ALLEN PARK -- The Lions pulled off a win last Sunday that few saw coming inside or outside the bubble when they broke out of an 0-2 skid to upset the Patriots 26-10.

It made for a good week to go to the film, to make sense of what happened and how a game plan turned into such success. Using the coaches film, I watched two angles of every play to come up with 10 observations on the game and what it means for the Lions going forward:

1. The Lions blocked the hell out of the running game -- but Kerryon Johnson was the difference

When a Lions running player rushes for 100 yards in a game, you kind of have to start right there. Plenty of GIFs have come out about how well Frank Ragnow whipped tail on some blocks and how large the holes are, and the offensive line certainly played its best game yet. But the idea that any back can run through the holes of a strong offensive line is only applicable for select plays in a game, such as this one:

No team in the NFL opens holes that wide all the time, and yet gaining 101 yards on 6.3 yards a carry with no run of more than 15 yards is the model of consistency. Johnson gained at least three yards on 15 of his 16 carries, and not every one came with a clear hole. Consider this carry, where he bailed out one of Ragnow's few bad snaps:

Or this one, where Graham Glasgow whiffed on his man at the second level and Johnson had the awareness to beat the unblocked linebacker to the outside with speed after freezing him with a stutter step to create the space to work with:

It speaks to Johnson's unique skill set of vision, start-and-stop footwork and long speed that he ran for 101 yards on the same number of carries that LeGarrette Blount gained 48 yards. Blount offers some physical added touch to his runs when he is able to get through a hole, but he doesn't have nearly the same ability to turn mediocre blocking into solid gains:

Johnson certainly has a long way to go, having just played three games with the Lions, but there's a reason he's been so consistently productive on the touches he does get -- 5.5 yards on 39 touches this season. His wiggle ability is a simple start and stop, rather than east-west hesitation, and he has a good judge of when he needs to try to win with speed and when to just get what he can with contact. It's coming together because the Lions are starting to block on the interior in ways they couldn't last season.

2. Detroit's wide receivers are helping the ground game, too

For as long as the Lions searched for that elusive 100-yard rusher, people have wondered about what a real ground game could do to open up Detroit's talented receiving corps. The great part about football is it works the other way around, too. The Lions trio of Marvin Jones, Golden Tate and Kenny Golladay is so productive and also so varied that defenses have to employ their resources to stop them first and foremost. In this one, the Patriots played two high safeties with lots of man coverage underneath, the idea being to provide help to men in coverage and not lose track of anyone.

Matthew Stafford has not hit the deep ball well this season, but it's an established enough part of his game that opponents have to respect it, too, as New England did. That puts pressure on the front seven to win matchups and sniff out runs, as they are no longer bringing more players than the offense can block. As would show up in many parts of this game, New England's players just aren't good enough to do that in certain phases of the game:

3. Kenny Golladay is becoming the chess piece defenses can't handle

One of the reasons the Lions moved on from Eric Ebron this offseason was that they felt they could count on Golladay to snag that production. It was a bet on a second-year player who had some moments last season but didn't yet display the versatility through the crispness of routes to be a sure thing entering this year. What Golladay has on his side, though, is opportunity. Jones and Tate often command the top coverage men from a defense, and when that defense is down starters like New England was down slot corner Eric Rowe and safety Patrick Chung, that's when Golladay's 6-foot-4-inch height becomes a problem. He showed that on the flea-flicker, where he was simply too much for too long down the field for undrafted rookie JC Jackson, drawing a pass interference flag. And it makes him a threat in the red-zone, where Detroit can win with play design more so than putting the pressure on Golladay to be the crispest route runner in the world.

Consider this design of Jim Bob Cooter's that isolated Golladay along the right side for his second-quarter touchdown. New England put its best cover corner on him in Stephon Gilmore, and the Lions discovered that with the short motion inside. New England's safety attention still went to Jones and Tate, which forced Gilmore to chase a big receiver across open field with no room to spare after a catch:

The play is pretty hard to defend if Stafford has time to throw. Golladay could be one of the bigger beneficiaries of that improved offensive line.

4. The Lions need Golladay because the tight ends are nonexistent

The flip side to Golladay's breakout is how much the team will have to count on him to deliver consistently, not only as a receiver but also as a blocker in the running game. Detroit has brought Golladay in motion to crack on a linebacker to help on running plays. It enhanced the blocking a little, and it also blurs the read between run and pass. That's how he got so open on his long touchdown against the 49ers.

But a level of risk comes with asking a wide receiver to throw his shoulder into a linebacker for 16 games. Detroit could avoid this better if it had a good down-blocking tight end, but it's been a struggle so far. Levine Toilolo was supposed to be the guy this season but has disappointed immensely, often getting thrown down by quicker linebackers. Luke Willson can land some quality kick-out blocks when dragged across the backfield, showing one area of improvement on Ebron, but that isn't the most stable strategy for short-yardage situations.

Perhaps the lack of quality in-line blockers was a reason why Patricia opted for the field goal on 4th-and-inches on the first drive. It's also clearly a reason why the Lions were enamored with a Rob Gronkowski trade this spring. You can only imagine what this offense could look like if it filled its weakest spot with the best player in the game.

5. In fact, it's as if the Lions want tight ends to disappear from the field

It was interesting last week to hear Bill Belichick on a conference call run through the entire Lions starting offense, naming every player in every position with plenty of compliments -- except for the tight end.

Detroit's group entered the game with no player boasting more than one catch. Luke Willson had two this game, for 10 yards. One was a 12-yard designed flare in the scripted portion of the game plan early on, sneaking him out to the short side of the field. Then the Lions tried to go to him again early in the second half, when they sent him in motion and then down the field on a post pattern. That's when Stafford badly undercut him for an interception. It looked as if he misjudged or didn't trust Willson's speed to catch up to a deep ball, even though that's the portion of the field that was open on that play.

