One of the more heavily-criticized plays from the Detroit Lions defense in their 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers happened on the very first drive. The Packers, at the Lions’ 42-yard line, were facing a third-and-6. The Lions were showing pressure from two linebackers up the A-gap, in the hopes to pressure quarterback Jordan Love into a quick throw. On the edges, star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson was not adding to the pass rush. Instead, he was dropping into coverage, hoping that pass rush would force Love to overlook his coverage and potentially land him an interception.
The play failed immensely, as Love had a clean pocket, allowing receiver Matthew Golden to find the hole in Detroit’s zone coverage for a wide-open, 11-yard gain and conversion.
CBS announcer Tony Romo immediately criticized the play on the broadcast.
“The reason why you have time is because there’s Aidan Hutchinson. They dropped him (into coverage). Maybe a little too cute there early in the game?” Romo said. “Because when he rushes, I doubt you have the ability to pump fake it, stand in, reset.”
That wasn’t the only time the Lions did it, either. Hutchinson would drop into coverage a second time, although it worked relatively well in forcing an incomplete pass. But the Lions other starting defensive end Marcus Davenport also dropped into coverage early in the game, and the failed pass rush again led to a big 26-yard gain to a wide open receiver.
To be clear, this isn’t a new strategy for Detroit. Per PFF, Hutchinson logged 27 coverage snaps his rookie season, 47 his second year, and five in five games last season.
But as Sunday’s game continued, coach Dan Campbell and the Lions opted to move away from some of the stunts, blitzing, and disguised looks that were ineffective early in the game.
“It can get bottlenecked in there and that happened a few times so we got out of it and tried to do some
straight rush here and there,“ Campbell said.
On Wednesday, Hutchinson offered his thoughts on the strategy, and I think it’s probably fair to say he wasn’t a fan.
“We adjusted as the game moved on and got out of that a little bit more, but just kinda happened to be in those positions in that game, which is obviously not the most ideal situation,” Hutchinson said. “But the most important thing is we adjusted and we evolved.”
And while it’s certainly possible defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has his own ideas, Hutchinson believes they’re not going to rely on him dropping into coverage too much anymore. When asked if this would be a core strategy moving forward, Hutchinson laughed: “I don’t think so.”
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