Don't Look Now - Lions are Winners of Their Last 3 . . .

[Matt_In_NH]

I am glad this has its own thread and has not been discussed in the Lions game thread.

[dave mcbride]

18 hours ago, WyoAZBillfan said:

Problem I have starting the Lions is:

The teams beaten were thought of as lower quality teams for most of the year, or at least beginning of year. Even using the Pack as a measuring stick for competition.

 

 The Lions are decent offense, below average Defense.

 

 The Bills control their own destiny. Just have to get out of their mid-season swoon (I believe this is becoming an annual thing). 
 

Go Bills!

The defense has been playing a LOT better since they fired the coordinator.

[RyanC883]

The Lions are like the Browns, IMO.  Good running game, decent QB and WRs, and a suspect D.  That said, the Browns gave us trouble.  

[JerseyBills]

Dan Campbell has those guys fired up. I saw their latest post game locker room speech and you can tell they're locked in

 

He even mentioned them needing to be laser focused to beat us and said it'd be their toughest matchup of the season 

 

Going to be a tough outing but I obviously love our chances 

[Captain Hindsight]

I'm sure the Bills arent taking them lightly. Lions can score and in bunches. Their defense is sorely lacking (except Hutchinson who is looking fantastic). 

 

Bills are the better team and its not close. Can't let up at all, but I think they win pretty comfortable. 10 point spread is justified IMO

[Warriorspikes51]

The Bills need to play with an intensity not shown much so far this year. 

[Aussie Joe]

20 hours ago, FilthyBeast said:

This game concerns me when you consider how the Bills have been playing as of late compared to the Lions who have a full head of steam during their 3 game win streak and even in their last loss against the Dolphins they had a lot of chances to win that one too and were up 10 points heading into the 4th quarter.

 

I think we'll find out a lot about who the Bills really are in this game because a loss here certainly takes them out of the running for the #1 seed, and possibly the division title as well.

Didn’t you say the same thing last week?

 

We get it  ..losing games isn’t good for wining the No 1 seed or winning the division..

.

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Aussie Joe

[Alphadawg7]

21 hours ago, Tom Donahoe, GM said:

 

Just FYI the Lions have a losing Thanksgiving record and as far as I can tell haven't won since 2016

 

Unfortunately, none of that has anything to do with the Lions team stepping onto the field Thursday.  No disrespect, I am just someone that never understood why people compare past teams to present teams with these things, really no relevance at all to how past teams with different players and coaches did in certain situations.  Any repeating of past performance is mere coincidence, not at correlation.  

[Alphadawg7]

5 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

The Bills need to play with an intensity not shown much so far this year. 

 

We had plenty of intensity for a major part of the season.  However, this last week against the Browns was very unfamiliar, especially Josh Allen.  Every week, Allen is fired up, he is constantly showing fire and passion all game long amongst himself, but also to all his teammates on both sides of the ball.  He plays with an edge that he can do anything and no one can stop his will to win.  

 

But this week against the Browns, that Josh was not there and the overall team lacked his normal intensity and passion too.  I do not know if its because he was so down on himself and putting all the blame on himself for the past 3 games where we went 1-2 and the Bills had bad second halves, or if it was the coaches really trying to reel him in some and focus on less risks.  

 

Whatever it was, it was not the Josh we have known and that is a big concern.  He played Sunday not to lose rather than his usual win at all costs.  I have been referring to it as neutered Josh since that game because that is what it felt like.  We will not go into KC and win in the playoffs...or beat them here at home...if we don't have the balls to the wall, no one can stop me, Josh Allen.  That is a major part of what makes him special.  

 

And yes, we won the game and still put up 31 points...but did we really beat them or did Cle beat themselves?  They had 3 easy missed TD passes, two flat out dropped while wide open on back to back plays to see them settle for a FG.  And another wide open that Jacoby just missed the throw a little high.  They fumbled a snap giving us a free FG after we yet again couldnt get a first down.  Then Davis fumbled the onside kick and the Browns player couldn't wrangle it in despite getting 2 hands on it with only a 1 score lead for us.  

 

We still only have 1 TD in the last 4 games in the 2nd half, we settled for a ton of FG's against the Browns, and the offense had only amassed 12 yards in the first quarter and a half.  Against KC we would have been down 21 points at least if we had 12 yards of offense in the first quarter and a half.  

