The run defense went to pot

[MyLions]

Josh Paschal/Commish role was lacking. We were bad at setting edges.

[stephenboyd57]

@Luke

Our front 7 has been mostly healthy this season, if not potentially one of the healthiest in the league really if you look around. So it’s not due to injury.

That’s the most discouraging part. If we were playing Nickel and getting run on I’d at least understand. But we play 3 linebackers more than any team in the nfl.

Now the dline needs to play better but definitely feels like Rodgers is not maximizing his talent.

[TouchdownMyPants]

@frm710

Kacy Rodgers vs Williams as DL coach says hi

He’s also co run game coordinator… I’m sensing a theme

[Lionsfanstuckinchees]

I think there is a scheme problem where the LBs were never in the hole

[3rdRGR]

@Slay

What the hell happened here? Alim McNeill came back and no one in the front seven got injured.

I think we need more Nose Tackles. Apparently having 4 of them active on gameday just isn’t enough to stuff the run.

[Spartansd]

Agree for the most part.
This defensive scheme does rely on the safeties and corners to come up and tackle and fill holes. So some of this is players being out of position.
But to your point. How much is the players and the other teams knowing the scheme and moving our pieces around with motion and formation forcing the defensive backfield to make the proper choices in what lanes to fill and such. And they chose poorly more often than not.

[NowFromTN]

@Luke

I do think the people saying “our safeties were hurt” are looking for the easiest possible answer to help themselves cope with the reality of what we are facing. A couple facts (which I know won’t be welcomed):

• The stats the OP shared are starting in week 9. BB was hurt in week 14. So he played more than half the games during the stretch the OP is mentioning. This whole “we were missing BB” excuse isn’t actually based in reality. He was there and playing during most of this statistical downfall.
• We play with more 3 LB sets than most teams in the NFL, if not all of them.
• We play with a heavy DL - guys like Reader, Tyliek, Lopez, McNeil, etc get a ton of snaps.
• Our front 7 has been mostly healthy this season, if not potentially one of the healthiest in the league really if you look around. So it’s not due to injury.

Kerby played the first 6 games of the season, so he was involved in the defense before the bye week change. I guess you can say he was potentially responsible for the drop off if you want to feel good about things. Two things to consider thoughL

1. Kerby had 14 tackles in 6 games. You are free to think his 1.25 tackles per game is the difference in our run defense being good vs terrible, but I personally do not.
2. Why are we playing so many 3 LB sets and so many heavy DLmen if we are relying on our safeties to make so many tackles (PS - we aren’t).

It feel pretty obvious, if someone chooses to see it, that as the season went on other team’s OC’s figured out ways to attack Shep’s scheme and as a rookie DC and playcaller, he didn’t have much of a response. Doesn’t mean he can’t get better with an offseason of learning and some additional coaching support - but if we are going to keep him then he needs some assistance and growth as a coordinator. The personnel was largely there to be a good run stopping defense. The pass defense is another story with all the secondary injuries, but the run D should not have fallen off like this.

Excellent post!!!
Blaming the injuries to the safeties is convenient but not even close to why we regressed and couldn’t stop the run

This was the main culprit right here

@Luke

as the season went on other team’s OC’s figured out ways to attack Shep’s scheme and as a rookie DC and playcaller, he didn’t have much of a response.