Lions Insider

First down

Every football fan sitting on the coach at home thinks he/she is a better offensive coordinator that the one calling the plays of the game they're watching.

That's just the way football fans are and Lions fans are no different.

But give credit where credit is due when it comes to the game Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan called in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 28-27 victory over the Raiders.

"Coach Linehan called an unbelievable last two-minute drive, really," said Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. "Mixing it up, getting us great looks. The pull-up play to Calvin – that one covered (48) yards – that was a great call by him and a chance to max it up and get a chunk there. We needed it."

The Lions' last two drives went 10-plays, 78 yards and seven-plays 98 yards, both culminating with touchdowns on some terrific play-calling by Linehan.

Second down

Lions defensive end Cliff Avril continues his reign of terror over quarterbacks the last two weeks.

Avril collected two more sacks Sunday, giving him four in his last two games and 11 for the season.

Avril's sack of Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer with 21 seconds left in the game at the Raiders 47-yard line forced the Raiders to take their third and final timeout and took the middle of the field away from them on the next two plays and they couldn't get in good field goal range.

Third down

Lions safety Louis Delmas didn't make the trip to Oakland with the team because he was undergoing surgery on his knee.

Delmas sprained his MCL when Packers running back James Starks rolled up on it early on Thanksgiving.

Delmas hasn't played since.

"He's day-to-day," said Lions coach Jim Schwartz when asked if Delmas was left behind to have surgery. "You would call it a minor scope. Barring anything that happened in this game, I don't think we have anybody that's more than day-to-day. The good thing is that we will keep on getting guys back."

Schwartz did not give a timetable for Delmas' return to the field.

Fourth down

Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer looked pretty comfortable in the pocket on Sunday.

That's because the Lions failed to generate any kind of pass rush for three-and-a-half quarters on Sunday.

The Lions don't have lockdown corners on the outside. They have good man-coverage corners, but not of the lock-down variety.

If the Lions can't generate a good pass rush, their secondary can struggle.

Palmer completed 80 percent of his passes for 367 yards and a touchdown. His passer rating was 113.2. What worked in the Lions' favor was that all eight of his incompletions came on third down.

The Raiders finished 1-of-9 on third down.

Starting corner Chris Houston tried to play on a bad knee (MCL sprain) and had to be replaced by Alphonso Smith because he wasn't effective against Raider receivers.

"Houston really wasn't able to change direction and cover the way that he needed to," Schwartz said. "Guys like John Wendling and Don Carey and Alphonso Smith stepped up and made plays."