The Detroit Lions suffered a 41-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night. Their defense struggled to contain Buffalo's offense throughout the game.

Former Lions offensive lineman Damien Woody joined Emory Hunt and Joe Musso on CBS Sports HQ to break down Detroit's loss from Week 2. The NFL veteran noted the absence of two key defensive players before delivering his blunt message:

"Listen, the Detroit Lions are missing arguably two of their best players on the defensive side in Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch. And so those guys-they're not going to be there yet."

Woody then stressed that Detroit cannot wait for those players to return:

"No one's coming to save you."

Instead, he said the Lions must focus on the little things and execute with the players currently available.

Damien Woody identifies communication as a key issue for the Lions

Damien Woody also pointed to the defensive problems that contributed to Detroit's struggles against Buffalo in Week 2.

Woody said the Lions made several mistakes on defense, with communication breakdowns contributing to the blown assignments:

"Yeah, I mean, listen, there was a lot of blown assignments, clearly. There was a lot of blown assignments in this game; a lot of it is lack of communication."

The NFL veteran explained that communication issues can leave defenders running free in the secondary. As a result, opposing offenses can find more opportunities to make plays.

The Detroit Lions will now need to address those communication issues and clean up their defensive execution moving forward.

Written by

Sayantan