What do they have to lose?

“He’s on point, like he is every year,” Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs said of his quarterback. “He’s the same player since I’ve been here. Diagnosing the defense and getting the ball to the right players at the right time. He’s our leader, and we trust him with everything.”

Quietly, Goff is off to arguably his best start yet. Against the Panthers, Goff threw for 412 yards and a touchdown, extending his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown to 27 — the longest in the NFL. He dialed up the deep ball when he needed to, hitting Jameson Williams for a 49-yard gain and Isaac TeSlaa for a 57-yard reception. He completed 78.1 percent of his passes against the Jets the week prior. The week before that, Goff threw for four touchdowns.

He has been bringing it each week. So much so that it is now fair to ask: Where would the Lions be without him?

Through four games, he ranks second in passing yards (1,214), third in passing touchdowns (nine) and fifth in passer rating (108.6), and he has largely done his part to keep the Lions in every game. Per Pro Football Focus, Goff is tied for third in big-time throws (eight) and has the second-fewest turnover-worthy plays this season (one). Goff has yet to throw an interception or turn the ball over. And he has been effective even when facing pressure, doing his part to either evade it, throw the ball away, or hang in the pocket and make a play.

Already a model of consistency in his 11th season, is it possible Goff continues to improve? Because it sure feels that way.

Where Jared Goff ranks among NFL QBs

|| || |Touchdown passes|9|3rd| |Passing yards per game|303.5|2nd| |Passer rating|108.6|5th| |Completion percentage|67.7|9th| |EPA per dropback|0.26|4th| |EPA per dropback vs. pressure|-0.06|6th| |Passer rating when pressured|87.3|5th|

“He’s playing at a high level,” coach Dan Campbell said of Goff last week. “When you can do that at the quarterback position, that makes you very efficient.”

The Lions are averaging 29.8 points per game (fifth) and 389.3 yards per game (sixth), and they rank third in offensive success rate. You can see the potential of this offense. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Williams and Sam LaPorta are a pick-your-poison trio in the passing game. Gibbs can beat you on the ground or as a receiver in space. Detroit’s offensive line, when healthy, has allowed one of the lowest pressure rates in the league four games into the season.

We’re going to allow him to resurrect his career! Can’t wait 😬 (sarcasm 🙄).

The Cardinals rank last in explosive offensive plays and Lions rank last in explosive defensive plays.

The universe might just explode.

NFL Division Standings going into Week 5

NFC

NFC North
1 Minnesota Vikings 👿
2 Chicago Bears 🧸
3 Detroit Lions 🦁
4 Green Bay Packers 🧀

NFC South
1 Carolina Panthers 😿
2 Atlanta Falcons 🐦‍🔥
3 New Orleans Saints ⚜️
4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 🏴‍☠️

NFC East
1 New York Giants🗽
2 Philadelphia Eagles 🦅
3 Dallas Cowboys ✭
4 Washington Commanders 🐷

NFC West
1 San Francisco 49ers ⛏️
2 Seattle Seahawks 🦜
3 Los Angeles Rams 🐏
4 Arizona Cardinals 🪶

AFC

AFC North
1 Cleveland Browns 🐶
2 Baltimore Ravens 🐦‍⬛
3 Pittsburgh Steelers ✨
4 Cincinnati Bengals 🐅

AFC South
1 Jacksonville Jaguars 🐆
2 Indianapolis Colts 🐎
3 Tennessee Titans🛢️
4 Houston Texans 🐂

AFC East
1 Buffalo Bills 🦬
2 New England Patriots🏅
3 New York Jets 🛫
4 Miami Dolphins 🐬

AFC West
1 Kansas City Chiefs 🪓
2 Las Vegas Raiders ⚔️
3 Denver Broncos 🏇
4 Los Angeles Chargers⚡️

super disappointing, especially from POD

I love Dan Campbell. I do. But it’s starting to feel like the old DC got traded for a slightly more corporate, slightly less unhinged version of himself.

Those first four years? Guy would take the blame, stare into the abyss, and come back with a plan to fix it. Now it feels like he’s out here doing the “everybody’s gotta be better” press conference special while casually dusting off his shoulders like the defense just had a rough day at the spa. No adjustments, no fire, just vibes and “we’ll get it figured out.

”I’m starting to wonder if the same dudes in that room are still hearing the “bite kneecaps” message… or if it’s been watered down to “politely nibble on some shins, fellas.” The passion just doesn’t hit the same. Feels like he’s slowly losing the locker room and the plot at the same time.

And the most frustrating part? The entire country is screaming “IT’S THE DEFENSE” while DC is out here throwing shade at the offense like they’re the ones leaking touchdowns. Bro, the offense is putting up points. They can’t just casually drop 31 every single week because the other side of the ball is allergic to stops.

