DETROIT — No Aidan Hutchinson. No Jameson Williams. On Sunday, no problem for the first-place Detroit Lions.
Five different players scored touchdowns in the first half — a franchise record — and Kalif Ramond made it six on a 90-yard punt return to open the second half, powering the Lions to a 52-14 bloodletting of the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Ford Field. The Lions have now won five straight games to improve to 6-1 on the season, their best start since 1956.
Yes, 1956.
Not bad for a team that lost a defensive player of the year candidate two weeks ago, eh?
Jared Goff has helped make up for the loss of Hutchinson, delivering one of the best months by a quarterback in NFL history. Against Tennessee, he needed to throw for just 88 yards to lead the second-most points in franchise history.
Kalif Raymond had a big hand in that, returning one punt for 64 yards, leading to one touchdown, and scoring one himself on a 90-yard punt return to open the second half. Then Amik Robertson pried out the football, Carlton Davis pounced on the loose leather, and three plays later Raymond was back in the end zone on a 7-yard TD catch that made it 49-14.
Kerby Joseph and Trevor Nowaske also picked off passes that led to touchdowns. You know, in case you were wondering how the Lions scored 52 points on just 225 yards of total offense, which has to be another some kind of record.
Here’s yet another: The Lions have scored 162 points in their last four games, a franchise best since they moved to Detroit in 1934. This, folks, is an all-time heater — and they did it with Jameson Williams, their most explosive offensive player, in street clothes. Amon-Ra St. Brown, their No. 1 receiver, caught just two passes for 2 yards.
And they scored 38 unanswered points in another laugher at Ford Field.
David Montgomery (7-yard run), Jahmyr Gibbs (70-yard run), Brock Wright (8-yard catch), Amon-Ra St. Brown (1-yard run) and Sam LaPorta (3-yard pass from David Montgomery) also scored touchdowns for the Lions’ high-flying — and highly diversified — offense.
Who’s more balanced on that side of the ball right now? Who’s deeper? Who has a deeper bag of tricks?
With that, the Lions continue to lead the best division in football, although will face a far stiffer test next week when they travel to Green Bay for a NFC North showdown against the rival Packers. Green Bay opened the day one game behind Detroit in the standings, but lost Jordan Love during its game in Jacksonville.
Let’s just get to some observations, because this was a crazy game:
— How crazy was it? Consider this: Jared Goff threw for 88 yards, Amon-Ra St. Brown caught two passes for 7 yards, David Montgomery ran for 33 yards, and the Lions still erupted for 52 points, their biggest offensive explosion since 1997. There were a lot of reasons for that, but few bigger than Kalif Ramond. He’s criminally underrated in Detroit — guess that’ll happen when the roster is this good — but he’s a former All-Pro return man who is reliable whenever called upon on offense. And on a day when Jameson Williams served the first game of his suspension, Raymond reminded the world he can run too.
Raymond returned five punts for 190 yards — a cool 38.0 yards a pop — and scored back-to-back touchdowns on special teams and offense to break open the game to start the third quarter. Raymond has now scored three touchdowns in the last two weeks, mitigating some concern about the loss of Jamo for next week’s showdown against the rival Packers. He’s not Jamo, but he can ball.
— Jahmyr Gibbs is too good, too damn fast, to be held down for too long. He finally broke out last week in Minnesota, ripping a 45-yard touchdown run — the longest of his career — and accounting for 160 yards of offense overall.
“I know it’s been David, David, David,” Goff said that day in Minneapolis. “It was just a matter of time for (Gibbs) to have his moment.”
No doubt. Now Gibbs has made it two in a row, outrunning the Titans for a 70-yard touchdown run. It came at a big moment too, when Goff had just had his ankle taped up on the sideline before laboring back out onto the field. Goff was sacked three times on his first six dropbacks and was really feeling it. Then he walked back onto the field, handed the ball to Gibbs, then started walking off the field when Gibbs was about 30 yards from the end zone.
