The Lions' opening drive of the second half summarized their loss to the Vikings.
On first down, Javon Hargrave beat right guard Tate Ratledge to stop Jahmyr Gibbs in his tracks. On second down, Jonathan Allen beat left guard Christian Mahogany to pressure Jared Goff into a low throw that Amon-Ra St. Brown couldn't corral. On third down, the Lions threw a screen to Gibbs and center Graham Glasgow couldn't reach a second-level block to spring Gibbs past the sticks.
Minnesota's defense won the line of scrimmage convincingly Sunday, and Detroit's offensive line was badly wounded by the end of a 27-24 loss that Dan Campbell and the Lions didn't see coming. Campbell called their issues up front "self-induced."
"Very disappointing. We knew what we were going to get going into this. We knew there would be some wrinkles, but there was nothing that we hadn’t seen before. We did not handle it well," Campbell said.
Jared Goff was sacked five times, tied for the most of his Lions tenure. At times, the Lions looked overwhelmed against a bevy of different blitzes, a sharp departure from how they've handled Brian Flores' defense in the past. At others, the Vikings were simply stronger at the point of attack, especially on the interior. Hargrave, Allen and fellow defensive tackle Jalen Redmond combined for six quarterback hits.
"I know we got beat on a couple of them, just physically beat on a couple that we expect not to," said Campbell. "We expect more out of our guys. But some of it, we act like it was something exotic -- it wasn't. We just didn’t handle (the communication) well. We were not on the same page."
Goff agreed with the Campbell that the Vikings' variety of blitz looks "caused us to have a few miscommunications." He called it "inexcusable." It's especially disappointing at home midway through the season when such issues first popped up -- and were later corrected -- in the Lions' season-opening loss on the road in Green Bay.
In the past against Flores, Goff has been able to make the right checks before the snap to account for Minnesota's pressure, with the help of former center Frank Ragnow. He wasn't as crisp this time around with Glasgow. Goff, who still managed to throw for 284 yards and two touchdowns, admitted that the Vikings "did some good stuff on defense" and "gave us some pressures we hadn’t seen" that occasionally had the Lions on their heels.
On their penultimate drive of the first half, for example, the Lions were facing 3rd and 4 from their own 35 when the Vikings blitzed seven, only for two of the linebackers to hit the brakes and drop into coverage. One of them, Josh Metellus, drew the attention of Gibbs before pulling back, which allowed safety Harrison Smith to get a free run at Goff and force an incomplete pass to St. Brown.
"They’re going to get you at times, that’s who they are, and you’ve got to be able to win more than you lose in those instances where they are trying to confuse you and bring pressure," said Goff. "I thought today they won more than we did in those instances."
The Lions' offense has struggled to find a groove for a few games, even in their 24-9 win over the Bucs before the bye. The ground game hasn't helped relieve any pressure. The Lions averaged just 3.3 yards per carry against the Vikings, and David Montgomery coughed up a fumble in Detroit territory in the third quarter that Minnesota quickly converted into a touchdown and a two-score lead.
"You can’t run it, it’s hard to be an explosive offense because now you’re a sitting duck," said Campbell. "You’ll sit back there in shotgun and everybody knows you’re passing, and they just pin their ears back and they go after you and run all the games and mugs and all that good stuff. So yeah, we have to clean some things up, but I’m not in panic mode."
The clean-up won't be any easier with a banged-up offensive line. Christian Mahogany was carted off the field Sunday with a knee injury and will be out for a long time, said Campbell. Taylor Decker, who's already playing through a shoulder injury, briefly left Sunday's game with a knee injury, Ratledge briefly left with a shoulder injury and Penei Sewell also had to be evaluated for an apparent shoulder injury.
Goff echoed Campbell in that he has "no concern" with the offense, but "there's certainly an urgency of fixing things. And we did fix things, I think, from two weeks ago. But there’s more to fix, obviously."
And barring a move before Tuesday's trade deadline, no one to fix it but the guys in the building.