Detroit Lions game balls & goats: Josh Reynolds, Sam LaPorta show up; pass rush toothless
Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett highlights the best and worst performances from the Detroit Lions' 37-31 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at Ford Field.
Game balls
WR Josh Reynolds
Amon-Ra St. Brown’s place at the top of the Lions’ receiver hierarchy is secure, but Reynolds has strung together two nice games to start the season. On Sunday, he had five catches for 66 yards and caught touchdown passes of 22 and 4 yards. Reynolds held onto his first TD despite a big hit from Quandre Diggs, and his second pulled the Lions within one score with 3:08 to play.
“Reynolds is really playing big for us right now,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “He’s been a trusted target, reliable guy since he’s really been here. He just had some injuries last year that slowed him down a little bit at times but man, when he’s healthy and he’s going, he’s somebody we have a lot of faith in.”
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TE Sam LaPorta
LaPorta had five catches for 63 yards Sunday, and two of his grabs came on the Lions’ final touchdown drive. He caught a 12-yard pass on third-and-12, with Seahawks cornerback Coby Bryant draped on his back, to keep the drive alive, and he spun off tackles from a pair of Seattle defensive backs on his 23-yard gain later in the period.
A second-round pick out of Iowa, LaPorta has some serious run-after-catch ability for a tight end. He had a mixed day blocking. He whiffed on a block on David Montgomery’s fumble, then made the key block on Montgomery’s touchdown run. But two games into his NFL career, he looks like a keeper.
Goats
Lions pass rush
The Lions thought enough of their pass rush that they passed on defensive linemen with their first five picks in April’s draft, but two games into the season they have exactly one sack — by linebacker Alex Anzalone late in Sunday’s fourth quarter.
Playing against a Seattle Seahawks team starting backups Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan at the tackle spots and that lost center Evan Brown for a period early in the game, the Lions couldn’t muster enough pressure with their four-man rush on a day Geno Smith threw the ball 41 times. The Seahawks were careful about taking shots downfield, but the Lions defensive front didn’t register a single quarterback hit. They need the unit to be better collectively going forward.
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RB David Montgomery
Montgomery has been one of the Lions’ best offensive players through two weeks. He ran for 67 yards on 16 carries Sunday and gave the Lions a short-lived 21-14 lead with a 4-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. But Montgomery also had a costly fumble on the first snap of the second half, at a time when the Lions appeared to have the Seahawks on the ropes.
The fumble wasn’t solely Montgomery’s fault. LaPorta’s missed block gave Uchenna Nwosu a clean shot on Montgomery in the backfield. But it fueled Seattle’s hopes on a day where things didn’t appear to be going the Seahawks’ way early. And if his thigh bruise is serious, it could be a week or two before Montgomery returns to the field and gets a chance at redemption.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions game balls and goats: Desperate for more pass rush
