Lions Roll Past Broncos on Saturday Night

If you tuned into this one hoping for a good game, you were clearly mistaken. While the game did go back and forth for the first quarterback as nobody could get anything going offensively, it only took the second quarter for the Lions to make this game out of reach for the Broncos. With this being the case, the second half seemed meaningless because, even though the Broncos finally scored some points, they could not stop the Lions’ offense at all in this game. The Lions looked like they were playoff-ready in this one and they will stay at the top of their NFC North division improving to 10-4 on the season with this win. The Broncos fall to 7-7 on the season with this loss and while they are still second in their AFC West division, they will have to play better football if they want to see themselves as a wild-card team come playoff time. They will hope to rebound from this loss and get a win as they head back to Denver to take on the New England Patriots next week on Christmas Eve. The Lions will hope to get another win as they head to Minnesota to take on the Vikings next Sunday in a very important game, as Detroit will clinch the division with a win. Let’s take a look at how the Lions won this game. 

The first drive of this game for the Broncos would end roughly in a fumble as quarterback Russell Wilson lost the ball. The fumble was forced by Detroit safety Ifeatu Melifonwu and recovered by Lions defensive end Isaiah Buggs. However, the Lions could not turn this great play by their defense into any sort of offense and neither team would score in the first quarter. Once we got to the second quarter it was a whole different ball game. The Lions would score a touchdown on all three of their drives in the second quarter as quarterback Jared Goff connected with tight end Sam Laporta for a 19-yard touchdown on the first one, Goff found running back Jahmyr Gibbs for a 9-yard touchdown on the second drive, and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had a 15-yard touchdown on the third touchdown drive. These eighteen points plus the three made extra points by kicker Michael Badgley would give the Lions a commanding 21-0 lead as both teams headed into halftime. 

The Broncos would finally score their first points of the game on their first drive of the second half as Wilson found wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey open for a three-yard touchdown and after kicker Wil Lutz made the extra point, the score of the game was 21-7. The Lions would match this score by the Broncos as they scored yet another touchdown on their next drive as Goff threw to LaPorta again for a 3-yard touchdown to put the Lions up 28-7. The Broncos offense would set up a 23-yard field goal on their next drive for Lutz, which he would make, but it wouldn’t matter as the Lions scored again on their next drive as Gibbs ran in the endzone for a 12-yard touchdown to make the score of the game 35-10. While both teams would score another touchdown as Wilson ran in the endzone and LaPorta scored his third touchdown of the game to make the final score 42-17, this game was never a close one as the Lions proved they were way too much for Denver to handle on Saturday night. 

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff went twenty-four for thirty-four on his passes in the game, finishing throwing for 278 yards and five touchdowns. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs had eleven carries for 100 yards and one touchdown and running back David Montgomery had seventeen carries for 85 yards. Wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had seven receptions for 112 yards and one touchdown. Tight end Sam LaPorta had five receptions for 56 yards and three touchdowns and running back Jahmyr Gibbs also had a receiving touchdown in the game. Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson only completed a little more than half of his throws in this game, going eighteen for thirty-two for 223 yards and one touchdown. He also had the Broncos’ only rushing touchdown in the game. Denver’s top two receivers in the game were wide receivers Jerry Jeudy and Courtland Sutton who had three catches for 74 yards and five receptions for 71 yards, respectively. However, wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey had the Broncos’ only receiving touchdown in the game.