While the Detroit Lions’ offense was having their own issues moving the ball downfield to open the game against the Green Bay Packers, the team’s defense had enough problems of their own.
Early in the game, Detroit was stuffing the Packers’ run game, setting up favorable down-and-distances. But their failure on four consecutive third downs—highlighted by an inept pass rush—led to the Packers scoring on all three of their first drives, and leading to a quick 17-3 lead the Lions would never challenge.
During the break of our Midweek Mailbag podcast, Erik Schlitt and I broke down what the Lions tried to do with their third-down pressure packages and why they didn’t work early in the game.
With the help of NFL Pro, we looked through every third-down passing attempt from the Packers and identified which players on the defensive front were doing their job and who struggled to execute their role.
As you may expect, some of the things we discovered are the same things Coach Dan Campbell talked about. One thing that was disappointing to see was how well the Packers’ running backs were able to completely neutralize the Lions’ blitzing linebackers.
“(Josh) Jacobs did a really good job of shutting down some of the twist game, the stunts, the picks, all those that we’ll do some of,” Campbell said Monday.
Once the Lions went away from that, it was simply a matter of winning their one-on-ones, which the Lions simply did not do enough. Although we did see some promise from Al-Quadin Muhammad, who puzzlingly only played seven snaps against the Packers. I would not be surprised to see him play more this upcoming week.
In total, the Lions mustered just seven total pressures, zero sacks, and two quarterback hits on 22 dropbacks from Jordan Love. The Lions will have to do a much better job moving forward, but they’ll also have to be much more disciplined next week against Caleb Williams, the elusive Chicago Bears quarterback.
To check out our full Midweek Mailbag episode, you can listen to it on Spotify, download it on your favorite podcasting platform, or watch the full show on our YouTube page.
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