 

Browns lost that game more than we won it.  Nothing about that game felt like resolved issues.  The offense was anemic, Josh wasn't firery like he normally is, he didn't take chances, he didn't push the ball.  End result...195 yards passing.  I love Josh, and I still think him and Mahomes are the class of the NFL without question...but this Allen...this offense we saw on Sunday...it won't get it done against better teams.  

 

So I really hope with a win under their belt, Allen regains his confidence to go out and try and smash opponents the way he has.  I will take the sample size of the last 2 and a 1/2 years over the sample size of the 2nd half of 3 games any day of the week.  We live and die by his ability to take risks and make plays.  That is much better than him playing not to lose.  

[Slippery Rubber Mats]

13 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Unfortunately, none of that has anything to do with the Lions team stepping onto the field Thursday.  No disrespect, I am just someone that never understood why people compare past teams to present teams with these things, really no relevance at all to how past teams with different players and coaches did in certain situations.  Any repeating of past performance is mere coincidence, not at correlation.  

 

I disagree. There are lots of pieces that are the same

[without a drought]

Except for division games, all they have left is Lions and Tigers and Bears.

 

 

Oh my

[Doc Brown]

5 minutes ago, without a drought said:

Except for division games, all they have left is Lions and Tigers and Bears.

 

 

Oh my

Bengals too.

[dave mcbride]

2 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

We had plenty of intensity for a major part of the season.  However, this last week against the Browns was very unfamiliar, especially Josh Allen.  Every week, Allen is fired up, he is constantly showing fire and passion all game long amongst himself, but also to all his teammates on both sides of the ball.  He plays with an edge that he can do anything and no one can stop his will to win.  

 

But this week against the Browns, that Josh was not there and the overall team lacked his normal intensity and passion too.  I do not know if its because he was so down on himself and putting all the blame on himself for the past 3 games where we went 1-2 and the Bills had bad second halves, or if it was the coaches really trying to reel him in some and focus on less risks.  

 

Whatever it was, it was not the Josh we have known and that is a big concern.  He played Sunday not to lose rather than his usual win at all costs.  I have been referring to it as neutered Josh since that game because that is what it felt like.  We will not go into KC and win in the playoffs...or beat them here at home...if we don't have the balls to the wall, no one can stop me, Josh Allen.  That is a major part of what makes him special.  

 

And yes, we won the game and still put up 31 points...but did we really beat them or did Cle beat themselves?  They had 3 easy missed TD passes, two flat out dropped while wide open on back to back plays to see them settle for a FG.  And another wide open that Jacoby just missed the throw a little high.  They fumbled a snap giving us a free FG after we yet again couldnt get a first down.  Then Davis fumbled the onside kick and the Browns player couldn't wrangle it in despite getting 2 hands on it with only a 1 score lead for us.  

 

We still only have 1 TD in the last 4 games in the 2nd half, we settled for a ton of FG's against the Browns, and the offense had only amassed 12 yards in the first quarter and a half.  Against KC we would have been down 21 points at least if we had 12 yards of offense in the first quarter and a half.  

 

Browns lost that game more than we won it.  Nothing about that game felt like resolved issues.  The offense was anemic, Josh wasn't firery like he normally is, he didn't take chances, he didn't push the ball.  End result...195 yards passing.  I love Josh, and I still think him and Mahomes are the class of the NFL without question...but this Allen...this offense we saw on Sunday...it won't get it done against better teams.  

 

So I really hope with a win under their belt, Allen regains his confidence to go out and try and smash opponents the way he has.  I will take the sample size of the last 2 and a 1/2 years over the sample size of the 2nd half of 3 games any day of the week.  We live and die by his ability to take risks and make plays.  That is much better than him playing not to lose.  

I honestly think the coaching staff deliberately ramped him down so he could ramp back up again the right way -- that is, not to the point of playing like a reckless one-man band. I see last game as a reset. He's not gonna change from being Josh Allen.

[Saint Doug]

Bills are lights out for prime time games. I’m not worried (I think…)

[corta765]

22 hours ago, Joe Ferguson said:

Good. They are due for a 5-6 game losing streak starting this Thursday. 

 

One thing in the NFL is that when teams get on winning streaks especially not great teams your due to have a fallback game at some point. The Lions truthfully beat two bad teams GB/CHI and a decent NYG team that couldn't stop turning the ball over. 3 wins is 3 wins, but like the Bills in 2011 sometimes you also just have things go your way. The biggest thing with the Lions is they play to the whistle so Buffalo in no way can under estimate DET or they will jump on you. If Buffalo matches DET to the level they should intensity wise Buffalo should win.

