By: Jeremy T. Ballreich
Well, Fridays match up showed a few things we already knew about this new roster of the Detroit Lions.
The Goods:
The Rookies had some very key contributions in this game. Branch, Gibbs, and Campbell were the standouts. Plus a few of the UDFAs.
Jack Campbell had the highest defensive PFF score this week of 90.6.
Gibbs did okay running out of the backfield. But had a great reception that went for 18 yards.
Brian Branch had the hit of the week. But what was more impressive was him showing NFL Caliber ability to read and react. He will probably be the Nickel Cornerback Starter at the beginning of the season.
Aidan Martinez should good poise and scored the game winning TD at the end of their possession.
Antoine Green did okay with limited targets. But UDFA Chase Cota was the star WR with the most catches and yards.
Julian Okwara had 3 sacks with his brother (Romeo) only getting 1 against a 3rd string offense.
The Bads
Nate Sudfeld was horrible. His first pass while being hit was an INT. Ended up with 2 for the game and a PFF of 17.6.
Jameson Williams while targeted 16 times, only 5 were catchable with a key drop. He did catch 2 of them. 1 being a 2-pt. conversion to put the Lions in striking distance.
Key plays.
I already mentioned the awesome play by Branch on defense.
Maurice Alexander had an electric punt return where he looked like Barry Sanders on Tecmo Bowl 2 putting on a spinorama clinic to take it to the house 95 yards.
Aidan Martinez scoring the game winning TD with his feet.
Then UDFA Rookie Brendan Joseph with a game sealing Interception.
Takeaways
The Lions have a much-improved defensive depth than last year.
The Defense only allowed 16 points and 216 total yards.
The Lions surpassed 300 total yards for an 11th straight game since going 8-2 Last season.
There was over 60k tickets bought for a preseason game with record of over 40k in attendance. The crowd gave an electric playoff feel to a game with about as much importance as the points on ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyways’.
Thanks for Reading!!!
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