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Detroit Lions grades: Jared Goff had a near-perfect day vs. former team in playoff victory
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- Detroit Lions grades: Jared Goff had a near-perfect day vs. former team in playoff victory
Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett grades the Detroit Lions on their 24-23 playoff win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at Ford Field:
Quarterback
Jared Goff earned a spot in Lions lore with his performance on Sunday . Goff completed 22 of 27 passes for 277 yards and a touchdown and was serenaded by fans chanting his name throughout the game. Goff completed his first 10 passes for 124 yards, threw two incompletions away on purpose and wasn't on the same page with Josh Reynolds on another, a third-and-4 pass midway through the third quarter. Aside from a brain fart just before the 2-minute warning, when he tried to lateral a pass to Brock Wright to avoid a sack by Aaron Donald after a busted bootleg, Goff played a near-flawless game to once and for all prove himself worthy of the massive contract extension that will be coming his way this offseason. Grade: A
Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) calls for a snap against the L.A. Rams during the second half of the NFL wild-card playoff game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan, 14, 2024.
Running backs
The Lions failed to top 80 yards rushing for the second straight game, but they got big plays from running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs that staked them to an early double-digit lead. Montgomery ran for gains of 10, 5 and 7 yards on his first three carries and blasted in a 1-yard touchdown on the opening drive. Gibbs was a bigger weapon in the pass game on the Lions' second series than he has been all year. He finished with four catches for 43 yards, burned Michael Hoecht for extra yards on a 14-yard catch and scored on a 10-yard run. Montgomery did whiff on a blitz pickup against Earnest Jones that led to a sack, but the Lions important contributions from both backs. Grade: A-minus
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Receivers/tight ends
Ben Johnson did a great job getting Amon-Ra St. Brown into mismatch situations, and All-Pro receiver delivered with seven catches for 110 yards including the game-clinching first down just after the 2-minute warning. St. Brown broke a tackle on a third-and-5 conversion that went for 14 yards and ran away from Akhello Witherspoon on a third-and-15 conversion late in the second quarter. St. Brown beat Witherspoon for another 30-yard catch, and Reynolds had four of his five catches in the first quarter. Sam LaPorta (three catches, 14 yards) had a quiet day receiving, but he deserves credit for battling through the knee injury he suffered last week . Both LaPorta and Wright had blocks on Montgomery's 10-yard run on the game's first play, and LaPorta scored a 2-yard TD when Johnson schemed into a favorable mismatch on Hoecht. Grade: A
Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta celebrates a touchdown against Los Angeles Rams during the first half of the NFC wild-card game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024.
Offensive line
Goff got excellent protection from his offensive line most of the day. The Rams had three sacks, but one came when Montgomery missed a blitz and another came when Goff tripped over a lineman's feet as he stepped up in the pocket. The Lions ran effectively behind All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell early. Sewell had the key block on Montgomery's 7-yard run on the opening drive and made a nice pulling block on Gibbs' 10-yard TD. Taylor Decker and Jonah Jackson also had big blocks on Montgomery's TD. Sewell did allow a pressure to Hoecht, and Donald beat him for the pressure on Goff's lateral, but the Lions kept Donald (no QB hits) from wrecking the game. Frank Ragnow drew an early holding penalty, and Decker was called for false start on a fourth-and-5 play when it looked like Ernest Jones jumped offsides first. Grade: A
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Defensive line
Aidan Hutchinson had another monster game with six tackles, two sacks and five quarterback hits, and he did it all while battling an illness. Hutchinson stumbled into one of his sacks, when Matthew Stafford tripped on running back Kyren Williams ' feet, but he was relentless with off the edge on a day the Lions didn't get many other contributions from their defensive front. Hutchinson forced Stafford off his spot on the second play of the second half, when Stafford overthrew an open Cooper Kupp . He teamed with Kindle Vildor to string Puka Nacua out on an end around that went for a short loss when the Rams had to settle for a field goal, and he drew a holding penalty on the Rams' final drive to knock them out of field goal range. Romeo Okwara missed two tackles on Nacua, one on a 21-yard screen on the opening drive and another on a third-and-9 play that went for a first down in the fourth quarter. Grade: B-plus
Linebackers
The Rams played out of three-receiver sets most of Sunday, so the Lions had just two linebackers on the field most of the game. Alex Anzalone had a team-high eight tackles, including two for loss, and left briefly in the second half with a shoulder injury. Anzalone had three tackles in the first quarter and teamed with Jack Campbell on a run stop that went for negative yards on the first play of the second quarter. Campbell (five tackles) was effective for the second straight week, but the Rams finished with a respectable 4 yards per carry. Grade: B-plus
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Defensive backs
Stafford threw for 367 yards and burned the Lions secondary a handful of times in the first half on blitzes. Nacua ran a stutter-and-go to blaze by Cam Sutton for a 50-yard touchdown on the third play of the second quarter, when the Lions were in a single-high safety look, and Vildor gave up a 38-yard touchdown pass to Tutu Atwell when he just missed a diving interception with no safety help over top. Brian Branch (seven tackles) was flagged for pass interference on Nacua on third-and-1 to keep the Rams' opening drive alive, but he also pressured Stafford into a third-and-goal incompletion with a well-timed blitz. The Lions got a handful of other timely big plays from their secondary late in the game and in the red zone, including good coverage by C.J. Gardner-Johnson (seven tackles) on a third-and-8 fade to Kupp with just over 8 minutes to play. Grade: C
Detroit Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson (2) tackles L.A. Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (17) during the second half of the NFL wild-card playoff game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan, 14, 2024.
Special teams
Jack Fox was a weapon punting the ball for the Lions. He pinned the Rams at or inside the 10-yard line on all three of his punts, including a 61-yardder that left the Rams at 8 midway through the fourth quarter. Fox netted 49.3 yards, Michael Badgley drilled his only field goal from 54 yards and Donovan Peoples-Jones even picked up a few extra yards on his only punt return in a situation plenty of return men would have called for a fair catch. The kicking game was a difference maker for the Lions on Sunday. Grade: A
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Coaching
Lions coach Dan Campbell had his team ready and appropriately wired for the organization's first home playoff game in 30 years. The Lions marched down the field and scored on their first three drives and had a good defensive plan in the red zone that held the Rams to field goals on all three of their possessions inside the 20. I thought both coordinators called good games. Johnson found creative ways to get his top receivers in mismatch situations out of bunch formations, and he did so with a hobbled LaPorta. The Lions can't win regularly with their four-man rush, so Aaron Glenn has to live and die with the blitz. He got bit a handful of times, but he also won just enough in the red zone. The Lions' 32-year playoff drought is over and Campbell and his staff played a big hand in ending the streak. Grade: A
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions grades: Jared Goff had near-perfect day in playoff win
