I don’t know how many times it must be stated–you absolutely need DL pressure to win games. I don’t care how good your secondary is–if you aren’t pressuring the QB, you almost cannot win.
Right now, Lions are 5th worst in the league in total sacks. Four teams are worse, and those four teams have TWO COMBINED WINS. It is absolutely absurd, yet the team rushes 5 or more less than every other team in the league.
The defense is one of the worst in the league in almost every category. I don’t need to look at stats to see we can’t pressure QB’s, stop the run, or stopping teams from scoring.
3 of our top DL are either out or playing hurt. The DL is banged up and this severely limits what they can do.
Also Our LBer Corp has had some Heath issues.
If they can get healthy than. I think they will be fine and much more creative.
I can think of 3 times that we got real pressure on Cousins yesterday. All three times, he crapped his drawers and threw the ball away in a panic. We should have sold out and made them beat us in another way, other than standing back for 9 seconds before picking us apart. We made mediocre Cousins look like Joe Montana in his prime. Absurd game plan.
I think 3-5 of those were in the first game too so after that we are dead last. In the 3 game skid we are dead last (defensive) in total yards, running back yards, YPC, 30+ yd plays, sacks, pressures, hits, and bottom 5 in 3rd down %.
Meanwhile the offense is top 8 in everything but running… and red zone , although league average is 4.2pts per RZ trip and we are over 5.
I agree - First game I thought the coaching was the reason we lost. Players were not put in a position to win.
We lost the first game because our DL melted down and we couldn’t run the football. Several ARZ players told the media that we were gasping for air.
Coaches should have taken a time out. Made some substitutions. Instead they went to zone coverage which is easier on the players but we stopped pressuring the QB. Running Man coverage most of the game wore the defense down.
Not being able to run the ball to give the defense enough time to rest was also a reason why we lost. Our lack of a run game is really hurting our defense that is short handed.
I hate to admit that I’m in the same boat, but I am.
I thought the same as well but also thought like everyone else that we lacked a explosive, quick, fast pass rusher(s). Our coaches seem to think it is better to have the Dline bull rush and keep the QB in the pocket. I hate seeing the defense get gassed at the end of games BUT maybe their conditioning will improve the second half of the season.
We’ve had one in the pass two weeks.
Mariucci for his pre game “bold prediction” said the Lions were going to have seven sacks.
I laughed and just shook my head.
It’s pretty crazy that during this off-season, we all thought we could hang our hat on our defense and the offense was going to be the big question mark…ha, jokes on us.
I got more sacks walking out of Meijer, fer chrissake
Yep, we all saw the improvement with the D in the second half of the season last year. Added some good pieces, so we had good reason to feel good about the defense.
But nope
What does Trey Flowers, Michael Jackson and Santa Claus have in common??
Flowers leaves the field with 0 sacks.
MJ and Santa leave little boys houses with empty sacks.