DETROIT — Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills dropped 48 points and 559 total yards of offense in their win over the Detroit Lions in Week 15.
Both represent new season-worst marks for Detroit’s banged-up defense. It’s also the second straight week the Lions have allowed a new season-high in terms of points allowed, too.
And the hits keep coming, with cornerback Khalil Dorsey out for the season (ankle), and the team worried they might have lost veteran Carlton Davis III (jaw) and defensive lineman Alim McNeill (knee), too.
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But the Lions know they don’t have any time to waste, with the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings on their heels in the NFC and inside the division. The Eagles won on Sunday, tying the Lions at the top of the conference. The Vikings host the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, with a chance to join the Lions and the Eagles at the top of the standings.
Allen threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns, adding 68 yards and two scores on the ground to strengthen his MVP bid. The Bills quarterback was lethal scrambling for more time, letting the ball rip near the line of scrimmage.
Detroit’s defense struggled to corral the quarterback, inside or outside of the pocket, and its coverage struggled to hang on for dear life.
“It’s definitely very tough, but we have to do a better job in the secondary as far as plastering,” rookie Terrion Arnold said in the locker room. “We’ve been doing that all year. I think our urgency has to be better, and our communication has to be better. It’s just one of those things where we look at it as far as it’s another opportunity to get better, another opportunity to go out there and grow, and we just have to go out there and compete harder.”
Arnold said the defense is asking what they did wrong because it didn’t feel like they went out there and lost one-on-one matchups. The rookie said it’s all on them and that defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn set them up for success and will do so again.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of executing the game plan,” he said.
See below for more from inside the locker room:
Lions HC Dan Campbell, on the defensive showing: “Yeah, it’s frustrating. I thought we would, we’d be better. It’s not the, you know, some of these things where they make a play, man, I can live with that stuff. It’s across the board, when you know that you have self-inflicted wounds — there’s things that we did on our own — and gave those guys something to where they had better opportunities. That’s the frustrating part. You just want to know that you didn’t help them, and I do feel like we helped them a little bit there.”
Arnold, on the defensive backfield’s struggles: “As a secondary, we can’t give that up. This defense depends on us heavily, and we just have to go out there and be better.”
Lions QB Jared Goff, on his big day: “Yeah, it’s not enough. That’s really the best way to put it. I think we were able to rack up some yards and some touchdowns there late in the game and if we had done that earlier in the game, it probably would’ve been a closer game and wouldn’t have felt so much like garbage time there at the end. I know we kind of made it close there at the end, you get the onside kick, you have a chance. But yeah, I think early in the game we kind of shot ourselves in the foot offensively. In a game like that against an opponent like that, you get behind the eight ball a little bit, down a couple scores, and it’s hard to climb back.”
Bills HC Sean McDermott, on his thoughts in this game: “And the, to the Lions’ credit, there’s no quit in that team. They’ve come back before, it was in Houston at least once and a few other games as well, so we’ve got to learn how to close out a game better. But I thought a couple key plays were, certainly, getting off to a good start and then the defense in the second half forcing a three-and-out, I believe, or a punt — a quick punt and the forced fumble, and then Mack (Hollins), obviously Mack’s — I guess you’d call it a kickoff return. So, a lot of good stuff, a resilient team, tough, a lot we can still improve on. I thought we left some out there, a couple of those red zone sequences we could be better, but listen, when you have, when you’re scoring 40-something points and 500-plus yards — but anyway, good team win.”
Lions DL DJ Reader, on rushing Allen outside or inside: “You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t … We’ve just got to find a way to get stops. We couldn’t do it today. It sucks when it happens, especially the way it happened, but we’ll get back to the drawing board and we’ll be all right.”
Lions CB Amik Robertson, on how they move ahead: “At the end of the day, we don’t like losing. It’s all about how you respond, though. I’m a resilient guy, we have a lot of resilient people, this is a resilient team. We’ve got to bounce back, man.”
Lions TE Sam LaPorta, on next week: “I think coach Campbell will get us ready for the week. He already addressed and told us that we’re practicing outside this week, which is great. Can’t wait for that. We’ll be ready for this weekend.”
Bills QB Josh Allen, on his ability to extend plays: “I mean, we work on it. Scramble drills have got to be one of our best plays. Our receivers know that and they’re just finding ways to get open when the play breaks down a little bit and try to extend plays when it’s not there and we’ve had some success on it. Still a couple times have probably put the ball in harm’s way, but again we had some guys make some plays tonight.”
Allen, on ex-Lions RB Ty Johnson’s big day: “I think he’s really smart. I think he’s the best third down back in the game. The way that we communicate, the way that he sees protections, it’s quarterback-like. He just plays the game the right way. He’s another guy on this team that we don’t really call a running back, he’s a football player that plays running back. He’s always constantly running toward the ball, helping people up, saying the right things. Again he’s a big reason why we are where we are.”
Campbell, on Allen’s performance: “We knew, unless we were in certain coverages, we had to keep him hemmed in there. And it was going to take a lot of discipline up front. And then there would be these things — particularly third down — where we could cut it loose and go get him, and we had some of those. And then somebody we may have that’s trying to spy out on him has got to get him, and we couldn’t get him. Look, he poses a huge issue, I mean, he’s tough, and we knew that going in, and certainly, we wanted to be able to handle that better, and it was just one of those days we just didn’t.”
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