The Lions knew they needed to contain the 49ers' run game, and they didn't They knew they needed to limit the 49ers' explosive plays, and they didn't. The Lions knew they needed to do a lot of things they couldn't, and the result was a 41-33 loss that wasn't nearly as close as the score would suggest.
"Everything that we said we needed to do to win this game, we didn’t do," Dan Campbell said afterward.
It was especially ugly on defense, not that this came as much of a surprise. The Lions had the worst defense in the NFL last season and didn't make any significant upgrades in the offseason. Their biggest free agent signing was LB Alex Anzalone, who was a part-time starter for the Saints. Their most talented additions were draft picks.
Ford Field was on fire when Jimmy Garoppolo fumbled San Francisco's first snap on offense and the Lions recovered. Detroit wouldn't get an actual stop until the third quarter. The 49ers gashed the Lions on the ground and lit them up through the air. They wound up averaging 8.0 yards per offensive play and made the worst defense in Lions history look pretty stout by comparison. Last year's unit allowed 6.3 yards per play.
What happened?
"The biggest thing is when you play the 49ers, they love to run the ball and we weren’t able to stop the run efficiently," Anzalone said Monday. "And I think we gave up nine explosive plays. That’s something you definitely have to get a handle on early and often. Those are two things that really stood out to me personally."
Led by rookie Elijah Mitchell, San Francisco's running backs averaged 5.7 yards per carry. The worst defense in Lions history allowed 4.4 yards per carry. And the 49ers racked up six plays of 20-plus yards, including a 79-yard touchdown reception by Deebo Samuel and a 38-yard touchdown run by Mitchell, a sixth-round pick. The worst defense in Lions history allowed fewer than five plays of 20-plus yards per game.
Anzalone said he didn't notice a common theme between the big plays. For the Lions, he said it simply comes down to "playing sound football."
"Sound defensive football is really what can make you a great defense. And when they do get an explosive play, or when they do get that 10- or 12-yard gain, get them on the ground," he said.
That will certainly be a focus for the Lions this week, and a challenge next Monday when they visit a hungry Packers team coming off a 38-3 loss to the Saints. Aaron Rodgers figures to be out for blood after one of the worst games of his career: 133 yards, no touchdowns, two picks.
"He’s going to come out swinging," said Anzalone. "Monday Night Football, on national TV, he’s not going to go down like he did last week."
The Lions can't afford to either, not on the road, not against the Packers, not after seeing what a 38-10 deficit did to their offense in Week 1. Different players were saying the same things as Anzalone ahead of a Week 2 trip to Lambeau last year, only to surrender nearly 500 yards in a 42-21 loss. Anzalone says the issues on defense are "fixable." Now would be a good time to start fixing.
"We definitely have the guys to be able to do what we want to do defensively," he said. "It is encouraging to know that it’s self-inflicted. It just comes down to discipline and doing your job. That’s what good defensive teams do."