stafford was asking Derrell Bevell to “trust me” after the botched timeout which contributed to a Week 1 tie. Well, Bevell is doing his best to redeem himself in the eyes of Stafford. Several well designed and executed plays were the difference for the Lions, and Bevell is relying on Stafford’s arm to win these games. So much for the “run first” philosophy.
Stud = Matthew Stafford
I mentioned last week that I had never seen Stafford use his legs better than he did week 1 vs. Arizona, and now I’m writing about Stafford’s mobility for a second time. While Stafford didn’t have any meaningful rushing stats in this game, he showed great pocket awareness and never overstayed his welcome, leading to a zero sack day for the Chargers. I’m liking this new and improved mobile Matty.
I have to mention something I’ve been thinking for years watching this man play: No one has a better “free play” game than Matthew Stafford. Never do I feel more safe in my life than when Stafford catches a defense jumping offsides and launches the ball 50 yards. I know that no one can hurt me in this moment. No one can let me down. For this one brief moment in time, only good things can happen.
Super Stud = Jahlani Tavai
Talk about converting the doubters. How impressive has this guy been after being thrust into action by the Jarrad Davis injury? He bailed the team out in the third quarter by forcing a goal-line fumble, directly following an end-zone PI call on Darius Slay. Add on 9 tackles to that game-saving punch-out and you have yourself a super stud performance. Bob Quinn must have a shit-eating grin on his face when he thinks about all the people who criticized this pick.
The first two weeks of the Lions season had a little bit of everything. Despite not being able to finish the job in Week 1, to enter the brutal Week 3-6 stretch without a loss has to be considered a successful start to the season. Now, if they can steal one of the next three…we could be on to something. How ’bout that Week 6 Monday nighter against Green Bay? The Lions have their number these days anyway, right?
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