Lions vs. Cowboys quick thoughts: What Just Happened?

By Mike Payton 

The Detroit Lions played really hard, but they also tried really hard at shooting themselves in the foot in their 24-6 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. It was one of those games where you just can’t help but want to go outside and scream at the top of your lungs like you’re Jennifer Love Hewitt in “I know What You Did Last Summer.”

As always, I have thoughts on this game. These are those thoughts.

Shooting yourself in the foot

Remember that scene in “Robocop” where the bad guys shoot Alex Murphy? They put so many squibs on Peter Weller that it just looked like he was exploding. That’s what the Lions did to their proverbial foot on Sunday. They did everything to keep themselves in the game, but then committed dumb penalties at the worst time, fumbled the ball on the goal line, threw two horrible interceptions, failed to be aggressive going into the half with plenty of time and timeouts ,and then fumbled again… and again.

The Lions could have absolutely won this game, but they made way too many mistakes and never corrected themselves. Instead they just stacked more mistakes on top of it.

Okudah tackled everyone

Is Jeff Okudah mad? Because he came out and played like a guy that had something to prove on Sunday. He flew all over the field and tackled everything moving. He had seven tackles and a TFL in the first half alone. He kept it going in the second half too with some more tackles and and TFLs. He finished the game with 15 tackles—five more than anyone else on the field Sunday.

Okudah continues to look more and more like the real deal as the weeks go on. It’s such a breath of fresh air after the former third overall pick struggled mightily with injuries in the first two years of his career.

Right in the face

Right in the face pic.twitter.com/MNW4LpXSdI

— Mike Payton (@POD_Payton) October 23, 2022

A funny moment in Sunday’s game. After the Lions got called for holding, Jamaal Williams attempted to toss the official the ball and the official caught it with his face mid-announcement. Even the official laughed. It’s a good thing, because I would speculate that there are officials out there that would have taken that the wrong way for sure.

Aidan Hutchinson

The kid just shows up against the NFC East, doesn’t he? After sacking Carson Wentz three times in Week 2, Hutchinson came out and grabbed a couple sacks on Dak Prescott (officially listed as 1.5 sacks). Hutchinson really showed out after the bye, and it couldn’t have come at a better time after some fans were using the b-word when talking about the Lions’ second overall pick.

Amon-Ra St. Brown

I know it’s a bummer that St. Brown had to go out of the game with a concussion, but at the end of the day, this is why this new rule is in place. Take no chances after what recently happened with Tua Tagovailoa. Better safe than sorry, Maybe St. Brown will be back in time for the Lions’ next game against the Dolphins.

To be aggressive or not to be

Dan Campbell probably should have been. The Lions forced a fumble with a little over a minute left in the half and three timeouts. Instead of going down and at least trying to put a field goal up with the ball coming back to them on the other side of halftime, the Lions ran out the clock. They immediately paid for it when Goff came out and threw an interception on the first drive of the third quarter and the Cowboys scored the game’s first touchdown on their ensuing drive.

Campbell and company need to figure out who they’re going to be. Are they going to be the aggressive team or the conservative team? It can’t be different every week. Ideally they need to find the happy medium. Otherwise they’re going to lose more games because of this battle the coaches are having in their heads.

Bad Goff

After the Lions game against the Seahawks, I wrote that the Lions have their man in Jared Goff. It seems as though Goff has been making me pay for that article ever since. On Sunday, he took the Lions and broke their backs over his knee like he was Bane. Goff threw two interceptions and both of them were just really bad and embarrassing. Then he hilariously fumbled the ball twice in the fourth quarter.

You can make an argument that his top receivers aren’t on the field with him, but he still needs to be better if doesn’t want to play himself out of Detroit and out of being a starting quarterback in the NFL.