Allen Park — The Detroit Lions are welcome to symbolically bury the tape of Thursday’s performance against the Buffalo Bills — like they did after getting thumped by Philadelphia in 2021 — but they shouldn’t.
No, this is one the defense needs to watch, more than once, to absorb their lapses and make the corrections after getting dogwalked by the Bills and star quarterback Josh Allen.
The Lions surrendered 446 yards, six touchdown drives, with all five of the opposition’s red-zone trips resulting in scores. The Bills converted 75% of their third downs, rushed for 203 yards and three touchdowns, and thanks to some good fortune, didn’t turn the ball over once.
It’s not necessarily the worst defensive performance of the Dan Campbell era, but it belongs in the conversation with the aforementioned loss to Philadelphia, a 2022 shellacking in Carolina, a jarring beatdown in Baltimore in 2023 and a similar onslaught from the Bills in 2024.
The Lions aren’t afforded the same injury excuse they had against this opponent in 2024, when they were missing several starters going into the contest and lost two more in defeat. Sure, they were down safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch on Thursday, but had more than enough in all three levels to put up a far better fight than they did.
So what went wrong? Well, when the dismantling is this comprehensive, it’s a little bit of everything. Let’s take a drive-by-drive look at Buffalo’s six touchdowns to better understand the breakdowns and what the Lions and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard need to correct.
As usual, we’ll have some concluding thoughts at the end of the post.