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The Detroit Lions dropped their ninth game in their last 10 contests, this time in a barely-contested game. The Vikings jumped out to an early lead, and the Lions offense was in no condition to build themselves a comeback. The final score may have been 20-7, but the game didn’t feel anywhere near that close.
Here are three things we learned from the Lions’ Week 14 loss.
David Blough is not ready to be starting football games
As an undrafted rookie who didn’t even spend training camp with the Lions, expectations should be extremely low for the Lions’ third-string quarterback. But after a promising performance on Thanksgiving, some were a little crazy with their praise of Blough:
This week, I heard two callers into 97.1 make the case that Detroit should move Matthew Stafford to make room for David Blough in the starting lineup. I wonder what those guys are thinking right now.
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) December 8, 2019
Against the Vikings, Blough felll back to reality in a hard, hard way. Detroit’s offense was completely inept against a good Vikings defense. In the first quarter, Blough went 1-for-6 for 18 yards, and it didn’t get much better from there. Blough was inaccurate, took bad sacks, and threw a couple of really ugly-looking interceptions.
The book is far from written on Blough, but it’s clear he’s not starting caliber yet.
The defense showed signs of life
The Vikings took their foot off the gas a little in the second half, but even in the first half, the Lions defense did a solid job holding the Vikings in check. Detroit’s run defense continues to trend towards being good again. They held Minnesota to just 3.1 yards per carry on Sunday. The Vikings entered Week 14 averaging 4.6 yards per carry.
The Lions pass defense continued to struggle a bit, although they were able to generate some pressure and force some inaccurate passes. And, more importantly, the Lions were finally able to get off the field on third downs. Minnesota was just 5-of-14 on third downs.
Kenny Golladay should be a Pro Bowler
With another touchdown on Sunday, Golladay now has 10 touchdowns on the season, leading the entire NFL. His 58 receiving yards also pushed him over 1,000 receiving yards on the season. To continue to put up these kind of numbers despite the fact that he’s had backups throwing to him over the past five weeks is nothing short of amazing. He has fully assumed No. 1 receiver status.