Week 8 Recap: Indianapolis Colts vs. Detroit Lions

The Indianapolis Colts continued their early success on the 2020 season on Sunday. The Colts beat the Detroit Lions by a score of 41-21 led by Philip Rivers and a defense that continues to impress. This game went about as expected but was less competitive than many anticipated.

Indianapolis Colts

Rivers was incredible on Sunday. He went 23-of-33 for 262 yards and three touchdowns. He has been criticized this season, but this performance should put those thoughts to rest for another week. Surprisingly, Jordan Wilkins led the team in carries with 20 rushes for 89 yards and a touchdown. Jonathan Taylor had 11 carries for 22 yards. Nyheim Hines stole the show as he had eight touches, which resulted in 62 yards and two receiving touchdowns. Hines led the team in receiving yards with 54 as T.Y. Hilton left the game with an injury. Zach Pascal and Mo Alie-Cox combined for 81 yards on six catches. Jack Doyle caught the other touchdown for Indianapolis. Michael Pittman returned to action this week and caught a pass for six yards. He will likely have a much larger role next week if Hilton is out.

Defensively, the Indianapolis defense stole the show once again. Darius Leonard returned to action and totaled nine tackles, a tackle for loss, and a sack. Tyquan Lewis and Denico Autry had two sacks each to bring the sack total to five on the day. The Colts were looking for pass-rush options opposite of Justin Houston and found one in Lewis. The secondary has been a pleasant surprise, and that continued this week. Kenny Moore had three tackles, two pass deflections, and a pick-six on the day and is still one of the best slot cornerbacks in the game.

Detroit Lions

Matthew Stafford didn’t have a bad game as he went 24-of-42 for 336 yards, three touchdowns, and the pick-six. He was sacked five times behind a mediocre offensive line. Stafford wasn’t helped at all by his rushing attack as the Lions only rushed 13 times for 29 yards, a 2.2-yard average. D’Andre Swift rushed six times for one yard, and Adrian Peterson rushed five times for seven yards. Kenny Golladay didn’t play most of the game as he was hampered by an injury. Marvin Hall had four catches for 113 yards on the day. T.J. Hockenson continues to have a great sophomore campaign as he caught seven passes for 65 yards. Marvin Jones was resurrected on Sunday as he had two touchdowns on three catches.

Tracy Walker and Jamie Collins were the leading tacklers for Detroit as they combined for 21 tackles. Romeo Okwara and Danny Shelton had a sack apiece. Detroit’s defense is supposed to be better with Matt Patricia as the head coach, but since he’s been there, the defense hasn’t gotten better.

Highlights

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The Colts are 5-2 following the win. Unfortunately, they now have a grueling four-game stretch that starts next week against the Baltimore Ravens. After that, Indianapolis goes on to face the Titans, Packers, and then Tennessee again. Detroit falls to 3-4 and two games behind Green Bay and Chicago as of Sunday afternoon, and two games out of the wild card race. The Lions have yet to win a home game and look to get back on track next week against Minnesota, who just beat the Packers.