If I told you Jared Goff was having his best season since 2018, how would you expect the Detroit Lions to look? Through the first month of the season, the league’s most expensive lame duck quarterback is experiencing a revival. He leads the league with 11 passing touchdowns, has posted the highest quarterback rating of his career, and, most importantly, has commandeered an offense leading the league in points (35) and yards (436.8) per game.
Detroit looked to challenge their league-wide perception. Their influx of young talent was supposed to make them a threat and, eventually, a playoff hopeful.
Instead, the Lions are 1-3 with the worst defense in the league. They’ve given up a touchdown more per game than anyone else. Detroit is on the fast track to the cellar, and with a defense this porous, they risk reverting themselves back to a “get right” game. What is wrong with the Lions defense?
The Pass Rush Problem
Fundamental to many bad defenses, Detroit has struggled to rush the passer. Only three teams have fewer sacks, and their 6% Adjusted Sack Rate ranks 21st in all of football (Football Outsiders).
They attempted to get ahead of this issue with the selection of Michigan edge rusher, Aidan Hutchinson. Thus far, his impact hasn’t moved the pass rush needle at all, and on a unit with Charles Harris and Julian Okwara, they need more from the rookie.
On Sunday, Detroit simply did not get home with four. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was able to be decisive and efficient from a fairly clean pocket. To his credit, he made some great throws on the few plays he was pressured, too.
The defensive line was also vulnerable to the bootlegs that Smith effectively ran so frequently. From under center, it’s more difficult to differentiate between the run or pass, but the Lions looked lost all too often. They seemed to prioritize stopping the run and it resulted in Seattle being a step ahead on these particular plays.
Perhaps one reason for the Lions’ troubles was their lack of cohesion. When pass rushers complement each other, the pocket seems to collapse in a favorable manner. The traffic of the trenches collapses the pocket or the passer is forced straight into the path of an oncoming edge rusher. What Seattle witnessed in Detroit was four pass rushers working independently to get to the quarterback. Lanes to escape were constantly available and Smith, who made minimal mistakes on the day, took advantage of them.
Subsequently, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn was forced to sacrifice coverage and send five and six more often than he’d like. The problem? It didn’t work!
The Seahawks picked up blitzes well and took what the defense gave them when throwing hot. Other times, linebackers would be late to the flat and safeties would be absurdly out-leveraged.
They were sacrificing coverage and reaping precisely none of the benefits.
Furthermore, Detroit’s disguising of their pressures was not working as anticipated. Seattle won with alignment, especially on the ground. The Lions would bring pressure from the left, the Seahawks would run to the right, and they’d have an easy explosive play.
Of course, the lack of pressure also left the secondary out to dry.
The Coverage Conflict
With great pressure comes great coverage…or something like that. The opposite? Reciprocal? Is also true.
Glenn was aggressive on Sunday, to no avail. One consequence of this was stranding Jeff Okudah and Amani Oruwariye on the likes of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. They attempted what looked like cone and vice brackets at times, but too often were left on the island of Cover 0.
Off-man coverage with no safety help resulted in Lockett putting Oruwariye on skates. On the other side, Okudah got beat on contested catches downfield multiple times. At some point, this becomes a talent issue. Seattle’s receivers were simply better on Sunday, and while the cornerback room is a bright spot amidst this rebuild, they were as lost as everybody else.
Another coverage gaffe that hurt Detroit was a conservative approach to an aggressive Cover 3. The Lions ran Cover 3 early in the game when they chose to send five. With three deep defenders and two curl-flat zones, one man was left to patrol the middle of the field, underneath the free safety. Scared of the big play, Detroit allowed routine 10+ yard passes because there was simply too much real estate on their side of the line of scrimmage. Smith found holes between boundary corner and free safety with ease and was on the mark time and time again.
The Lions made life easy on Sunday, but not for themselves. Every aspect of the defense was picked apart like Honolulu Blue cotton candy. Glenn’s solution to a modest pass rush was met with a gross inability to execute. As long as that’s the case, they’ll never be able to play complementary football.
Running Rampant
What’s gray, blue, and run all over? You guessed it.
As bad as Detroit was defending the pass, they shared a similar level of success against the run. They were the worst run defense in the league last week. The Lions gave up 235 rushing yards in their 48-45 loss. Rashaad Penny gashed them repeatedly, and both Smith and Kenneth Walker added runs of over 10 yards. When the game was on the line, they were just as poor.
The Lions actually held their own against the zone runs the Seahawks ran. However, a few principles were consistent across their struggles. Pulling linemen gave them fits and ruined the gap integrity present against zone. On the few plays of power and counter, Seattle was able to take advantage of an undisciplined defense for big gains.
That lack of discipline carried over to receivers in motion as well. Jet motion allowed the Seahawks to put playmakers in space and disrupt the back seven enough to win with the rush. Lastly, the aforementioned quarterback runs (both designed and not) start with the pass rush, but don’t rest solely on their shoulders.
The blame here, like in coverage, lies on both the players and Glenn. With uncompetitive blitzes that were easily diagnosed, the Lions were at a disadvantage only exaggerated by the gap in talent. The young, inexperienced defense could not get out of their own way.
Can Detroit improve?
Glenn was viewed favorably last season, excused of poor performances by way of a talentless roster. Detroit fans held out hope that as talent improved, performance would too, and the stagnation we’re witnessing heats his seat. It should be noted that the Lions are not some bastion of defensive superstars. Even so, a coordinator that cannot put them in competitive situations to win is one who isn’t a coordinator for long.
The pass rush won’t look great until Hutchinson proves himself worthy of his investment. The unit’s performance caps a ceiling on this Detroit defense, but the priority right now should be on raising the 48-points-to-Geno-Smith floor.
Solving these problems starts from the top. Situational play calling and undisciplined front-seven play headline the drove of issues plaguing Detroit. This roster is only capable of so much, but whatever that is must be better than the flash sale they provided on Sunday. The Lions’ miscues are preventable and necessary to address before any real development is made.
The clock is ticking on Glenn’s time in the Motor City and a few more 40-burgers could make him the second coordinator casualty of the Dan Campbell administration. His ability to overcome the obstacles his pass rush has provided will be vital in the defensive development he’s been entrusted to oversee.