D Dominates Detroit

Posted November 17th, 2025

The Lions had 546 yards and 44 points in their win last Sunday. But that was against Dan Quinn and his "defense”. Vic Fangio’s unit proved to be a hell of a lot more formidable. They held Detroit to 317 yards and 9 points. That is the lowest point total for the Lions in 36 games.

That is some impressive defense.

Jared Goff came into the game completing 74 percent of his passes. The Eagles held him to 14 of 37, the worst passing day of his Lions career. This wasn’t luck. The Eagles pass rush kept Goff under constant pressure and the secondary did a fantastic job in coverage. The Eagles only finished with 2 sacks, but had 7 QB hits and the DL had 5 pass deflections. They made Goff uncomfortable all night long. Cooper DeJean picked off one of the deflected passes.

Fangio was masterful with how he called defenses. He mixed blitzes in effectively. Dan Campbell has gotten a ton of credit for what he’s done as a play-caller over the past couple of weeks. Fangio kept Campbell and the Lions from getting into any kind of rhythm.

It is great that the Eagles defense played so well because the offense had another off night. They finished with only 272 yards. They started three drives in Detroit territory and turned that into only a pair of FGs. The Eagles defense held the Lions to 3 for 13 on third downs and an amazing 0 for 5 on fourth downs. Those stops kept giving the Eagles offense good field position. The offense did just enough to win, but a better effort could have made this a very different game.

Jalen Hurts really struggled early on. He was just 9-18-63. Hurts was off target with several throws and couldn’t get comfortable. He was better in the second half, even though his numbers still weren’t great. He did go 10-31 on the ground. A couple of those were designed QB runs that proved to be key in moving the chains.

Both teams were heavily affected by windy conditions. Philly’s deep passing game didn’t deliver at all. The Lions missed a PAT because of the wind (and a penalty that pushed the kick back). Dan Campbell and Nick Sirianni made some strange decisions about when to be aggressive and when to be conservative. This wasn’t a game that will be studied by young coaches, at least not for the right reasons. Sirianni went for it on 4 and 1 late in the game. That got stuffed and set up the Lions to kick a FG and make the game closer than it should have been. Detroit stuffed the Tush Push multiple times.

The Eagles came out throwing, hoping they could take advantage of the Lions beat up secondary. I’m sure they also wanted to get the ball to AJ Brown so they could solve that situation. Detroit’s backups played surprisingly well and kept the Eagles offense under control. Brown was targeted 11 times. He finished 7-49. His biggest impact may have come at the end of the game when he drew a questionable PI call that allowed the Eagles to run out the clock.

The defense had a lot of heroes. It really was a group effort. Jordan Davis played the run well and batted down 3 passes. Jaelan Phillips had a sack and a couple of QB hits. He was disruptive. Jalyx Hunt had 3 QB hits. Quinyon Mitchell played like a shutdown corner.

Nakobe Dean deserves special mention. He only had 3 tackles, but had a sack and 2 QB hits. He also was sensational in coverage on a couple of different plays against speedy receivers.

This is the second week in a row that he simply ran over the blocking back. When Dean blitzes, dudes better be ready. He goes full speed and isn’t going to be blocked easily. It is great to see him playing better than ever after last year’s injury.

I know the offense is frustrating. I get it. They deserve a lot of criticism for their performance over the past two weeks. At the same time, you need to celebrate just how good the defense is. They faced a pair of good offenses and limited them to a total of 16 points…combined. Detroit played really good defense and made things tough on the Eagles. Hurts was able to do just enough to lead his team to a win.

The Eagles are now 8-2. They are atop the NFC standings. They have beaten the Rams, Bucs, Lions, Packers, Vikings and Chiefs. That’s a lot of contenders, or teams we thought would be contenders. The offense must get better, but this team is starting to look like it will be in the Super Bowl hunt once again.

https://igglesblitz.com/2025/11/d-dominates-detroit/