Quieting Aidan Hutchinson
October 16th, 2023
“Hey Matt, that guy wasn’t much.”
Versatile stud Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson had one of the quietest days of his young career yesterday.
He nicely shoved Baker Mayfield out of bounds on a scramble, but what else did he do? That was his only solo tackle.
Hutchinson didn’t hit Mayfield behind the line of scrimmage and he didn’t bat down a pass. He assisted on a couple other tackles and was little threat overall. It was a telling accomplishment by tackles Luke Goedeke and Tristan Wirfs, and for the inside linemen the few times Hutchinson moved to the interior.
The Bucs’ great work against game-wrecker Hutchinson was wasted by the offense’s overall ineptitude in the blowout loss to Detroit.
Joe watched this game a second time and the offense really stunk out loud. Something was off, and Todd Bowles was right when he used the adjective “sluggish.”
October 16th, 2023 at 9:29 am
“Sluggish” is a cop-out. We were outplayed, did not execute well, and simply got beat by a better team. I am impressed with Goedeke and Wirfs though.
October 16th, 2023 at 9:29 am
Crazy part is mayfield had time but he crapped the bed
October 16th, 2023 at 9:33 am
I thought the pass blocking was really good and even saw Rachaad White doing an excellent job of picking up blitzes, Baker missed too may throws and play calling was suspect. But when teams know that you cannot run the ball, well, some how you need do create something. The difference was the Lions really just took what the Bucs gave them and marched down the field, but Goff had all day, where are our OLB’s, go get JPP at least he has heart and hustle
October 16th, 2023 at 9:33 am
Baker was bad and I’m disappointed because there were receivers open all day. He just didn’t pull the trigger and scrambled. This is the inconsistency I was hoping was behind him. If he plays anything like this against Atlanta I would support a QB switch.
October 16th, 2023 at 9:35 am
Joe, how is a one score game at half a “blow out” do you understand what the phrase even means? Being a Football writer you should familiarize yourself with terms commonly used in and around the game.or else you kinda look like a …. well uniformed person.
A two-touchdown loss that’s won going away is a blowout in Joe’s book. –Joe
October 16th, 2023 at 9:38 am
Joe is get more grumpy that wasn’t a blowout.
October 16th, 2023 at 9:54 am
Baker had a bad day. It happens. It hasn’t happened much so far so that’s good. Early in the game he threw an out pattern that was one of the prettier passes I’ve seen from him. One of the harder passes to make in the NFL. But he obviously whiffed on a lot of deep throws. And admits that he had a bad day. Let’s hope it’s concentrated to this one game. Because yes, it was a waste of a nice offensive line effort against a good defensive front seven.
October 16th, 2023 at 9:59 am
Yeah Hutch was real quiet after that no call on the OOB shove on Bake. Oline was solid in pass pro, especially considering the ratio of pass to run later in the game. Steven is on point, Baker just had an off day and it sucks that it just happened to be against a good measuring stick opponent. Time to move on and focus on keeping a stranglehold on the division. ATL is must win this week
October 16th, 2023 at 10:02 am
It was two good teams in a pretty good game. The Lions along with the Chiefs, Eagles and Niners are the four best teams (by record) since the middle of last season.
If the Lions don’t bat the pass down and have it fall right into a defenders hands Baker hits ME13 for a walk into the endzone…I know about “ifs” “wishes and buts” but this was a TEAM loss. Baker had a bad game. The OL played OK but Baker makes them look better than they are sometimes with the scrambling.
Another ugly drop by ME13…CG14 and LVD were two bright spots along with Kancey getting his first sack.
I’m not a Bowles basher but he deserves much of the blame. Canalas is still learning and did a less than stellar job but Bowles is an experienced Defensive Coordinator and he clearly got out coached by Lions OC Ben Johnson.
Johnson has an excellent reputation so it’s not the end of the world but he just walloped Bowles tactically. Much has been made about the difference in time of possession leading to a gassed D. The D did not play gassed except on the chunk plays on 3rd down. It wasn’t like the Bucs didn’t hustle or appeared slow…it was the Lions with a man wide open thanks to their play calling.
All in all I saw improvement. The Bucs were not manhandled by a physical team…it wasn’t like the Philly game.
The guys have time to improve. Sunday’s home game against Atlanta is the critical contest.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:02 am
Number 23 is a bust in FA so far. The TD he gave up could have been defended by a 2 star high school recruit.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:03 am
Lions had the help of the refs and just pure blind Lady Luck. All the breaks went their way. They still took advantage and won. Bucs will beat the Birds. Hey, didn’t the Iggles get embarrassed yesterday? It happens.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:08 am
BA, correct. Ryan has been a weak link in the secondary. I was expecting a lot more from him. He was in position, but he couldn’t finish. And yesterday wasn’t anything new from him either.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:21 am
Excellent observation BA. He’s stunk since game 1.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:25 am
Off Topic!!! did Shaq even play yesterday! embarrassing. Only time I saw him on the screen was helping his own teammates off the ground after they made the tackle…..
