Detroit Lions Must Play Better If Team Hopes to Win in January

The Detroit Lions managed to vanquish the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34-17 in Week 14, but the victory exposed how far Detroit still has to go in order to become a viable playoff contender.

The odds are pretty favorable for Detroit to qualify for the postseason for just the second time since Barry Sanders retired, and that's great. These Lions are a talented team and finally appear removed from the dreaded "same old Lions" moniker that has haunted them.

Yet the goal for this group should be winning games in January. The potential is absolutely in place for this very team to win multiple playoff games this season. In order to pull that off, they're going to have to play better than they did in the win over lowly Tampa Bay. 

"

Lions are doing too many Lions things right now.

— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) December 7, 2014"

The Buccaneers experienced far too much success against Detroit for a 2-11 team. Even though the final margin was 17 points, the game wasn't a blowout and wasn't firmly in control until Joique Bell's lucky touchdown catch with just over five minutes remaining on the fourth-quarter clock. 

Foremost among the problems are the penalties. Detroit earned nine flags for a season-high 122 yards. That figure is more than double the season average heading into the game. The flags got out of hand in the second half:

"

In second half today, Bucs offense had 104 yards, just short of the 107 yards Lions had in penalties in the second half ...

— Greg Auman (@gregauman) December 7, 2014"

Some of the penalties were of the inexcusable, mindless sort:

• Isa Abdul-Quddus running into the punt returner before the ball arrived
• Ezekiel Ansah dashing offside
• Jason Jones retaliating a blow to his head with one of his own in full view of the officials

Then there was Ndamukong Suh's forearm shiver to Bucs quarterback Josh McCown's facemask. Even if it was incidental, Suh has to be smarter than to even give the impression he might be doing something construed as illicit like that. 

Coach Jim Caldwell talked about the penalties on Monday to the gathered media. As quoted by Justin Rogers of MLive.com, "That's an area we have to continue to improve, plain and simple. I'm more interested in winning, obviously, but I know one thing, if you have too many (penalties), they lead to deficiencies, they lead to problems, they lead to losses."

Another issue is the running back situation and the rushing offense in general. Bell wound up posting an impressive all-around game, but 57 of his 83 rushing yards came on one carry. 

Detroit's first-down carries throughout the game disappointed. It was especially bad in the first half, where just one run netted more than three yards. 

Runner	Yards
Joique Bell	1
Reggie Bush	-1
Bell	0
Bush	3
Bell	3
Bell	0
George Winn	2
Bell	5
Bush	2

Reggie Bush continues to struggle, and it doesn't appear the former Heisman Trophy winner will snap out of it anytime soon. Bush runs too tentatively and dances with the ball instead of attacking the defense. Between his hesitancy and his chronic battles with injuries, the Lions need to stop trying to force the issue with Bush.

"

Theo Riddick is better than Reggie Bush. Dumb of Lions to sideline Riddick now that Bush is healthy.

— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) December 8, 2014"

Theo Riddick didn't play on Sunday, and when Caldwell was asked why he deferred to Bush's more established status. That's not doing the Lions offense any favors, as noted by Tim Twentyman of the team's official website: "Riddick is averaging 10.1 yards per reception this season on 27 catches and 272 yards. Bush has caught 30 passes for 177 yards, which comes out to a 5.9 average. Riddick has three receiving touchdowns. Bush has none."

Bush's ineffectiveness didn't hamper a winning effort against Tampa Bay's porous defense, but the Lions will need more production and more big plays like Bell's long run if they want to beat the likes of Seattle or Philadelphia in the playoffs. 

Tampa Bay's vertical passing offense also found a little too much success for comfort. Vincent Jackson caught 10 passes for 159 yards, and many of those catches came well down the field; Jackson netted just 26 of those yards after his receptions.

The Detroit secondary struggled to contain the physical, fast wideout. Even when corners Darius Slay or Rashean Mathis were in position, they weren't able to make enough plays.

"

There isn't much shame in having trouble with Vincent Jackson. There is, however, when you don't turn your head for the ball. #Lions

— Brandon Alisoglu (@BrandonAlisoglu) December 7, 2014"

Not every team has a wideout combination like Jackson and impressive rookie Mike Evans, both of whom are at least 6'5" and 230 pounds. Their size and ability to create space for themselves along the sidelines was a real problem for Detroit's coverage. 

Evans also created problems in the red zone. The coverage seemingly wasn't anticipating the outside throws well, giving Evans too much room even for a big man who clearly likes to push off. 

"

And Tampa finally makes the Lions pay for their silliness. TD pass to Mike Evans. 17-9, PAT pending.

— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) December 7, 2014"

The Lions are going to have to tighten up those problem areas from the Tampa Bay game. While it was strong enough to handle a 2-10 visitor to Ford Field, the overall play needs to elevate to pick up playoff wins in January.

Fortunately, there are a lot of positives from the win. It's important to focus on what Detroit did well too, and some of those positives were quite impressive.

The passing offense, especially Matthew Stafford and the two tackles protecting him, deserve the high marks. This was one of Stafford's best games. He's had bigger numbers, but No. 9 has never been more savvy in reading the defense.  

"

Matthew Stafford is 26/34 for 311 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT, 133.3 rtg. #DefendTheDen #TBvsDET pic.twitter.com/VQaKJ5DU7F

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) December 7, 2014"

His bookend tackles, Riley Reiff and LaAdrian Waddle, both arguably played their best games of the season. Pro Football Focus (subscription required) agrees, grading Reiff at 2.0 and Waddle at 3.5. Both appear healthy and back in the groove of 2013 where the Detroit offensive line was one of the best in the NFL.

It was also nice to see the defense create turnovers. James Ihedigbo and Glover Quin both picked off McCown, though Ihedigbo gave it right back with a fumble on a terrible decision to try and run the pick out of the end zone. Defensive tackle Andre Fluellen pounced on a McCown fumble too.

Matt Prater appears confident and accurate as the kicker, helping ease the concerns at a position which directly cost the Lions at least one win. Sam Martin once again looked fantastic at punter. Those are key facets in what figure to be closely contested playoff games. 

Most takeaways from the game seem to emphasize the positives. The Lions did double the opponent's score, after all.

Elliot Harrison from the NFL Network was pretty optimistic in his grades, as laid out in the video below.

Brandon Alisoglu issued lots of A's and B's in his postgame grades for Bleacher Report as well. So did Dave Birkett at the Detroit Free Press.

Perhaps it's nitpicking to focus so much on the negatives from such a win. Yet this team has the potential to achieve so much more, and too many things happened in the Tampa Bay game that would keep these Lions from picking up a rare playoff win.

The talent is in place for this team to do something no Lions team has ever done in the Super Bowl era—win multiple playoff games in the same season. For that to happen, Detroit must keep fighting to get better every week.