[DCofNC]

Detroit has been putting up points all year, they are not a team to take lightly with the D as banged up as it is.  I think they may be able to hang with the Bills, especially if the offense sleeps through the first half like last week. If you can keep it close into the 4th, anything can happen.  I wouldn’t put it past the Lions to pull a shocker.

[Scott7975]

23 hours ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

I'm scared, someone hold me

 

 

[What a Tuel]

1 hour ago, Doc Brown said:

Bengals too.

 

Curious who you think the tigers are?😃

[Wraith]

5 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

We had plenty of intensity for a major part of the season.  However, this last week against the Browns was very unfamiliar, especially Josh Allen.  Every week, Allen is fired up, he is constantly showing fire and passion all game long amongst himself, but also to all his teammates on both sides of the ball.  He plays with an edge that he can do anything and no one can stop his will to win.  

 

But this week against the Browns, that Josh was not there and the overall team lacked his normal intensity and passion too.  I do not know if its because he was so down on himself and putting all the blame on himself for the past 3 games where we went 1-2 and the Bills had bad second halves, or if it was the coaches really trying to reel him in some and focus on less risks.  

 

Whatever it was, it was not the Josh we have known and that is a big concern.  He played Sunday not to lose rather than his usual win at all costs.  I have been referring to it as neutered Josh since that game because that is what it felt like.  We will not go into KC and win in the playoffs...or beat them here at home...if we don't have the balls to the wall, no one can stop me, Josh Allen.  That is a major part of what makes him special.  

 

And yes, we won the game and still put up 31 points...but did we really beat them or did Cle beat themselves?  They had 3 easy missed TD passes, two flat out dropped while wide open on back to back plays to see them settle for a FG.  And another wide open that Jacoby just missed the throw a little high.  They fumbled a snap giving us a free FG after we yet again couldnt get a first down.  Then Davis fumbled the onside kick and the Browns player couldn't wrangle it in despite getting 2 hands on it with only a 1 score lead for us.  

 

We still only have 1 TD in the last 4 games in the 2nd half, we settled for a ton of FG's against the Browns, and the offense had only amassed 12 yards in the first quarter and a half.  Against KC we would have been down 21 points at least if we had 12 yards of offense in the first quarter and a half.  

 

Browns lost that game more than we won it.  Nothing about that game felt like resolved issues.  The offense was anemic, Josh wasn't firery like he normally is, he didn't take chances, he didn't push the ball.  End result...195 yards passing.  I love Josh, and I still think him and Mahomes are the class of the NFL without question...but this Allen...this offense we saw on Sunday...it won't get it done against better teams.  

 

So I really hope with a win under their belt, Allen regains his confidence to go out and try and smash opponents the way he has.  I will take the sample size of the last 2 and a 1/2 years over the sample size of the 2nd half of 3 games any day of the week.  We live and die by his ability to take risks and make plays.  That is much better than him playing not to lose.  

Allen started 4/10 for 27 yards through most of the first half. The rest of the way he went 14/17 (82%) for 170 yards (10 yards per attempt) and a TD. One of those incompletions was a throw away. The Bills scored on all six of those possessions before the kneel down to end the game. Allen was really good once he shook off that early funk. 

[Alphadawg7]

1 hour ago, Wraith said:

Allen started 4/10 for 27 yards through most of the first half. The rest of the way he went 14/17 (82%) for 170 yards (10 yards per attempt) and a TD. One of those incompletions was a throw away. The Bills scored on all six of those possessions before the kneel down to end the game. Allen was really good once he shook off that early funk. 

 

Yet we managed to convert that into just 2 TD's.  Had we been playing KC and didn't achieve a first until late into the 2nd quarter, we likely would have been 3 scores entering halftime and lost that game.  That was the point.  Playing it safe, we kept kicking FG's...anyone really think we beat KC kicking FG's, let alone not achieving a first down until 7 min left in the half?  

 

You would be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of Allen than me.  I am not panicking or dumping on him, and I assume the win will help everyone relax and play more loose again this week.  My only point is that I just hope this subdued Josh was a temporary thing last week and we see Josh play more free and fiery this week as he has since he has been here.  

Edited November 23, 2022 by Alphadawg7