Detroit Lions Week 7 Player of the Game: 5 game ball candidate vs. Dolphins

The Detroit Lions had a great team performance in Week 7, showing drastic improvements on both sides of the ball. When the team is working so well together, it’s sometimes tough to point out impressive individual performances.

There were no shortages of good play from the Lions against the Miami Dolphins, but unfortunately I have to whittle down the the field to five Player of the Game candidates. Before we get into this week’s candidates, here are the Game Ball standings after six weeks.

(Remember: First place in voting gets three points, second place gets two, third place gets one.)

Game Ball standings through Week 6:

Kenny Golladay - 9.5
Devon Kennard - 3
Kerryon Johnson - 3
Golden Tate - 3
Da’Shawn Hand - 3
Matthew Stafford - 2
Frank Ragnow - 2
Quandre Diggs - 2
Darius Slay - 1.5
Romeo Okwara - 1

Here are this week’s candidates:

Kerryon Johnson

Stats: 19 rushes, 158 yards (8.3 YPC); 2 catches, 21 yards

I don’t need to really get into this, do I? Johnson’s day was electric from the first quarter until the last. The Lions running game finally feels legit, and while Johnson wasn’t the only one who was successful in the backfield, his breakout performance was the best the Lions have had in years.

Michael Roberts

Stats: 3 catches, 48 yards, 2 TDs

The Lions’ red zone issues seemed to have rolled over from last season, but if Michael Roberts can continue to play like he did on Sunday, the Lions may figure things out quickly. Roberts grabbed his second and third touchdowns on the year against the Dolphins and added an impressive 29-yard catch, too.

Those big mitts should be a really big weapon for Stafford and this offense. Now he just needs to pile on performances like this on top of each other.

Matthew Stafford

Stats: 18-for-22, 217 yards, 2 TDs; 4 rushes, 9 yards

Many will point to the Patriots or Cowboys game, but I think this was Stafford’s best performance of the season. He was cool as a cucumber in the pocket, he was lethally accurate, and he even showed off some Wheels for seemingly the first time all season. Best of all, he was accurate from the very first snap. Too often, we’ve seen Stafford get off to some slow starts, but there wasn’t even a single series in which he looked off. A near-perfect performance from No. 9 on Sunday.

Matt Prater

Stats: 4-for-4 FGs (long 50), 2-2 XPs

After some uncharacteristic misses earlier in the season, it seemed like Prater may be entering the twilight of his career and he wasn’t quite the kicker he used to be.

That may still be true, but Prater was perfect on Sunday, and his 50-yard game-clinching kick was no gimme. On the road, in the 90-degree heat with the crowd pretty darn loud, Prater was flawless. Don’t take him for granted, Lions fans. He’s still very good.

Ricky Jean Francois:

Stats: 2.0 sacks, 3 tackles

Ricky Jean Francois hasn’t has 2.0 sacks in an entire season since 2015, but he tallied two on Brock Osweiler Sunday. But this is really a group award for the interior defensive line. There were hardly any running lanes up the middle all day thanks to Francois, A’Shawn Robinson and Da’Shawn Hand.

But getting a little pressure up the middle help create sacks and force some throwaways from Osweiler, which was huge in limiting the Dolphins offense earlier in the game.