DETROIT -- Jared Goff and the offense weren’t at their best. But the Detroit Lions received major boosts from Jahmyr Gibbs and their makeshift defense against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On a night where the Lions felt like they had all the chances in the world to blow this game wide open. They’ll take their “ugly 24″ points and the win.
“I think our bar is so high,” Goff said of the offense. “We got such good players, we got such a good O-line, I like to think I do a pretty good job, we got such great skill players. We expect more of ourselves when our defense is playing that well.
“I say that, like of course we’re happy with the win, but getting the ball in plus territory that many times, we need to get points out of it and we weren’t good enough in that section today.”
Goff was quick to point out he felt Detroit’s defense was responsible for giving up only one scoring drive. The Lions quarterback took the blame for his interception near the end of the first half, which led to a long field goal to get the Bucs on the board.
All it took was a bunch of new faces to ball out and make life hard for quarterback Baker Mayfield and the previously NFC-leading Bucs. No big deal, right?
Mayfield entered the 24-9 loss to the Lions as the current odds-on favorite to win the MVP award. But Detroit’s defense despite missing its starting secondary held the quarterback to only 28 completions on 50 passes for 228 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“Yeah, it was awesome. It really was,” Goff said of the defense saving the day. “Seeing those guys step up, it’s so fun. Guys that they’re getting maybe their first opportunity or another opportunity once their career has gone a little bit longer. To see how hard they play and how much they want it, how much they’re savoring it and getting after it, it’s awesome.
“It brings everyone along. I thought our defense played well but those DBs were flying around and really showed up.”
To Goff’s point about the missed opportunities, he’s not wrong.
The Lions came away with no points after recovering a fumble and notching an interception in the first half. The offense stalled, with kicker Jake Bates missing a long field goal on the first. And then Goff had his ugly interception to spoil the second chance that started on Tampa Bay’s side of the field.
They managed 3 points in the second half off of three turnover on downs, but the game flow was different at that point of the game. Goff finished 20-of-29 passing for 241 yards with one touchdown and the one interception. He was sacked four times, lost one fumble, and was hit another 10 times by Tampa’s blitz-heavy defense in the win.
Lions coach Dan Campbell said there is plenty to clean up on offense heading into the bye week. But Campbell said when they needed to find points, they did. And that was mostly due to Gibbs having a ridiculous day, running for 136 yards and two scores, adding 82 yards on three catches, as well.
“They’re good, they’re dang good,” Goff said after the game. “I think their defense is hard to plan for, regardless of how good your offense is. I say that, still saying that there was a lot that we left out there. I was really, really disappointed in how we handled a lot of those turnovers in plus territory. We should have blown that game open, really.
“We didn’t. We let them hang around and our defense kept standing up for us. That was great, but there’s some of those moments and situations that we need to get better at. We have to and we will. I’m not worried about that. We got the right group and the right guys to know what needs to be done. Some urgency in some of those spaces that need to improve.”
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