I think the most frustrating part of the game for me was that the Lions had a clear plan, or adjusted to one, in the 2nd half to beat our blitzes. Nearly every time we blitzed Goff had an outlet or threw right over the top of the blitz for 5-12 yards. Gotta give him credit, he stood in there and took some hits doing so, but it seemed like they were really able to punish our blitzes that didn’t get home.
We didn’t seem to have an answer OR Darnold just wasn’t executing, tough for me to tell. But we have all sorts of guys who are very capable YAC guys on short passes(JJ, Addison, Jones, Hock, etc.) and it still seems like every pass is 10+ yards down the field.
Lions were perfectly fine hitting Gibbs behind the line of scrimmage and living with the 0-5 yards, and as our defense got tired those plays turned into 10+ yarders.
Kicking out of bounds to end the first half was just an absolute back-breaker. Not only did it gift the Lions 3 points, but they walk into the locker room knowing they went like 30+ yards in 15 seconds to end the half. “Hey, maybe we can move the ball against these guys.”