Three and Out: A defense defying odds, the value of belief, and a comeback's crescendo
Here are three observations after a second viewing and a night to ponder the Detroit Lions’ 34-31 win over the Green Bay Packers.
Defying odds and expectations
After the Lions had regained the lead for the second time in the second half, midway through the fourth quarter, the defense came onto the field with the task of holding it.
The unit took the field with five defenders along the line of scrimmage — safety/linebacker Jamal Adams, defensive lineman Myles Adams, defensive tackle Pat O’Connor, defensive lineman Jonah Williams and defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad. Of that collective, only O’Connor has been here since the summer, but not even he made the 53-man roster coming out of training camp.
Football doesn’t stick to a script. Injuries are part of life in the NFL, and you need to plug in new pieces and keep moving. But this was a car with a rebuilt engine, being test-driven for the first time. Hell, Adams, Adams and Williams hadn’t even been in Detroit a week.
In all, defenders not on the Week 1 roster combined to play 233 snaps or 42.3% of the team’s total workload on the evening. More than a quarter of the snaps went to players who weren’t in the building at the start of October, and 12.5% to guys who were somewhere other than Detroit the previous week.
The influx of fresh-faced personnel was why faith in a team that had won its 10 previous games wavered among the fan base. Sure, the Lions had previously managed to overcome injuries to starters Aidan Hutchinson, Alex Anzalone, Derrick Barnes and Marcus Davenport in recent weeks, but this was a different monster. Plus, the Packers were coming to town red hot, having hung 68 points on their previous two opponents.
And, to Green Bay’s credit, they did manage to score at least 30 for the third straight game, but it wasn’t the same. They did it with fewer than 300 yards of total offense. They did it without topping 100 rushing yards for the first time in six games. They did it with a passing game that faced far more pressure than could have been reasonably expected from Detroit's patchwork crew.
We’ve seen games littered with replacement players before, probably more than we'd like to remember, but this wasn't another one of those times. This isn't another team limping across the finish line just trying to go home for the offseason. No, this is a Super Bowl contender that refuses to lower its standard even if there wasn’t enough time to fully explain that standard to a handful of the guys being asked to uphold it.