Malcolm Rodriguez, Alex Anzalone among Worst PFF-Graded Lions

Detroit Lions' defense had an abysmal performance Saturday.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who commented on the subpar playing surface at Bank of America Stadium after his team's Week 16 loss, was able to silence some of the critics of his play on the road. 

Detroit's veteran signal-caller was 25-of-42 passing for 355 yards and three touchdowns.

His PFF grade of 78.6 was his third-best mark of the season. On the fumbled exchange, more of the blame seems to have been placed on center Frank Ragnow. 

Unfortunately, Detroit's abysmal defensive performance was reflected in the Week 16 PFF grading, as two of the team's linebackers earned low grades. 

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“We just didn’t, boy, we just -- you didn’t see the fire that we’ve had. There was just something missing out there," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said, when asked about the elevated number (13) of missed tackles. “We got hit a couple times, and then we could never quite stop the bleeding. It’s one thing to stop it, but look, here’s the thing -- we did stop it the second series, and then the way we answered back on offense is we turned it over. So, we just didn’t help each other out."

Rookie linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez earned a PFF grade of 43.1, while veteran Alex Anzalone earned the worst grade (29.9) of defensive players who played 10 or more snaps. 

Aaron Glenn's defense had no answers for Carolina's rushing attack, as displayed by the whopping 320 total yards it gave up on the ground. It led to the Lions dropping their contest with the Panthers Saturday, 37-23. 

Here are Pro Football Focus’ best and worst Lions player grades, based on the Week 16 matchup. 

Top PFF-graded offensive players

• TE James Mitchell -- 88.5
• TE Shane Zylstra -- 82.9
• QB Jared Goff -- 78.6
• WR Kalif Raymond -- 72.3
• WR DJ Chark -- 71.9

Worst PFF-graded offensive players

• TE Garrett Griffin -- 51.0
• RB Jamaal Williams -- 50.0
• C Frank Ragnow -- 49.3
• RG Evan Brown -- 46.4
• LG Jonah Jackson -- 46.4

Top PFF-graded defensive players

• DE James Houston IV -- 87.0
• LB Derrick Barnes -- 80.7
• DT Benito Jones -- 68.8
• LB Anthony Pittman -- 61.9
• DE John Cominsky -- 60.5
• SS C.J. Moore -- 60.5

Worst PFF-graded defensive players

• LB Malcolm Rodriguez -- 43.1
• SS Ifeatu Melifonwu -- 35.6
• DE Josh Paschal -- 33.4
• LB Alex Anzalone -- 29.9
• LB Chris Board -- 25.5