The Lions' defense ranked last in the NFL last year, and in this year's season opener it looked worse. Since then, it's been ... not terrible?
Progress, folks!
Through four games, let's focus on three reasons for optimism. Super cautious, hold-your-breath, knock-on-wood optimism. And let's start with the most encouraging.
Aaron Glenn and the Lions have the second best third-down defense in the NFL. Who the hell saw that coming? Opponents are converting just 27.8 percent of their third downs against Detroit. Only the Panthers (23.8 percent) have been stingier.
This marks a drastic improvement. The Lions stopped just 47.8 percent of third down attempts last year, fourth worst in the NFL. They haven't finished in the top 10 in third-down defense since 2014, the last time they won double-digit games. You might remember that defense was pretty good.
Glenn said Thursday Detroit's third-down defense has been "dominant" and "continues to operate the same way." He also acknowledged that second down has been a problem, especially in regard to explosive plays. But third-down efficiency is a good place for any defense to start.
"We're second in the league on third down. If you told me that we would be that at this point, there's no way in the world I would have thought we would be 0-4 right now," he said.
Ever heard of this thing called a pass rush? Are the Lions kind of, sort of generating one under Glenn? They have nine sacks through four games, which places them in the middle of the pack, which notably removes them from the rear. More to the point, the Lions rank seventh in the NFL in sack rate, generating a sack on 8.2 percent of passing plays. They had a 4.1 percent sack rate last year, which ranked 28th.
No doubt, this will be hard to sustain without Romeo Okwara. Detroit's top pass rusher is done for the year with a torn Achilles. But the Lions have found a potential late-bloomer in Charles Harris, who has three sacks in the last three games, and they should get Trey Flowers back this week after he missed the past two games with a knee injury. Julian Okwara is starting to make himself heard. It would be good to hear from Levi Onwuzurike soon.
"My foundation as far as building a defense has always been inside first," Glenn said. "When you have an understanding across the board of this is what we're stopping first, we can make teams one-dimensional. When you can make them one-dimensional, OK, now it's time to go (get the QB). You look at us, as far as sacks are concerned, we're somewhere in the middle part of the league. We're maybe two from being in the top 10. The plan is actually working exactly how I want it to work. We just need more."
The Lions are actually one sack from being in the top 10, albeit along with five other teams. They were tied for 26th last year. The last time they finished in the top 10 in sacks was 2015 when Ziggy Ansah racked up 14.5. If they don't draft a quarterback in the first round next year, another (healthier) pass rusher like Ansah would be a good place to start.
Take this last one with a grain of salt, because statistics vary. But according to Pro Football Reference, the Lions have the second fewest missed tackles in the NFL. They had the fourth most last year. They're down from 8.0 per game to 4.3. Your eyes might tell you something different. So does Pro Football Focus, which says the Lions have been the second worst tackling team in the league.
Glenn himself admitted to some tackling struggles, in part because NFL player-safety rules prevent teams from practicing it like they used to.
"That's another area we've got to chip away, those missed tackles," he said. "Other than that, just leaky yardage. I don't like when we wrap guys up and they fall for 3 or fall for 4. I told the guys, 'When we hit somebody, there's gotta be a lot of pellets coming right behind it so we can get more knock-back.' We'll fix that. That's one I'm not worried about because we have tough, aggressive guys. Just being able to see that on tape, and those guys understanding exactly the things we can do, we'll fix that."
In small ways, Glenn has already begun fixing this defense as a whole. It's still full of holes, largely because it's lacking talent. It's still allowing far too many yards per play (6.6, to be exact), too many yards per rush (4.4) and too many yards per game (381). But that latter figure ranks 21st in the NFL, a year after the Lions were last in franchise history in the same category.
Progress, folks!
