The eight things we learned Friday night about the Detroit Lions

In a game that means nothing, the Detroit Lions lost a 16-10 contest to the Oakland Raiders. The score doesn’t matter but we did learn a few things.

The first thing you need to know about the Lions preseason contest against the Raiders is that Matthew Stafford did not even play. The Lions starting offense did not take the field as a whole.

The starting defense did play, however, and the showing was unimpressive. While they were playing best on best, the Lions defensive tackles, all of them, got pushed around. There has been a lot of consternation about the Lions pass-rushing group, but the interior run stoppers had a worse night.

Going into the game, the word was that Raiders head coach Jon Gruden cared a lot more about winning the game than Lions coach Matt Patricia. That really did play itself out in the first half.

The Lions were not playing personnel match ups at all. There were multiple instances of the Lions nickel defense facing a Raiders offense showing a very obvious run look. Proving that their published depth chart was a complete fabrication, the Lions started the game with Quandre Diggs as the nickel corner and Tavon Wilson at strong safety. Diggs was listed as the team’s starting strong safety with Wilson as his backup.

The offense was not really trying to hide its intent. Wide receivers were motioning in to help block on a staggering number of running plays. Even with the handicap of telegraphing almost every running play, the Lions run game was relatively successful while the Raiders were still playing their legitimate roster players.