An undermanned defense ran into a Superman quarterback, and the result was a humbling loss for the Lions. Josh Allen and the Bills piled up 559 yards and 48 points and led by three touchdowns in the third quarter in a statement at Ford Field.
The Lions knew they would have their hands full with Allen, the frontrunner for MVP. And even when they got their hands on him, it wasn't enough. Aaron Glenn outlined three musts for his defense against Allen: cage him in, stay in coverage and limit his off-schedule plays. The Lions failed across the board.
"You're damned if you do, damned if you don’t," said defensive tackle DJ Reader. "We wanted to cage rush him, but he can sit back there and beat you with his arm. And if you want to rush on the outside, he can step up in the pocket."
Indeed, Allen scored twice with his arm and twice with his legs. He was a human highlight reel from the start, and the Lions couldn't stop him. When they hemmed in, they lost their assignments in the secondary. When they flushed him from the pocket, they exposed themselves to even bigger plays downfield.
"Josh Allen just doing Josh Allen things, man," said defensive back Amik Robertson. "I don’t think they got any standout dawgs, you know what I’m saying? For me, they didn’t do nothing special. We just didn’t play Lions football today, man."
Robertson, who could be headed for a bigger role with Carlton Davis III likely done for the season, said that the defense "could’ve had more effort, more urgency." The latter was hammered home by Dan Campbell, who put it on himself, and echoed throughout the locker room.
Asked about some of the breakdowns that allowed Allen to complete eight passes of 20-plus yards, cornerback Terrion Arnold said, "We have to do a better job in the secondary as far as plastering, and we’ve been doing that all year. I think our urgency has to be better and our communication has to be better."
"And if you see an open man in zone, you have to stick to 'em," Arnold said. "When you look at it from the outside in, it can seem like, you just have to grab that guy, but it’s extremely hard to do. We just have to go out there and have that intensity and strain more."
The Lions entered Sunday's game without four of their top five linebackers, then lost their best remaining defensive lineman in Alim McNeill and their No. 1 corner in Carlton Davis. McNeill tore his ACL and is done for the season. Davis broke his jaw and will be out through at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The myriad absences not only cost the defense against Allen, but played a role in James Cook racking up 7.5 yards per carry. That's the most by any running back against the Lions in two years. The only significant piece who's close to returning is linebacker Alex Anzalone, who could be back by Week 18 -- when the Lions host the Vikings in a potential winner-take-all game in the NFC North.
Reader, a nine-year vet, said the defense "will be fine, we just can't let it snowball."
"We just lost, man. It happens in this league," Reader said. "Sh*t, we’ve been kicking everybody’s ass for 12 weeks and this week it happened to us. Ain’t nobody win no championships today. We got weeks of the season left and we got the playoffs … Next week we’ll be back."
To a man, the Lions would love another crack at Allen and the Bills. Reader, Robertson and Arnold all said they would welcome the challenge: "You aways hope to see him again," said Reader. "We gotta do our part, they gotta do theirs."
"I know we’re better than that team, man," said Robertson. "We just didn’t come to play. And the offense played their ass off, man. I don't know if I’m gonna get backlash from this or not, but we know as a defense we didn’t play up to our standard. But we’ll fix it, because I know what kind of team we are."
A rematch with the Bills would have to come in the Super Bowl, of course. On defense, the Lions are looking at an uphill battle to get there.
They will need more push -- in some cases much more -- out of veteran defensive linemen like Reader, Josh Paschal, Levi Onwuzurike and Za'Darius Smith. They will need Anzalone to stabilize the middle of the defense next to Jack Campbell, especially in coverage. The Bills' running backs killed the Lions in the air, catching eight passes for 156 yards and a touchdown.
And even with Davis down, the Lions will need a secondary that still features Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph, Arnold and Robertson to up its game: "We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we know that this defense depends on us heavily," said Arnold.
"You don’t like losing, but this sh*t's all about how you respond," Robertson said. "We got a lot of resilient people, this is a resilient team. We gotta bounce back, man. 24-hour rule, get over this sh*t and focus on the Bears, because the game after this game is always the most important."
"I know the guys we have in the defensive room, I know the coaches we have and when we hit adversity, we respond with great urgency," said Paschal. "I’m looking forward to seeing these guys tomorrow in the meeting rooms and being able to bounce back."
At 12-2, the Lions' goals remain in front of them: win the division, claim the No. 1 seed in the NFC and go the distance. If they win out, they will take care of the former two. The latter will depend in large part on a depleted defense dusting itself off, with the knowledge that Allen and the Bills might be waiting at the end of the road.
"We might see ‘em again," Robertson said. "And we’re going to be prepared."