The timing can't be wonderful between Stafford and any tight end, given how all of them except Michael Roberts are new this year and they play such a small role in the game plan. This opens the door for occasional leak plays like that 12-yard flare route, but the payoff seems too small to not have a more steady connection ready for the critical plays.

6. Matthew Stafford still isn't all there yet

Perhaps the most impressive part of this win for the Lions is that they did it without relying on Stafford. They held the Patriots to 10 points and 209 yards, and they ran for 159 yards and eight first downs.

I'm not sure if they would have won had they had to rely on him. He wasn't bad, as he placed some nice passes in places only his receivers could get on certain snaps and also wiggled out of the rare pressure that did come his way. But he left too many plays on the field, namely crossing routes where a receiver was open right in front of him and he opted for a much tougher throw.

It looks as if he's working with the primary read too literally. That could be a result of how many missed deep balls he had against San Francisco, knowing some of those plays were there. But New England played two safeties deep to try to keep those from happening. It left running backs and slot receivers open across the middle, but Stafford didn't go to them enough. That's been part of the issue in the red-zone so far. Correcting it could take this offense to a really nice level soon.

7. Jim Bob Cooter's commitment to balance pays off

Jim Bob Cooter has heard so much about the slow starts. He's been frustrated that he hasn't been able to stick with the run since the games get out of hand too quickly. And so his plan this week was clear: Establish the run from the start, work off that to open up the pass and control the ball better. It's the kind of tactic he used late last year in a road game at Cincinnati, and it blew up in his face because the Lions couldn't run. This year, though, he has much better goods to work with.

The Lions ran 16 times on their first three drives, the part of the game that Cooter scripts ahead of time. They set up looks to work off later, such as with the flea-flicker and the play-action deep ball to Jones. It not only did the obvious of taking pressure off Stafford and extending drives, but it kept Brady off the field and put him in spots where he had to generate quick points with bad receivers when he did get the ball.

It's easy to over-credit a play-caller for a plan like this when the plays work, just as it's easy to over-criticize him when he tries something different and it fails. But the strategy of keep-away against Brady was sound.

Of course, nobody knew Brady would have such an off day either.

8. Romeo Okwara could be the new Kerry Hyder

The Lions were bold in this game to bench a healthy Kerry Hyder even with Ezekiel Ansah out. But the result was that Romeo Okwara largely played Hyder's role of bouncing from outside to inside for different matchups. Okwara measures 274 pounds, almost the same as Hyder's 270, but the difference is he is three inches taller and also has 34 1/8-inch arms. That height allows him to see into the backfield better and to react earlier to plays on his back side, such as stretch runs or flare passes, both of which he shut down at moments in this one. The length should help him catch more of those players, something Ansah excels at and players like Anthony Zettel have struggled with. Detroit's run defense still has some issues, particularly on the edges, but Okwara and his 40 snaps helped limit the damage that sprung up with speed backs in the first two weeks.

9. Bob Quinn's other first-round picks are still coming along

This game offers plenty of reasons to be encouraged about Ragnow's progress. The first-round rookie guard was firm in pass protection and drove defenders well down the field in run blocking. He appeared to think a little less and use his 1-on-1 strength to assert his will. But it doesn't mean all is perfect for Bob Quinn's first-round draft picks.

Taylor Decker didn't appear to have problems tipping plays this week after Chris Spielman brought them up on the broadcast last week. His head flips before pass plays were more subtle and closer to the snap of the ball. That was the good. The bad was that he got beat with speed rushes on a handful of plays, including the one sack the line allowed on Stafford. Perhaps shortening down the prep time before a snap limited his ability to get outside in time, but it's something he'll need to correct with better speed rushers on the schedule.

Jarrad Davis showed some better man coverage, which mostly came on running backs. The team used him more as an edge rusher on obvious passing downs, which helped save on the defensive ends for roster purposes. But he bounced off a few tackles and also got sucked in a couple times out on play-action. He seems to be thinking a little too much out there, but it is still early in the scheme. His talent continues to be evident, but his execution is hit-or-miss.

10. The Lions sold out on Rob Gronkowski, as talented defensive backs allow for

Nobody had any doubts coming into the game who the big threat was in the Patriots offense. It was Gronk, the 6-5 All-Pro bully of a tight end that Detroit tried to trade for this offseason. And the Lions have had issues with tight ends for years, making it a salivating matchup for fantasy football owners. But while Gronk had some successful plays on his four catches for 51 yards, he didn't torch the Lions like some feared he would.

Detroit locked up New England's wide receivers with man coverage and used a variety of linebackers, safeties and extra defensive backs to keep track of Gronkowski. The Lions rotated the approach regularly from man to zone concepts to conceal the plays where he could bully from the snap in man. The downside to zone approaches is Gronk has the chemistry with Brady to find holes, and he did that on a few snaps, but Detroit will certainly live with the lowered ceiling that came with this approach. DeShawn Shead was the one defender the Lions had who had experience handling Gronk in man coverage, and he helped along with Quandre Diggs off the line with Glover Quin up top.

By shutting down Gronk, the Lions shut down the Patriots passing game in a contest where they forced them to throw. All the other receivers on New England combined for 82 yards on 21 pass attempts. Brady's accuracy was off, and his timing with backup receivers clearly was as well. Plays were available to hit at times and one of the two would mess them up. It'll likely get cleaned up when Julian Edelman returns from suspension after this week and if Josh Gordon can get in the lineup. It's safe to say Detroit caught New England at the right time in the season.

If the Lions execute as well as they did in as many spots as they did this game, though, they'll beat most teams they play.