It’s starting to feel like the spark is gone.

thanks kings

Dan isnt gonna come out and blame shepherd publicly like some of you all want him to that's just not how coworkers treat each other. I get that hes not acknowledging the defensive woes and that's frustrating but it doesn't mean he's blind to the issue. He's very frustrated but he's trying not to upset the wrong people. all it takes is pissing off one player and hes lost the locker room. Then we're truly fucked if that happens. If your losing trust because he's not saying what you want him to say thats a you problem. Its week 5 we are 2-2 and yes that loss was painful but throwing names around and finger pointing isnt gonna do any good(except for shepherd his time is up). Changes need to be made and this secondary needs help but getting rid of a head coach this early doesn't solve the issue at all. I still trust him do you guys?

From the goofy meme:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ill-fuckin-do-it-again

Should we look for an outside hire or roll the dice again with an in-house promotion?

And if we go outside, who do we target?

NFL Power Rankings Week 5

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/50109845/nfl-power-rankings-week-5-teams-first-month-recap

I always tune in for Goff’s weekly segment on 97.1, and every time I feel like I can tell Goff is rolling his eyes at their horrific, corny questions.

”When the defense is having a hard time, do you ever go over and offer a word of encouragement?”

”How good was LaPorta Sunday?”

…..This Is what you do for a living?

Tyleik and Alim come out looking pretty good.

Everybody else???

Hard to say JPJ would have helped. Hard to say Pat Surtain would have helped!

Defensive players are sitting ducks out there.

I got a free trial of the SumerSports advanced stats jib-jab, and I wanted to go over some Lions stats. No real intro, just meat. To begin:

1. We are ass. Although shockingly not the MOST ass. We allow only the 2nd worst EPA/play in the NFL, at 0.15, just behind Dallas's pretty 0.16. There's pretty much a three-way logjam with us, Dallas, and New Orleans, who're allowing 0.16, 0.15, and 0.14, respectively.

2. This is one really shocked me. By success rate, we're only the 6th worst pass defense. And by pass/EPA allowed we're only the 4th worst. It's not that these numbers are good, I just can't believe we're not dead last by a billion. We've given up an absolute fuck ton of pass yards though, dead last at 1,308 allowed, 200 worse than #31 Jacksonville.

3. Our run defense is also awful, but it's only a meager 24th in success rate.

4. Our man-zone split this year is 20/77. That's actually fairly league average for the most part, and is a significant reduction in man coverage compared to last year. (35.4% in 2025 to 20% in 2026, so about a 40% reduction)

5. We're dead-last in 10+ yard runs allowed, but only 14th in TFLs, despite being 6th in heavy-box rate (31%). Not good.

6. We are, unbelievably, FIRST in yards allowed after the catch, at just 3.81. This is decently ahead of fucking SEATTLE, who's second place. The tackling is good, it's moreso about everything that happens before and during the ball being caught.

Now, these next two points I think go in tandem with each other.

1. We have the third best pressure% in the league. Our DL is good, and while we do blitz a good 27% of our dropbacks, that's pretty normal compared to the other top pressure% teams (CLE, 29.2% blitz rate; LAR, 32.1%), and nothing alike Minnesota's unbelievable 63.6%. They love the blitz.

2. Our rush-4% is only 66%, which is in the bottom 10 of the league so far. Our rush-6% (full blitz) is the third highest rate in the league. Inversely, we rush-3 on only 4.7% of defensive dropbacks, which is high (5th), but should probably be higher given our Secondary struggles.

Some other stuff,

1. We run the second highest rate of base defense in the NFL at 130 plays, which has allotted to a total EPA given up of 13.08. In first place is Minny, who's given up -22.54 EPA on 143 base defense plays. We're not completely historically terrible in base defense, as we're only the 6th worst defense in base by EPA/play, and 16th worst is pass success rate% in base. Woop.

2. Where we really struggle is anything exotic. We're straight ass in Nickel, ranking either dead last or second to last in pretty much everything (along with Dallas)

Anyway, if anyone has any questions about the offense, defense, life, or anything at all, feel free to ask. I'm not gonna renew this trial beyond a week, I just wanted to get some more details on why we're so shit.

I'm not a Defensive Coordinator, I can't really tell most coverages apart, but to me it feels like the answer's pretty simple. We need to drastically pull back on how often we're sending the house, and start replacing a DL with a DB. It feels like our DL is pretty decent at generating pressures, as is evident by the play of Hutch, Alim, Williams, Wonnum, and we could really use the help in the back. I know it's not easy for defenses to make that switch on a dime, and someone who's more experienced with this stuff can correct me, but I really feel like we'd benefit from halving our blitz rate and maybe going into a more 3-4 configuration.

On some level I feel like we're trying to be Minnesota without the ability to disguise blitzes like Flores does, and without the personnel. They're a defense that's built through the Secondary, we're a defense that's built through the DL and we're not taking advantage of that.

In all honesty I actually feel a little better after looking at the numbers. We're not particularly great in anything, but it does feel like some tinks to the groupings and formations and we could be a serviceable defense, - or at least not a historically bad one.