There are few scenarios for a struggling and injury-riddled defense more nightmarish than the one the Detroit Lions' unit had to face on Thursday night. Just four days after suffering through a 31-30 overtime win over the Saints, during which they were on the field for a grueling 90 snaps, they found themselves in Buffalo, dealing with Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in their home opener. And oh yeah, Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch are both still on the PUP list.
So it got bad quickly for the Lions on Thursday night, and it stayed bad. The Bills opened the game with a 10-play, 85-yard touchdown drive. The next possession resulted in eight plays, 79 yards, and another touchdown. And what of their third drive of the game? Surely they didn't score on that one, too? Unfortunately for the Lions that one also went for 57 yards and a touchdown on nine plays. The fourth drive was at least brief: four plays for 68 yards and another touchdown.
The Bills were up 27-7 by the tail end of the second quarter, and the cameras kept finding Lions stud pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson on the sideline, gulping down huge breaths of air and spraying water down the front and back of his jersey. He looked like a guy who was being forced to run a marathon at gunpoint, which arguably would have probably been a more pleasant experience than the one he was living through. The Bills were being 12-personnel bullies, pushing the Lions around with their two tight ends and getting big chunks of yardage however they wanted. There were Josh Allen sprints for first downs, James Cook running for double digits seemingly every time he touched the ball, and wide open receivers sitting in every soft spot the Lions' defense offered up. The Bills ran 74 plays and finished with 34 first downs, meaning that the 41-31 final score flattered the Lions much more than they deserved. By the second half it was obvious to the Bills that they could score as many points as they needed to in order to win the game, and a 10-point margin suited them just fine.
One thing you never want to see, if you are a person who cares about a particular football team, is your squad's star linebacker fighting to hold back tears after a loss. That's what Lions fans got from Jack Campbell during his postgame interview, which featured him staring off into space and nearly choking up while talking about how badly he played.
A bit much for Week 2, perhaps, but you can't really blame him given how much suffering the Lions' defense has experienced to start the season. From the 8:54 mark of the third quarter against the Saints in Week 1 to the 2:52 mark of the second quarter against the Bills, the Lions' defense was on the field for 10 drives in which they gave up eight touchdowns and one field goal. The one drive that didn't result in points was the one that the Saints began on their own 20-yard line with 27 seconds left to play in regulation, and it ended with a missed 62-yard field goal attempt.
Dan Campbell blamed "the little shit" for his defense's struggles during his brief halftime interview, but that much defensive ineptitude spread over two games would seem to suggest that there may also be some big shit that isn't working as it should be. "Things will definitely be changed," said Hutchinson after the game. "I don't know what that is necessarily, but I know there will be changes. We're not going to keep banging our head against the wall."
It's unclear what meaningful changes can be made until Branch and Joseph get healthy, and so maybe the Lions are best served by just shaking this one off. Two of their best guys are hurt, they got bit by the Thursday night short-rest bug, and Josh Allen is a sicko. Things should get better next week against the Jets, or at least I hope they do. Nobody wants to see Campbell sobbing and blowing snot from his nose after letting Geno Smith hang 35 points on him.
