Watch football for once, smartass. He’s making zero impact. Again, he is not asked to do nothing, which is what he’s doing.
I understand a 3 man rush isn’t going to accumulate a billion sacks, but the guy has 1 TFL in 6 games. That’s pathetic. It’s not like we rush just 3 on every play either. He isn’t pushing the pocket, he’s being dominated in the majority of snaps. All you have to do is watch the games. Go back to the Green Bay game day thread and look at how many posts there are about Flowers getting man handled. It’s been a season long problem.
If you’re not getting sacks, hurries, pressure, hits, tackles, tackles for loss, batting down passes or even pushing the tackle into the QB, what exactly is he accomplishing? You still have no clue what you are talking about. Are we the only team that runs a 3-4? Do the other teams that run a 3-4 have a 17 million dollar edge player that has a blank stat sheet and makes zero impact on games? No. Every other team in the NFL that runs a 3-4 has had better results.
If Flowers is doing what he is asked, then why did Patricia just say this week that THIS ISN’T A SCHEME PROBLEM, ITS A FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE???
Straight from the coaches mouth. He’s saying he has the right scheme, but people aren’t doing their job. The Lions are 30th against the pass. Primarily because they are getting no pressure on the opposing QB. That is Flowers job. He has fallen off a cliff from prior years. You can’t argue that, but I’m sure you will fabricate some lie to do just that.
That’s the point. He’s not Edge. Go and look at the stats. The guys racking up stats are 43 DE’s and 34 OLB’s, along with a couple interior pass-rushers like Donald. That’s why Kennard has more pressures than Flowers. It’s the position.
Because of the other breakdowns in execution, fits, technique, coverage and tackling. Further, it’s not one guy all the time, rather a gaff here and a gaff there. (Though in Minny I’d say Rashaan Melvin was largely responsible for the defense not getting off the field on 3rd and long.)
I just wanted to add…
Trey isn’t strictly any one type of player. There are going to be downs where he’s lined up in a pass-rush (Edge) role. I just don’t think we’re able to play with that variability while Daniels and Hand are injured.
Not buying that Line. Flowers has spent most of his time playing as an edge rusher. If we only needed a guy to hold the edge, we could have gotten that for peanuts, but that really is all he’s doing. He’s been a 90M Corn Washington. The pressures and sacks he has gotten have been the result of amazing coverage for the days it took him to get there. He has been a massive disappointment to date and we are a couple bad weeks from being out of contention, again.
Sorry, SACK as in 1 in six games and yes, as I recall it took him awhile to get there and yes it is not our pressure that is making QB’s act quickly, it’s been for the very very most part our secondary forcing QB’s to hold the ball in coverage sack fashion. I looked for a clip of Flowers one sack, but couldn’t find it. If you can and it’s not as I recall, I’ll be happy to eat crow on it.
It’s mind boggling that people are making excuses for Flowers play. $16m to “set the edge” and play multiple positions equally poorly.
Look at La’ Darius Smith as an example of what a $16m player should look like. Flowers is merely occupying space this season.
This is coming from a guy who was one of the biggest fans of the Flowers signing. Flowers is a shell of what he was the last two seasons.
He’s spends more time taking on the opposing teams LT than taking on any other role how is that? He is a sub package inside player. His position is Defensive End. One that makes what he makes should be dominating one on one battles with LT’s fairly consistently. He isn’t. Not saying he can’t, dear lord I hope so. But if all we get moving forward is what we have seen from him to date, it was a massively stupid move and one that we’ll sorely regret.
Exactly. I’m not a hater, I was a huge supporter of the signing and for the money we had to dump to get him. I also fully understood that we weren’t getting a 15 sack guy. But I expected to see PRESSURES like he has been delivering in the past, and he is not remotely delivering that from either inside at 3t, or outside at end. QB’s still have all day and that I expected to change for 90M. We either need a scheme change or these players need to step the heck up and start to bring the heat, and that is the answer to the question of this thread.
Pressures, plays in the run game. Something, anything. The two games I noticed him was against Philly when he had the sack and a couple of late pressures on Wentz and the Kansas City game or was it LAC when he punched the ball out and caused the fumble. That’s it really.
Well, there were the phantom hands to the faces which made him noticeable but also illustrated the problem that he can’t beat his man one on one like he’s done in the past.
I’m not giving up on him as we’re only 6 games in but he needs to start showing some signs of life, give us something to hang hope on that he can be the player they backed up the brinks truck for. It’s like he’s playing with the weight of expectations on his shoulders.
As I’ve already said, I’m not going to defend their decision to pay a guy Edge money to come in and play 3/4/5 technique.
At the same time, I’m not going to rip the guy for not being an effective 7/9 pass-rusher if the team isn’t lining him up as one. You may as well complain about Robinson in the same fashion.
The biggest question is why are they doing it? Is it because the defense is hamstrung by their two other ideal 5-techs being out (Hand and Daniels)? I think it is. I think Flowers stats will improve when he’s not playing the position that a 300 LB DE should be playing.
I think Patricia needs to lead by example and get his fat ass into shape. I’ve never seen a lazier, tired, buttercup-bodied, injury-prone pansy defense than I have this year.
I’d be making this team run all day long and doing the same if I were Patricia.
My humble (very humble) opinion on this is that our MLBs aren’t very good to start with and our DTs can cover for them some, but they are banged up pretty badly and they cant dominate gaps as well as maybe they could healthy.
The other issue seems to be that we cover decently but nobody can cover as long as the Lions require their corners to cover. We need better heat on the QB. Even if we don’t get sacks, we can hurry throws and that can make a difference.
To add: watching either of our MLBs in coverage is downright painful.
