Protecting a one-point lead over the Bears with time winding down on Thanksgiving, the one thing the Lions couldn't concede was a first down. Chicago was facing third and 4 from Detroit's 11-yard line and the Lions were out of timeouts. A first down would allow the Bears a game-winning chip shot at the buzzer. Sure enough, Will Harris lined up several yards off of receiver Damiere Byrd and didn't lay a hand on him until Byrd had secured the easiest first down catch of his career. Game over.
A week later, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn took the blame. He said he should have reminded Harris, a safety who was playing nickel in place of the injured AJ Parker, to play press coverage like the rest of Detroit's corners.
"I wish I would’ve told Will Harris to challenge in that situation," Glenn said Thursday. "I should have told him that. But we called a pressure and he was just playing off. Again, that was just his seventh time playing nickel the whole game. Sometimes we put so much blame on players. Listen, that guy is just now learning. So I told him, ‘That wasn’t your fault. That’s my fault because I put you in that situation as a new player playing that position.’ I’ve got to make sure I help that player as far as how to operate in those situations.”
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The whole drive was a mess for Detroit's defense. Andy Dalton and the Bears took the ball on their own 21 with 8:30 to play and never gave it up. Half the defense lined up incorrectly on the play prior to the blown coverage by Harris, forcing the Lions to call two timeouts in a row -- a delay-of-game penalty that turned third and 9 into third and 4. Glenn said "obviously we all knew that you can't call two timeouts," but the only alternative was allowing the Browns the first down they needed.
"If they would’ve caught the ball, they had ample (room) to get the first down and fall down," said Glenn. "Then they would’ve tried to run the clock out. So our situation was, ‘Man, listen, we don’t want to give them an inch to get that situation on us.’ So we called a timeout to get the next play."
And the next play burned them all the same.
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