DETROIT – Numerous miscues by the Detroit Lions caused them to squander the near-record-breaking day of defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson in a 20-16 home loss during their rematch of the 2023 divisional round against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Hutchinson, in defeat, had four and a half sacks, three of which came in the first quarter on Sunday (Sept. 15).
The former Michigan Wolverines standout added five tackles and a forced fumble, falling one sack away from tying defensive lineman William Gay (5.5) for most in franchise history.
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Amid a dynamic defensive performance, the Lions’ offense went one of seven in the red zone, including a baffling blunder heading to halftime.
With time trickling down, the Lions had a chance to stop the clock and kick a field goal, but with no timeouts remaining and panic sets in, before quarterback Jared Goff could clock it, the field goal unit ran on the field, causing a game delay and a 10-second runoff to end the half.
“You know, I asked for improvement from last week, and we did improve, but their head coach coated them,” said head coach Dan Campbell. “Critical error to end the half, and that’s 100% on me. We improve, and we got to continue to improve, but it’s not OK.”
It was a 13-6 game, and the Lions’ offense was finally in a groove. Putting points on the board and coming back with the ball out of the have could’ve taken complete control of the game from that point forward.
That pivotal moment summed up the rest of the game as Goff, who completed 34 of 55 passes for 307 yards, threw two costly interceptions that took more points off the board.
“He’s at the top of the pyramid here, and when the guy at the top takes accountability like he has throughout his career and even today, it makes it a lot easier for everyone else to take accountability when they’re at fault,” said Goff. “We had plenty of opportunities to overcome that. Make the plays to win the game. And I know he can be hard on himself, but as players, I got to be better. I got to pick him up. I got to pick up our guys. The guys have to pick me up, and that’s how we win. Unfortunately, we couldn’t overcome too many mistakes today.”
Losing a game at home after such a defensive masterclass may sting until the next game, but the Lions are in familiar territory.
“It sucks, but I was just talking to some guys and I think this is going to be really good for us,” said Hutchinson. “We had an early loss last year too and I remember we lost to Seattle (Seahawks) and everybody thought we sucked again. You know and so I think we’re going to keep this one in perspective and if we struggle a little bit as a team I rather we struggle early rather than later and the plan is to catch fire as we get through the season and then we go from there.”
The Lions will look to get back to their winning ways as they travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals at 4:25 p.m., but they’ll use the days in between to clean up some of their miscues as Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. will look to keep their connection going.