DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Down by 17 in the second half, Detroit made a push to the end showing that they were not the Bad New Lions of the past. They battled to the end scoring with under five minutes left making it 38-35 but fell short of claiming the win.

“We had a chance at the end but we couldn’t close it out,” says head coach Dan Campbell. “The damage was done in the first half and we had to fight back. Both the offense and defense hurt us in that half and we spotted them seven on offense and we couldn’t fight our way back from it. We need to clean a lot up.”

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Coming into the game Detroit wanted to shed last year’s loss to Philadelphia as the Eagles had their way with the Lions. Today proved that Detroit has improved, but still has a long way to go getting to the playoff level they need to be at.

The offense produced 386 yards of total offense with 215 passing yards as Jared Goff was 21-of-37 with two touchdowns. D’Andre Swift went over 100 yards rushing with 144 yards on 15 carries and one touchdown. Jamaal Williams had just 28 yards rushing but was in the end zone twice.

Philadelphia finished with 455 yards of offense as Jalen Hurts threw 18 completions on 32 attempts.

Scoreless for pretty much the entire first quarter, Detroit’s Williams punched in a one-yard run for the 7-0 lead with 4:42 left. Hurts tied the game up just two minutes into the second quarter from one-yard it. Philadelphia took over the quarter scoring 24 points with 21 straight. Miles Sanders then had a one-yard run at the 7:34 mark and James Bradberry made it 21-7 on a 27-yard touchdown return on an interception.

Swift cut the Eagles lead to seven as Detroit had a 10-play, 75-yard drive ending on the seven-yard touchdown run. That came with just under two minutes to play. Philadelphia countered, once again, with a 73-yard drive ending on a 23-yard field goal and a 24-14 lead at the half.

“We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds (in the first half) but I thought we came out in the second half and did a much better job and were much more efficient. We could take more shots (on offense) because we were on the field longer and get some rhythm. The guys up front did a good job. I thought the O-Line did well,” said Campbell.

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The third quarter belonged to Philadelphia as they scored 14 points for a 38-21 lead. A two-yard run at the 10:21 mark gave them a 31-14 lead but Amon-Ra St. Brown received a four-yard pass from Goff to pull within 10, 31-21, at het 4:09 mark. Philadelphia then scored with 1:41 left on a one-yard run pushing the lead to 17, again, 38-21, as the third quarter ended.

Scoring early in the fourth, Williams gained his second touchdown of the day from one-yard out as the quarter started (14:16). The defense held the Eagles on the next series to just four plays but couldn’t do anything with the ball after that giving it back to Philadelphia. Three plays later, Philadelphia punted the ball as Detroit took over with 8:19 left to play. It was 11 plays later that DJ Clark was found by Goff for a three-yard touchdown pulling within three points with 3:51 left to go in the game.

Getting the ball back and trying to run out the clock, Philadelphia drove to the Detroit 40-yard line with a fourth-and-1. With 1:06 left on the clock, Detroit had a chance to get the ball back if they stopped the Eagles. It couldn’t be done as Hurts rushed up the middle for the yard needed to get the first down and run out the clock.

“At the end of the game, we had a chance on the fourth-and-1 to close it out and you get the ball back with a minute left and no time outs and we would have been in a positon to win it. I was proud that we fought our way back but we have a lot to clean up,” says Campbell.

The additions to the defense were hit and miss giving up big plays and short gains on third and fourth downs for the first down. Top draft pick Aidan Hutchinson only had one tackle on the defensive line. Tracy Walker III led the team with 13 tackles and one sack while Jeff Okudah had 10 tackles.

“As long as we keep fighting you never know what will happen. I felt like we were going to get a turnover at any minute to balance the scales back out but that didn’t happen today. We need to get some of those. When we make a mistake we need to find a way to make them do the same thing and give us something back and we didn’t do that today.

It wasn’t the outcome that Detroit wanted but the improvement was there after they were embarrassed a year ago by Philadelphia. This is no longer the old Lions from 2021 but a new and improved version that will continue to get better each week.