I take all preseason games with a grain of salt the size of Lot's wife, but they're still fun(ish) to watch and try to draw conclusions. Last night, the Lions looked very shaky on almost every level. Not REALLY shaky, but they certainly weren't firing on all cylinders.
The Good
Matt Stafford did a pretty good job of moving the offense. He wasn't super crisp - missing a read in the end zone that would've gotten a TD and air-mailing a pass into the flat on 3rd & 4 - but he managed to rack up 113 yards on just 11 throws, which is pretty good. He seemed to be developing a rapport with Marvin Jones, who caught 4 passes on 5 targets for a total of 65 yards.
The Receiving Corps in general look pretty good, which is something I've said before. We don't have anybody SO good that defenses will key on him, like they did with Calvin Johnson, but maybe that's a good thing. Tate does so many different things well that you can't cheat on him one way without losing in another. Jones can take the top off of a defense, and Boldin is good at dishing out body blows in the middle. I predict that one of Roberts, Billingsley, or Kerley will emerge as a credible #4 WR.
The defense was a lot of good and bad, but the DBs looked solid, and Ngata is definitely still a capable DT. Actually, that's not really fair to our defense, since we rested our top 2 defensive ends. I don't know that Tyrunn Walker (the other starting DT) played either. And of course DeAndre Levy is still out. Anyway, mixed bag from the defense, but some areas looked pretty good.
The Bad
First, Taylor Decker looked like a rookie. He was often a bit overmatched, and he missed several key blocks on running plays. The offensive line is still playing as a unit that is trying to get to know each other, and the communication and anticipation aren't great. The pass protection was decent in general, although Stafford had ANOTHER fumble-sack on a blindside "look out" block from TE understudy Cole Wick. Speaking of Wick, I was hoping that he would be a more palatable alternative to Ebron, but his blocking skills are severely lacking. His hands are good though.
TJ Jones is probably playing himself out of a roster spot. He's a borderline WR at best, but any value the Lions were hoping he'd add as returner is just not there. He's not decisive, and he runs backwards A LOT. On kickoffs that he returns, I think the Lions' average starting position is probably the 10 yard line. I'd place more blame on the blockers if guys like Andre Roberts and Dwayne Washington weren't doing so much better in the return game.
Dan Orlovsky looks like a capable backup like 75% of the time, but every so often he'll do something monumentally stupid. In the first game, it was the wounded duck he threw that didn't make it out of bounds. In this game, it was yet another pick 6 that I saw coming the second the ball left his hands. I'd like to see what Rudock does with the 2nd team offense.
The defense against the run was atrocious, and they put zero pressure on the QB - . Tackling wasn't great, except from the DBs. Kick and punt coverage was absolutely terrible this week - the Bengals had punt returns of 24 & 30 yards, and two kick returns over 30 yards. That is unacceptable.
The So-So
I'd put current starting LB and ill-advised draft pick Kyle Van Noy squarely in this category. He totally blew some plays, but also made some nice ones, including a well-timed blitz that resulted in a tackle for a loss. The good news is, he looks like an NFL player for the first time in his career, although he's still a long way away from looking like a high 2nd-round pick. So that's something, I guess.
Theo Riddick looked like a stud in the passing game last year (80 rec for 697 yds), but he hasn't looked like much this preseason. Washington, the 7th-round pick, has looked much better in both the passing and running game, and his TD kickoff return definitely put him on the radar. Zenner and Ridley have been pretty "meh" as well.
The Verdict
It's a preseason game. You can never tell very much anything definitive based on a preseason game, especially one this early. But what I saw was a lot of "not ready yet".
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