October 16th, 2023 at 10:27 am
Whatever it was def. A bad game by the O missed to big shot plays. Atlanta is a$$ Bucs need to get back into a rhythm and get this W! DBs need to figure it out man they leave a lot to be desired big time. Neal can ride the bench. No ball awareness. Win this week be all forgotten sitting at 4-2
October 16th, 2023 at 10:29 am
Im not a Bowles fan, and I am not going to put this loss on his defense. They held the Detroit offense to 20 pts. Tired of seeing a #23 getting burned deep. Would much rather see #31 over the top in coverage. No need to two fist the Big Storm here on an overreaction Monday. If we dont score 20 or more points, and we give up 20 or more points, we lose. We had opportunities to make the game closer but did not take advantage of those. Lets hope the story is different this week agains Atlanta.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:36 am
Lets move straight ahead. The Lions came into our house and beat us soundly. Hats off to them. They are the better team. We got a great chance to go 4-2 next week. We. Can beat ATL. Come on Bucs. Lets rev up them engines.
October 16th, 2023 at 10:45 am
Burn the creamsicles. Those jerseys represent terrible losing football. Always have always will.
You want to re imagine them , come up with a new take to incorporate the color for an alternate uniform fine. But never again with these.
I’m just amazed that Evans or some other star player didn’t suffer a career ending injury in those things.
Once again the stadium is half full of the other teams fans. The lions really? since when does this putrid fan base have a following
October 16th, 2023 at 10:45 am
This is very good going forward in that our tackles showed they can handle premier edge rushers. Even though the offense sucked arse. Hats off to Wirfs and Goedeke!
October 16th, 2023 at 10:51 am
No idea why Joe using the word blowout has people up in arms. Imo that’s exactly what it was. Could have played another quarter or two and now sure we would have scored. Only chance would have been connecting on one of those home run swings. Otherwise we didn’t move the ball very well
October 16th, 2023 at 10:53 am
Yeah I’m done with Ryan Neal. Had so much hype, not warranted. Joe’s! I’ve heard that the Jets may want to trade Dalvin Cook. Perhaps for a 7th rounder or so? Depending on salary
October 16th, 2023 at 11:04 am
Die hard Lions fan since I was 6. Hutch is a tough assignment. I was also impressed with the O lines ability to keep him quiet. End of the day the offense couldn’t do anything. Good game. You guys will be fine down the road.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:19 am
Oline got their butts kicked again in the trenches. This team cannot run the ball because the oline cannot block anyone to create daylight. There are way too many excuses and finger pointing in order to avoid addressing the real issue, the oline sucks a blocking. Canalas can’t make chicken salad with the ingredients he has.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:24 am
The gay orange uniforms got to go. They represent losing. That’s why we got new ones. The players get paid for wearing them but I bet they don’t like them either. Just like football really needs another revenue stream from crappy jerseys.
October 16th, 2023 at 11:32 am
Embarrassing loss for the Yucs and their idiot fans. Idiots like me. We all should have known better. The Yucs are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook!
October 16th, 2023 at 11:40 am
Baker over threw he sucks yes Evans dropped a couple, what’s up with that? Baker got out played we need a taller qb that can throw I wonder where we can find one? 🤔 #2
October 16th, 2023 at 11:42 am
Handling Hutchinson yesterday was certainly one of the positives. Another positive is that our entire division lost so we’re still in 1st place.
I was surprised that Goff was able to put up such gaudy numbers against our secondary (353 yards, 2 TDs, 0 picks and a 107.5 QBR) considering they were down their top 2 RBs (40 yards rushing on 22 attempts) so going in we knew it was a “stop the pass” kind of game and our secondary is one of our supposed strengths.
That said, the defense still held them to a measley 20 points considering the Lions dominated time of possession (36:30 to our 23:30…nearly a full quarter of football more than us). Even with no running game, they just kept grinding and moving the chains on 3rd down. We bent but didn’t really break, but way too much bending. Tired defenses will do that.
Like others have said, our offense wasted an overall good performance by a defense who were on the field A LOT. And wasted efforts by the o-line too in pass pro.
When is our new “whiz kid” Canales going to take some ownership of the failings and stop scapegoating the players who are “still learning” his magical system? Yesterday Baker and others had a bad game but look at our opening drives this year. You know, the “scripted plays” that are “prepared” well in advance by our new genius OC? Bupkis.
I’m glad we’re doing a little better in the win column than expected but we were 3 and 2 after 5 games last year and our offensive stats through 5 games are worse than last year overall. The eyes don’t lie.
