Dan Campbell thrilled by makeshift secondary after beating Tampa Bay 24-9
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DETROIT (AP) — Dan Campbell knew it was going to be a challenge for his banged-up defensive backs to stop Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bayt Buccaneers.
As it turned out, the biggest difficulty Campbell faced was getting enough game balls to hand out after Detroit’s 24-9 win.
The Lions, missing all four starters from their secondary, held Mayfield to 228 yards on 50 attempts, allowing one touchdown and intercepting one pass.
“That was just an outstanding performance by those guys,” Campbell said on Tuesday. “I mean, every one of those guys got a game ball. Top to bottom, across the whole roster, those guys were aggressive and went after the football.”
The Lions started with Amik Robertson and Rock Ya-Sin at cornerback, Arthur Maulet at nickelback, and Thomas Harper and Erik Hallett at safety. Cramping issues for Ya-Sin and Maulet also meant playing time for Nick Whiteside and Loren Strickland.
Whiteside, who grew up in suburban Detroit, was only playing the fourth game of his career and had only seen special-teams action for the Lions.
“There was a comfort level with a guy that has been through a whole training camp with us, so it felt like the right move,” Campbell said. “He stepped up and made some plays, including a few on special teams. All of those guys went in and competed.”
One of the players most excited by the secondary’s performance was their main rival every week.
“I’ve been going up against all those guys in practice when they’ve been on the scout team,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “I know how good they can be.”
Hallett made eight tackles, matching Jack Campbell for the team lead, Maulet had an interception, and Ya-Sin and Whiteside combined to break up five passes. Robertson broke up a pass and forced a fumble.
“We are all professional athletes and we hold each other accountable every day,” Maulet said. “We know what we are capable of doing — no one else sees us every day. We knew there couldn’t be any dropoff, and that showed today.”
What’s working
Jahmyr Gibbs had a spectacular game, even by his high standards. He only touched the ball 20 times — 17 rushes and three catches on three targets — but put up 218 yards of offense. Not only did he score two touchdowns rushing, one for 78 yards, all three of his pass receptions went for at least 20 yards.
What needs help
By his own admission, Campbell had a rough day with his challenges. He won his first attempt, although the play was overturned because of something other than what he had asked the officials to check, then lost a muddled second attempt.
After the Buccaneers recovered a fumble by Mayfield, Campbell threw his flag to ask to see if Mayfield was down before he lost the ball.
“That was a bad challenge — just a total mess up on my part,” he said. “I was grasping for straws and shouldn’t have done it. Believe me, if people were asking what I was doing, they were right to ask.”
Stock up
It went a little under the radar given Gibbs’ big day, but Amon-Ra St. Brown quietly caught six passes for 86 yards and a touchdown. As usual for St. Brown, he only caught his passes an average of six yards downfield, but averaged another eight yards after the catch.
Stock down
Unusually, the Lions struggled to extend drives on third and fourth downs. They were 3 for 13 (23%) on third down and 1 for 2 on fourth down.
“We’ve got to start converting on more of those,” Campbell said. “We’ll tweak a couple of things and it will give us more options. A lot of it was 10 guys doing the right thing and one guy either gets beat or is doing the wrong thing.
“The good news is it is all correctable.”
Injuries
The Lions didn’t sustain any significant injuries against Tampa Bay, which is good news going into their bye week. They are hoping to get some defensive players back for their next game, which is home against Minnesota on Nov. 2.
Key number
2 – the Lions enter the bye second in touchdowns rushing (10) and touchdowns passing (16). They join Indianapolis as the only teams to reach double figures in both categories through seven games.
Next steps
The team, including the coaching staff, is under strict orders from Campbell to get away from football during the bye week. They don’t get the full seven days, having played on Monday night, so Campbell got them out of the building as quickly as possible on Tuesday.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl