Loser: Ryan Neal, S
It was an atrocious day for Ryan Neal. He looked overmatched and out of sorts the entire game, and it all culminated with him getting cooked on a touchdown that essentially iced the game.
Neal was playing centerfield alone on a deep ball to Jameson Williams, and it ended poorly on every single level. Not only was Neal beaten but he failed to finish his tackle which might have knocked the ball out of Williams hand and kept points off the board.
Instead Williams was applauded for a highlight reel catch at the expense of the Bucs defense — specifically Neal.
Goff does DEEP to Jameson Williams for the 45-yard TD!
— NFL (@NFL) October 15, 2023
📺: #DETvsTB on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/B4mQvLOt8O pic.twitter.com/7SnwzpjmbM
That’s absolutely brutal and just can’t happen. It wasn’t the only time that Neal looked out of sorts against the Lions. All afternoon he was struggling to get into position and things got so bad that it appeared he started to get targeted by Goff in the secondary.
Neal was brought in as a potential free agent steal, and he’s shown some great flashes this season. There were hopes he would form one of the best safety duos in the league alongside Winfield, but he looked awful in the loss on Sunday. His season isn’t over and he has plenty of time to turn things around, but Neal is trending in the wrong direction on this side of the bye week.