Detroit Lions film review: A drive-by-drive dive into dominant defensive effort against Cleveland
Allen Park — Defensively, the Detroit Lions accomplished nearly everything they wanted in Sunday’s 34-10 win over the Cleveland Browns.
Beyond that minimal dent in the scoreboard, the Lions limited the Browns to 249 yards of total offense, including 79 rushing yards and 2.9 yards per carry. They sacked quarterback Joe Flacco three times, held No. 1 receiver Jerry Jeudy in check, forced the Browns to go three-for-14 on third down, and, most importantly, generated a trio of takeaways.
The biggest downside — certain to draw the ire of coordinator Kelvin Sheppard — was permitting the Browns to drive 88 yards and score a touchdown with their first possession. That marks the fourth straight game to open the campaign that the Lions have surrendered six on the opposition’s opening series.
But how about the rest of the game? Cleveland possessed the ball a dozen more times, not including taking a knee to end the first half, and they failed to get a first down on half of them. The Browns didn’t move the chains more than twice on any drive after the first, and only scored three more points, on a series that started in Detroit territory following a turnover.
That’s dominance.
To put a bow on Sunday’s game, we’re going to review what went wrong to start the game and highlight the key play that netted stops on Cleveland’s remaining possessions.
As always, I strongly recommend checking out my concluding thoughts from the performance at the end of the post, even if you skip the blow-by-blow.