Film review after a tough loss is never as much fun as reviewing a victory. Detroit’s tale of two halves in the Lions’ 41-34 road loss to the Los Angeles Rams offered a little bit of everything on the emotional roller coaster, from the thrill of a victorious first half to the agony of the worst third quarter in memory.

Here’s what I took away from the review of the coach’s tape of the Lions Week 15 loss to the Rams.

Flat DL

Flat. Bland, Vanilla, Dull. Choose your own unimaginative adjective of preference and it will aptly describe the Detroit Lions defensive line in this game.

Four guys line up against 6 (the Rams ran exactly one play without a tight end) and almost every time, it’s trying to win straight ahead. No stunts, no twists, no asynchronous rushes, no zone blitzes, no overloads. The Lions’ four were asked to defeat the Rams’ six (or 7) just by out-efforting or out-skilling them, with the exception of a few opportunities for Aidan Hutchinson to loop inside on a delay.

That it worked as often as it did is a testament to the talent up front, namely Hutchinson and Al-Quadin Muhammad, who each played well in the pass rush. Roy Lopez had a couple of nice interior wins, too.

The blitzes, other than one notable one each from Alex Anzalone and Jack Campbell, were worthless. Too late or too easily identified and picked up by a savvy Rams line and a smart QB in Stafford who has seen it all before. As has been the case all season, Campbell and Derrick Barnes didn’t shed those blocks in pass protection.

When the Lions did mix things up, such as L.A.’s final drive of the first half, it didn’t go well either. The Lions scored with a picture-perfect pitch-and-catch from Jared Goff to Jameson Williams, leaving just 30 seconds on the clock for the Rams. Detroit converted to a 3-man line, with Hutchinson playing a 5T. It gave Stafford more than enough time to survey the field and find Kyren Williams and Puka Nacua for chunk gains that set them up for the field goal. The extra player in coverage wound up appearing to make the zone softer, which is not ever going to be successful against Stafford. This was a time to bring extra pressure, not less.

Lions blocking steadily declined

Detroit’s first four drives were largely successful (2 TDs, one FG, one missed FG) thanks in no small part to very good all-around blocking. It wasn’t like the entire Lione O-line was winning on every play, but there were enough wins to create running room and give Goff time to set up in the pocket and attack down the field. That’s where he’s at his best–evaluating his options from a clean pocket and throwing strikes.

The Rams line started to take over the war up front on Detroit’s final drive of the first half. The Lions still managed a touchdown with Goff burning a coverage lapse over the top to Jameson Williams, but earlier on the drive there were some missed blocks and Rams’ wins–their players simply beating who was blocking them.

That carried into the turd, sorry–third quarter, one in which left guard Trystan Colon earned his abysmal PFF grade of 38.8. In nine offensive plays, Colon had clear losses on seven of them. The Rams adjusted their attack a little, squeezing the formation defensively. It served the same function that Green Bay did against Detroit in not letting the blockers get moving enough to create momentum or power, and guys like Poona Ford, Kobie Turner and Tyler Davis held their ground definitively. Detroit also got very little from the tight ends as blockers after the first couple of drives.

The Rams are indeed really good

Going into the game, L.A. was a prime contender to claim the title of the NFL’s best team. They proved they’re No. 1 with a complete performance, absorbing and surviving Detroit’s best half of football in weeks and then running away from the Lions in the second half. They’re a complete package: run offense, pass offense, run defense, pass rush, speed, coaching–every box but pass coverage gets checked. They play hard and smart, too. They weren’t perfect–especially with a slow start from Matthew Stafford–but man, the Rams look like a team that can win the Super Bowl.

Beating the Rams requires playing at a high level in all phases, all game. The Lions were up to the challenge for three quarters, but that wasn’t good enough. There’s no shame in that for Detroit, beyond the frustrating acknowledgement that the current Lions just aren’t as good as these Rams. One of the side effects of being as good as Detroit has been the last 2-3 years is that moral victories don’t exist. Five years ago, playing three quarters of better football than the best team in the league but losing by a touchdown would have been viewed a lot more positively than this loss is, or should be viewed. The Lions are supposed to be a team that looks like it can win a Super Bowl, too, but Detroit just isn’t in that class right now.

Quick hits

–Gibbs has a similar issue to Barry Sanders in that he really isn’t as effective when the Lions have a fullback (in this case a TE playing FB) in front of him. The Rams dropped their safeties lower when they saw the I-formation and it gave Gibbs nowhere to run. That didn’t help the inconsistent blocking

–Goff had a very good game overall but he did miss some, including one notable and costly misfire. On Detroit’s first drive, if he hits Jamo in stride on the deep cross, it’s a touchdown. No. 1 had to slow up and reach behind him a bit, and it allowed the defense to catch him. That directly led to the Bates missed FG.

–On that 43-yard miss, Bates knew he pulled it left from the moment he kicked it. Snap and hold were perfect.

–Isaac TeSlaa played more in the slot in this game, which was his primary role at Arkansas. He really struggled to get open quickly on routes, something that he’s battled for a few weeks now. The rookie has great size but needs to learn to make himself a smaller target for jams and also to shorten his stride off the line–it cuts into his ability to cut sharply. That was quite evident on film this week.

–D.J. Reed clearly isn’t 100 percent healed from his hamstring. It showed when he had to turn and run with Nacua or Davante Adams, who ironically suffered a hamstring injury in this game too. The burst out of transition just isn’t there for No. 4.

–The Rams clearly wanted no part of Tom Kennedy returning kickoffs. That’s something ST Coordinator Dave Fipp needs to weigh–is the offense comfortable starting from the 35 every time, or does he have Kennedy try one from six yards deep in the end zone?

–Just as a general observation, the Lions current secondary might be the slowest in the NFL when factoring in Reed’s limited hamstring. That’s a real problem for when the pass rush doesn’t get home.

–Hutchinson’s INT was such a brilliant read. It almost looked like Stafford was trying to throw the ball away and 97 still caught it. Tip of the cap to Rams TE Colby Parkinson for chasing down Hutch, though the Lions scored on the next play (St. Brown TD on a deep slant) in an attack mode that was very reminiscent of Ben Johnson’s style.

–Amik Robertson whiffed on two tackles in this game by exclusively efforting to punch the ball out instead of going for a tackle in space. Jack Campbell had one where the tackle moved on him as well as he missed with his attempted punchout. The desire to create a big play is great, but the risk/reward equation was squarely in the negative in this game.

–Detroit converted both fourth-down attempts with smart plays, no gimmickry. That was a nice change from previous weeks.