David Reginek-Imagn Images Handing out position grades for the Detroit Lions after their 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Let’s hand out some grades in our Week 15 Detroit Lions report card. You won't’ be very surprised by the defensive grades of the team’s 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Quarterback: A Jared Goff put up as good of a game as you could possibly hope for in a shootout. The times the offense struggled were largely because of a struggling rushing attack. But when the Lions put the game on Goff’s shoulders to keep them close, he did exactly that. Sure, some of his stats were of the garbage time variety, but it still left them a fraction of a chance to win the game. And he was also delivering some excellent throws in tight windows. He even did his best Josh Allen impression on his touchdown pass to Tim Patrick—escaping the pocket, drawing defenders in coverage toward him, then hurling the ball at the last second. In short, hard to complain about this: Jared Goff becomes the first player in NFL history to throw for 400+ yards, 5+ pass TD and 0 INT in a LOSS pic.twitter.com/dBM65O7slX— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) December 16, 2024 Running backs: C Jahmyr Gibbs made a lot of plays in the receiving game—setting a career high with 83 receiving yards on five catches. But both he and David Montgomery weren’t effective rushing the ball. They combined for just 34 yards on 13 carries (2.6 YPC). To be fair. Montgomery was dealing with a bit of an injury, according to Dan Campbell. But it was still disappointing to see these two struggle to produce in the backfield for the second straight week. Tight ends: B+ In the second half, Goff found a connection with Sam LaPorta to produce several explosive plays. In the last two quarters alone, LaPorta hauled in six catches for 89 yards. He finished the day with seven catches for 111 yards—his highest output of the season and the second most yards in a game for his career. Wide receivers: C+ On one hand, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tim Patrick and Jameson Williams all found the end zone. They combined for 260 yards, too. However, on a day in which the Lions offense could not afford any mistakes, St. Brown had a critical drop and a second-half fumble that led to Detroit finding themselves in a three-touchdown hole. Additionally, Williams and Goff had another couple of instances where they weren’t on the same page, and Williams dropped what would have been a massive touchdown grab. Offensive line: D- Goff getting sacked three times when he had 59 passing attempts is not that big of a deal, to be honest. However, the Bills also had 10 quarterback hits and forced two holding penalties—Frank Ragnow was called for both those holding penalties. And I haven’t even gotten to the Lions’ putrid running game. The Lions rushed for 48 yards on 15 carries. It’s the first time all season they’ve been held under 100 rushing yards, and it had a huge impact on this game. The Lions punted three times on Sunday. On those three drives, the Lions ran the ball four times for 4 total yards. Defensive line: D- The defensive line pressure was inconsistent, and the Lions didn’t do a great job of maintaining rush lane integrity. Josh Allen was consistently able to find his way out of the pocket, scramble, and buy extra time to make a play downfield. They managed just three quarterback hits and zero sacks. They also weren’t particularly effective in the run game. James Cook finally broke Detroit’s streak of holding opposing running backs under 100 rushing yards (105 yards on just 14 carries). The Lions were particularly vulnerable on the edge, as the threat of Josh Allen running clearly got in the players’ heads. But, hey, Alim McNeill got that one pressure that led to an intentional grounding and saved the Lions defense from allowing more points at the end of the first half. Linebackers: F- It was the second straight week of the Lions running out practice squad linebackers, and the Bills knew it. For nearly the entire game, the Bills were identifying who the linebackers had in coverage and targeting them. Case in point: running backs Ty Johnson, Ray Davis, and James Cook combined for eight catches, 156 catches and a touchdown. Tight ends Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox also got in on the fun, combining for another six catches and 95 yards. There’s no sugarcoating it, this was a disaster from the linebacking unit. Secondary: D+ The defensive backs are not immune from blame in this game. Khalil Dorsey lost sight of Keon Coleman during a Josh Allen scramble, resulting in a 64-yard pass play. Several of the safeties were also responsible for the running back and tight end parade of plays. That said, if there were any plays made on Sunday, they were made by the defensive backs. Brian Branch had 15 tackles, two tackles for loss and a pass deflection. Terrion Arnold had a decent game and added another pass breakup to his arsenal. Kindle Vildor also got on the board with a PBU of his own. Special teams: D Jake Bates missed a 50-yard field goal... and missed it terribly. Both of his onside kicks were actually pretty well kicked, though, so we’ll call it even. That said, the coverage units were a disappointment—starting with the first onside kick that was returned for 38 yards. If you aren’t going to get a hand on the ball, you have to mitigate the damage by making a tackle there. Detroit also allowed a 17-yard punt return. Coaching: D- Let’s start with the in-game decisions. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first onside kick. I understand the Lions need something—ANYTHING—to steal a possession. But onside kicks are such a low-percentage play that even with my confidence shot in the defense, I think that was probably the right play. Of course, Dan Campbell didn’t expect the kick to be returned to the 5-yard line. I also thought the Lions’ clock management on their final offensive drive was poor. They were holding onto timeouts like they were going to score and use them on defense when the real goal should’ve been to save as much time as possible and hope for an onside kick. They didn’t come close to scoring with ample time to use the timeouts on defense. Additionally, the defensive gameplan left a lot to be desired. Leaving the Lions’ patchwork linebacking crew in man coverage against a set of very good receiving backs and tight ends was a losing strategy, and the Lions didn’t stray away from it until it was way too late. Offensively, I didn’t love trying to go back to the run game to start the second half when the Bills’ secondary was missing three of its starters. It felt like they should have had a better plan of attack there, particularly when it was clear the run game wasn’t working.