The Detroit Lions trounced the Atlanta Falcons, who had been unbeaten, 20–6, at Ford Field on Sunday to significantly resume their winning ways.
The main narrative on Sunday was the performance of Detroit’s defense, which was the driving force behind a victory that raised the team’s record to 2-1 overall. Given how Detroit’s defense performed throughout the game, it was only fitting that an Aidan Hutchinson sack, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery dashed Atlanta’s aspirations of mounting a comeback. For the Detroit defense, it was just one of those days.
The Lions’ defense limited the fourth-ranked Falcons rushing assault to only 44 yards in total, which is 126.5 yards less than their pre-game average of 170.5 yards per game. With seven sacks and eleven tackles for loss, Detroit’s defense limited the Falcons to only 183 yards of total offense.
Early in the second quarter, Lions rookie tight end Sam LaPorta broke through the Falcons defense to grab his team’s first touchdown of the season, a 45-yard pass from quarterback Jared Goff, giving the Lions a 10-3 lead.
With less than ten minutes remaining in the game, Goff’s three-yard touchdown run to seal a seven-play, 62-yard drive gave Detroit a 20-3 lead. Atlanta had dominated their last two opponents, Carolina and Green Bay, 27-0 in the fourth quarter before to that touchdown.
During the afternoon, Riley Patterson scored two field goals, one from 37 yards and the other from 24 yards.
QB comparison: Goff passed for 243 yards on 22 of 33 attempts, including a touchdown pass and a score run. In the third quarter, he threw an interception as well. His passer rating was 85.8 in the end.
Despite being under siege the whole game, Atlanta quarterback Desmond Ridder completed 21 of his 38 passes for 201 yards, no interceptions, and a 70.2 passer rating.
Important statistic: After having just one sack in their previous two games combined, Detroit had seven in the game. Throughout the entire game, Detroit applied constant pressure by rushing four players and applying more pressure.
Defensive lineman Benito Jones, defensive lineman Alim McNeill, edge rusher Charles Harris, linebacker Derrick Barnes, rookie linebacker Jack Campbell and Hutchinson (2) all recorded sacks Sunday.
Big play(s): Rookie running back Jammyr Gibbs set up Goff’s fourth-quarter, three-yard touchdown run with a pair of electrifying runs. With a 10-point lead at the time, Gibbs’ 12-yard run from the Lions’ 41-yard line to the 29-yard line placed the team in field goal position.
Gibbs was tackled at the Atlanta 8-yard line after breaking through the left side of the line and along the left sideline on the very next play. After three plays, Goff scored to effectively end the game. After 17 carries, Gibbs totaled 80 yards for a 4.7-yard average in the contest.
Injury report: Matt Nelson, the right tackle, left the game early in the second quarter due to an ankle injury, further hurting the already thinly manned Lions offensive line. After being carried out, he never came back. Nelson was replaced by veteran Dan Skipper, who was promoted from the practice squad on Saturday.
After the Lions switched from tackle to guard, rookie Colby Sorsdal was compelled to start at right tackle in the second half due to a hamstring injury sustained by Skipper.
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