It’s pretty obvious the way to success for this team is to score, score, score. There is little to no chance that we can lean on our D to keep us in a low scoring game, we have to put up points…lot’s of points. The concern right now for me is that highly touted OL that just dominated the low scores from PFF in out last outing. We need to keep Goff upright and to open lanes for the RB’s. I have zero faith in the D being able to band aid their way into a better unit, in fact I think it only gets worse. Whatever help is out there for the OL right now should be a priority because we are going to be, already have been, giving up points like it’s our job. The O is hitting it’s heels with Williams finding his way, it’s time to call a spade a spade and move on from thinking there is anything that is going to short term fix our D woes.
Agree. One thing though…it is weird how we usually play to the level of the competition. We tend to play close games more often than we should. Eagles game last year, Bills game last year, Baltimore game last year, Chiefs gam, Bears, Packers…we play close games sometimes when we should blow them out. We play close games when we should lose on paper. Weird.
Stats can be misleading
Lions are tied for 11th in the NFL with 25 passing plays over 25 yards:
http://hosted.stats.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?range=NFL&type=Passing&rank=118
But, the Lions are tied for 2nd (with the 49ers) with 53 passing plays for over 20 yards (have to click on 20+ twice)::
The Lions are tied for 4th (with the Steelers), with 11 rushing plays of more than 20 yards (have to click on 20+ twice):
Jahmyr Gibb is tied for first with 7 20+ carries
Just wondered if you have any rankings on the OL?
I mostly agree but the defense was very, very good in the first half so last week so they have it in them to put stretches together.
I’m just looking for a Caldwell,“bend but don’t break”, look. The one thing that D didn’t do was give up big plays.
Lions Points per Game:
2023 = 23.8
2022 = 25.1
2021 = 27.5
2020 = 32.4 (wow)
2019 = 26.4
2018 = 22.5
2017 = 23.5
2016 = 22.4
2015 = 25.0
2014 = 17.6
2013 = 23.5
2012 = 27.3
2011 = 24.2
It’s a marriage of roster and coaching.
A comparison of each era shows Patricia was bad, and that Schwartz and Caldwell were largely the same. There is one standout year with depth across the DL, LB and DB’s. Slay, Mathis, Quin and Ihedigbo on the defensive backfield, with Ansah, Fairley, Suh and Jones up front. Levy, Whitehead, Bynes, Tulloch, Palmer and Van Noy at LB.
The roster that Martin gave Caldwell and the two DT’s playing for a contract are what made that 2014 team a success. Truth is, aside from that one glorious year, we’ve suffered in a sea of defensive mediocrity across 4 regimes since 2009.
Yep. As much as we try and distill things down into one sole factor they usually are in reality a mix.
Thx for sharing those #s. It’s reassuring that although we are in a mini-negative trend when you zoom out there is progress.
For sure. And, by the way, I hate Bob Quinn’s guts.
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