Gibbs finished with a career-high 127 rushing yards and one touchdown, while Montgomery ran for one score and threw for another. The Lions are now 8-0 when both of their running backs score touchdowns in the same game.
Goff said a couple weeks ago Gibbs and Montgomery were both top-five running backs in the league. These days, it’s getting harder and harder to disagree.
— Montgomery is so good at the goal line, and Ben Johnson knew Tennessee’s powerful run defense would sell out to stop the bruising back. He used that tendency against the Titans in the second quarter, running play action with Montgomery in the backfield. Amon-Ra St. Brown sold out like he was going to block too, before leaking unmarked into the end zone for a wide-open touchdown that broke a 14-all game in the second quarter. St. Brown has now caught a touchdown pass in five straight games, the longest streak by a Lions player since Calvin Johnson in 2011.
On their next drive, Johnson used the same strategy again. Montgomery got the ball working to the right, then pulled up to throw a pass over the top of the defense to Sam LaPorta. And the former high school quarterback didn’t miss, finding the All-Pro tight end for a 3-yard score that stretched the lead to 28-14 just before halftime.
Remember when some folks were fretting about Johnson burning a hook-and-ladder to Penei Sewell while up big in Dallas? Remember when Johnson shrugged his shoulders about it?
“The well is deep,” Johnson said.
No doubt. The Lions have now scored touchdowns on four trick plays in the last five weeks, adding yet another wrinkle to the most balanced offenses in the league. They were top five both on the ground as well as through the air heading into the weekend. That gives defenses a lot of candy to think about. Now you’ve got Montgomery throwing touchdowns? And Goff catching them? And Penei Sewell barrelling toward the end zone on a hook-and-ladder? Are you kidding?
— The offense will draw the headlines out of this one, but the defense and special teams did a lot of the heavy lifting early on. The Lions net just 9 passing yards in the first half, but jumped out to a 35-14 lead thanks to touchdowns scored after picks by Trevor Nowaske and Kerby Joseph that were returned deep into Titans territory. Kalif Raymond also returned a punt 64 yards deep into Titans territory, leading to yet another score, before scoring twice himself to open the second half, including on a 90-yard punt return. That’s the second-longest punt return in franchise history.
Amik Robertson added two punchouts on defense, yet another big day for the free-agent pickup. He skates under the radar because of the additions of Carlton Davis (who recovered one of the fumbles) and Terrion Arnold (who had a huge third-down breakup in the first half), but Robertson has been huge in the slot.
Give this offense that many short fields, and you’re in for a bad time.
— The Lions took yet another hit to their front seven, losing Malcolm Rodriguez to an ankle injury in the first quarter. He was carted to the locker room and officially ruled out just moments later, which is never a good sign.
Detroit opened the season with one of the most improved defenses in the league, but the injuries up front have been withering, with guys like Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport, John Cominsky and Derrick Barnes all being lost to long-term injuries. Josh Paschal, the top edge rusher left on the roster, also didn’t play against Tennessee because of an illness. That forced the Lions to turn to defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike and practice-squader Al-Quadin Muhammad for starts on the edge. Then just a few minutes into the game, Rodriguez went down too, dealing yet another blow to that front seven. They keep on winning, but man, you have to wonder just how much attrition they can take before the results start to show it.
If you want to nitpick at something out of a blowout, the Lions didn’t get enough out of their edge rush for the second straight week. That’s a concern. But props to Onwuzurike for forcing a Mason Rudolph pass into the hands of Nowaske, and the same to Muhammad for jumping on a second-half fumble.
— Aidan Hutchinson attended his first game since undergoing surgery to repair two broken bones in his left leg. He sat in a suite with his family, and drew thunderous applause when shown on the video board at Ford Field. Hutchinson could be out for the season, although the Lions haven’t ruled out a return if they advance to the Super Bowl. And if they continue to play like this, it’s certainly possible.
These days, no one in the league looks tougher to stop than Detroit.
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