3 Things We Learned From the Detroit Lions After Week 4
Through Week 4 in the NFL regular season, the Detroit Lions look like a real contender in the NFC.
SportsGrid looks at some trends from the Lions after Week 4.
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1. The Lions Have One of the NFL’s Best Offensive Lines
What’s scary about the Detroit Lions offensive line is that they haven’t been entirely healthy through four weeks. This group also has young pieces still growing, but they’re right there with the best of them, like their NFC counterparts in the Philadelphia Eagles. In the Lions’ Week 4 victory over the Green Bay Packers, they dominated in the trenches, and their offensive line was able to protect Jared Goff effectively and run the football at a high clip. Running back David Montgomery rushed for 121 yards and three touchdowns. He wasn’t highly efficient at just 3.8 yards per carry, but he still played an integral role in leading the Lions to a massive road divisional victory. Once the Lions get fully in sync and healthy with their offensive line, expect their running backs to be more efficient and for their overall protection of Goff to be better. For now, this unit is trending toward the elite.
2. Jared Goff is Better Than Most
There’s been a particular narrative around the NFL that the Lions won’t be able to win with a quarterback like Goff. The former Los Angeles Rams signal-caller was dominant last year in Detroit, passing for 4,438 yards while throwing 29 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. Goff is off to a similar start through four weeks, where he’s thrown for 1,029 yards and six passing touchdowns. If the Lions’ defense continues to improve at the rate they are, why can’t the Lions win with Goff? There have been concerns about their receiving group. Still, Amon-Ra St. Brown is a bonafide No. 1 wideout, and the return of Jameson Williams should give them another explosive weapon if he can stay on the football field. The noise surrounding Goff continues to get quieter every week, and for good reason.
3. Lions Run Defense is Ferocious
Heading into the regular season, one of the most significant question marks surrounding the Lions was on defense. The expectation was that this group would be able to score points, but could they stop opposing offenses? Through four games, one major takeaway from this defense is that they’re elite at stopping the run. The Lions sit fourth in the NFL and allow their opponents just 60.8 rush yards per game. That’s a far cry from where they finished 2022, which was 29th in the league, averaging 146.5 yards per game on the ground to the opposition. The Lions’ run defense is a big reason they’ve flown out the gate to a 3-1 start atop the NFC North. The sample size is getting big enough to take this unit for real. Running the football against the Lions appears to be an area where you will not beat them in 2023. That alone is a big reason why many are bullish about the Lions being a real NFC contender and a Super Bowl threat.
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