Lions head coach Dan Campbell saw a lot that his team needs to improve in Thursday night’s 41-31 loss to the Bills.
“We’ve got a lot of room to grow, and that’s encouraging,” Campbell said. “We’ve just got to clean up a lot of things on defense right now, particularly in the back end. . . . It wasn’t good enough.”
Campbell expressed optimism about the way the Lions can use their extra three days after playing on Thursday night to prepare for Week 3 against the Jets.
“It’s early, we’re in Week 2, we’ve got a long season, and the most important thing is that we get better,” Campbell said. “We just need to get better than we were today in all three phases. We need to play better against the Jets, and I think we will. We can, and we certainly will.”
Campbell credited Bills head coach Joe Brady for having his team ready to play.
“They got after us and we didn’t play good enough and we didn’t coach good enough. That falls on me,” Campbell said. “It certainly needed to be a lot cleaner than that.”
Josh Allen made the first regular-season game in Highmark Stadium memorable for Bills fans.
The quarterback threw three touchdown passes and ran for two in a dominant 41-31 win over the Lions. The Bills improved to 2-0, while the Lions fell to 1-1.
Allen now has four career games with three touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns. No other player in NFL history has more than two (Kordell Stewart), according to NFL Researcher.
Allen completed 20 of 31 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns. His scoring tosses went for 43 yards to Josh Palmer, 1 yard to Dawson Knox and 16 yards to Dalton Kincaid. Palmer has two catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns this season, having caught the game-winning touchdown in the win over the Texans on Sunday.
Kincaid caught seven passes for a team-leading 95 yards.
The Bills lost wide receiver DJ Moore to a shoulder injury and a stinger in the first half.
Allen also ran for 69 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, topped only by James Cook’s 21 carries for 135 yards. Cook scored the team’s last touchdown on a 1-yard run with 2:50 left to seal it.
The Bills outgained the Lions 446 to 355, were 5-for-5 in the red zone and went 9-of-12 on third down.
Buffalo scored touchdowns on its first four possessions and punted only twice all night.
The Lions, who blew a 21-0 lead to the Saints last week before winning in overtime, fell behind 21-0 and trailed 27-10 at halftime. They twice pulled to within 10 points when the game was still in reach, but Allen and the Bills answered twice.
Detroit’s last touchdown, which pulled it to within 10 again, came with 1:42 left as as Amon-Ra St. Brown scored his second touchdown. The Bills, though, recovered the onside kick.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff was 26-of-38 for 327 yards and four touchdowns after a slow start. Goff reached 40,000 yards in his 153rd game, the sixth-fastest for any quarterback.
St. Brown caught nine passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns, and running back Jahmyr Gibbs had 16 carries for 52 yards and caught six passes for 61 yards and a touchdown.
Bills outside linebacker Greg Rousseau, who had two sacks and two forced fumbles in the season-opening win over the Texans on Sunday, had two sacks and a forced fumble against the Lions.
Josh Allen is a touchdown machine.
For the 10th time in his career, he has scored two or more rushing touchdowns and two or more passing touchdowns in the same game. His latest score came on the ground from two yards out, extending Buffalo’s lead over the Lions to 34-17.
Allen holds the record by a wide margin. In second place on the all-time two-and-two list is Hall of Famer Steve Young. He did it four times.
For the season, Allen has already accounted for nine touchdowns.
Barring a collapse, the Bills will move to 2-0 on the year, with a proper christening of their new stadium.
Bills wide receiver DJ Moore will not return tonight.
With extra time until their next game, the Bills will have to hope 10 days is long enough for Moore to heal.
Moore was injured with 2:56 remaining in the first half when he dove in the end zone for a pass from Josh Allen. The pass was incomplete, and Moore landed on his shoulder before Lions cornerback Rock Ya-Sin landed on top of him.
Moore is out with a shoulder injury and a stinger.
The Bills lead the Lions 34-17 after Josh Allen’s 2-yard touchdown run with 1:07 remaining in the third quarter. Allen has run for two touchdowns and thrown three others.
The Lions aren’t dead yet.
Detroit opened the second half with an 11-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, and now trail the Bills 27-17. The Lions were down 21-0 before Jared Goff hit Jahmyr Gibbs for an 11-yard touchdown. Jake Bates kicked a 31-yard field goal on the last play of the first half, and Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown for a 2-yard touchdown with 9:29 left in the third quarter.
Goff is 18-of-24 for 198 yards and two touchdowns. He has thrown a touchdown in 25 consecutive games.
St. Brown has six catches for 70 yards and a touchdown.
