{"id":279741,"date":"2025-08-11T14:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T14:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/279741\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T14:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T14:44:18","slug":"the-detroit-lions-backup-qb-battle-has-drastically-shifted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/279741\/","title":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions\u2019 backup QB battle has drastically shifted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After the first preseason game, neither Kyle Allen nor Hendon Hooker looked like particularly intriguing options at quarterback. While Allen moved the ball a little better against the Los Angeles Chargers, his two interceptions were bad enough that it was hard to ignore. After the game, our staff still gave the unanimous edge to Hooker in our Roster Bubble Watch predictions, because he remained the higher-ceiling player and general manager Brad Holmes tends to stick with the players he drafted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, Friday night\u2019s game against the Atlanta Falcons has undoubtedly shifted the conversation. Hooker had a great opportunity to create some distance from Allen\u2014getting the start for the first time this preseason\u2014but he did just the opposite. Hooker completed 7-of-10 passes for just 38 yards, and he fumbled the ball away twice. For the second straight game, Hooker failed to lead Detroit on a single scoring drive, and after his second fumble, the Lions opted to pull the third-year quarterback rather than giving him a shot to finish the half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">When Allen took over, everything changed. The veteran quarterback looked poised, accurate, and utilized his mobility better than Hooker. The Lions went on to score on three straight drives, and Allen finished with a perfect 158.3 passer rating after completing 7-of-8 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So where does that leave the backup quarterback battle now? Is Allen comfortably in the lead? Is the competition completely over now? Or does Hooker have enough time to bounce back and make his case for the job? More importantly, can Hooker put a pair of bad performances behind him and start stacking a couple of good practices and games?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We discuss this and a lot more on this week\u2019s PODcast. Here are other topics on this week\u2019s show:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Listen to the entire episode in the Spotify embed below or on whatever your favorite podcasting app is by searching \u201cPride of Detroit.\u201d And while you\u2019re there, make sure to leave a rating and review. We\u2019re going to start reading the most thoughtful and best reviews on the show!<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">You can also catch the PODcast on video by heading to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/videos\/2535681948\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitch <\/a>or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/6PpbZoI-e_A?si=5qD9N7gpQZ28Zp4_\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube pages<\/a>. There, we have a bunch of bonus content in between segments that includes more Lions talk, and typically a topic or two unrelated to Lions football. This week, we talk a little Shedeur Sanders (not much), gambling in the preseason, and bungled Righteous Felon reads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the first preseason game, neither Kyle Allen nor Hendon Hooker looked like particularly intriguing options at quarterback.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[449,1262,4970,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-279741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-analysis","9":"tag-detroit-lions-opinion","10":"tag-detroit-lions-podcasts","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115010670625710473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}