We will still probably win the division but how good will it feel? Didn’t feel so great last year did it? If we finish strong tho…..Glass Half Full indeed
October 16th, 2023 at 11:46 am
When is the last time we ran a rib screen out of play action?
October 16th, 2023 at 12:13 pm
Crazy how good this line would have been with big red at center…. what could have been lol
October 16th, 2023 at 12:16 pm
John Says:
October 16th, 2023 at 11:46 am
When is the last time we ran a rib screen out of play action?
——————-
Why the EFF would you run a screen to a RB out of play action? What a dumb question. A screen is to take advantage of an all-out pass rush or a heavy blitz. Play-action is run to draw LBs and safeties towards the line of scrimmage towards the fake run and away from the deep part of the field…. why would you want to draw defenders closer to the area of the screen, the RB in particular?
we truly have some of the dumbest fans. it’s bad enough that they don’t know football… but then to get on here and act like somehow they do and the professionals don’t? wow!
October 16th, 2023 at 12:19 pm
IMO opinion Baler didn’t have a “bad day” this is who he is. Some days he has really good days but this is who I have seen from Baker Mayfield for the last 1 years.
October 16th, 2023 at 12:36 pm
I don’t believe the Lions’ interception should have counted. It appeared that the ball moved as the defender hit the ground. It was close enough to challenge.
October 16th, 2023 at 12:45 pm
BAKER MAYFIELD IS NOT THE GUY.
Trask looked more than ready this preseason and they gave the job to Mayfield BASED ON REPUTATION. Baker didn’t win the job. They gave Baker a couple of series and they pulled him before any bad play could get exposed. Then they ran Trask out there hoping Trask would flop.
Think about that – giving the job based on reputation to a guy who’s reputation is wasn’t great. He’s got a lot of grit, but ultimately not enough tools. How could they manipulate the process into hoping the 2nd round pick would flop to confirm the decision THEY ALREADY MADE AND LIED ABOUT??? Is that how you run a franchise? They gifted it to a guy with a career losing record. A guy who PFF called CAPTAIN CHECKDOWN because he’s a short yardage passer. Oh and he’s also the guy who throws more picks than anyone since he’s been in the league.
Now everyone’s shocked at this result? Don’t be. We got Steve DeBerg 2.0 playing QB. We’ve been to this dance before.
This is the good version of Mayfield too. He’s not fumbling or throwing pics in bunches.
YOU CAN’T TELL ME TRASK WOULDN’T HAVE LIT UP THE LIONS WITH RECIEVERS RUNNING FREE DOWNFIELD.
This has ceased to be funny.
October 16th, 2023 at 12:55 pm
The hardest thing Joe is that we could have beaten the Lions. They are good but they are not that better than we are. They got the plays when needed and we didn’t, and yes you and I can run the football better than this team. Sad but time is running out if we don’t find a running back.
October 16th, 2023 at 1:02 pm
Brady would have looked good in creamsicle….sigh.
October 16th, 2023 at 2:02 pm
Hey Joe, your book is wrong
Mike C
October 16th, 2023 at 2:23 pm
Baker isn’t the reason we couldn’t get them off the field on 3rd down.
October 16th, 2023 at 3:45 pm
Not really a Goedeke fan because of last year, but I’m coming around due his much better play at RT than LG.
October 16th, 2023 at 5:58 pm
I had a bad feeling about the Detroit game cos of the offensive turnover/changes, and the putrid history of these games after the Bye week. I don’t have it now. Atlanta better be ready. FO all you yahoos about the original uniforms and helmet design. The Dolphins have also managed to f##k their logo up. It was the FL Dolphin flying through the hoop with the helmet on. Ain’t that way no more. BTW, that’s what the 1972 team sported.
October 16th, 2023 at 7:54 pm
Man wish this offense played like the defense. We need complementary football. We’re hitting punts and field goals. Coverage teams need to tighten up and the defense is playing good. The offense is holding the team back.
October 17th, 2023 at 12:04 am
I’m really proud of most of the commenters who posted here.
I expected the usual Baker batshers to come out of the closet.
But except for a couple of stupid bashers, the comments were pretty decent.
It’s too early in the season to get negative.
October 17th, 2023 at 2:04 am
I did not see sluggish from Goedeke, Wirfs, Mauch, Fieler or even Hainsey.
I did see Baker and Mike have a crap day though. Even White looked a bit more decisive even if he did let a big run slide right by him without noticing. 3.7 YPC is improvement for him. Only 7 carries? Otten?
Go Bucs!
October 17th, 2023 at 2:13 am
The Short Armed RT they call Glass Eater is not so bad after all Huh!
Go Bucs!
October 18th, 2023 at 11:17 am
Scoreboard.
October 18th, 2023 at 11:56 am
Well, watched them double team or hold Hutch just about every play. I am sure that sums it up. But Lions shut down the Bucs completely. These are NOT the Lions of old.