The answer to one of the loudest questions surrounding the Lions was pretty clear in Week 1. No, they did not have enough of a pass rush opposite Aidan Hutchinson. In fact, they didn't have enough of a pass rush at all.
With Hutchinson routinely stonewalled by double-teams and none of his fellow defensive linemen exploiting their one-on-one matchups, the Lions generated just six pressures on Jordan Love, who dropped back and diced them up in the first half of the Packers' 27-13 win.
Most of the opportunities across from Hutchinson went to Marcus Davenport, who generated one pressure on 14 pass-rushing snaps, per PFF. It was not a performance that validated the Lions' faith in him. Pat O'Connor and Al-Quadin Muhammad combined for two pressures on 12 pass-rushing snaps.
Hutchinson generated two pressures on 21 opportunities while dealing with chipping tight ends or straight double-teams for most of the game. One of the pressures came on Love's first touchdown pass to Tucker Kraft. The Lions hit Love just twice on his 23 drop-backs.
Asked where the Lions find a pass rush if Hutchinson is neutralized by extra blockers every week, Dan Campbell said Tuesday, "We’ll have to get it from the interior, we’ll have to get it from our backers and we’ll have to get it from the other side."
"We did have a guy — we had a few guys — that had some 1-on-1's and they gotta win those," Campbell said. "That being said, we gotta do a better job in the backend, too. Rush and coverage always go hand in hand, so we’re going to adapt, we’ll switch some things up. And look, we switched them up in the second half, too, and though we didn’t get a sack, we did get some pressures and we got off the field. I thought we settled down and started making some plays."
The Lions faced heavy scrutiny this offseason for their inactivity in upgrading their pass rush opposite Hutchinson. They banked heavily on the return of Davenport, who missed most of the last two seasons with injuries, and also brought back Muhammad. They had off-and-on contact with Za'Darius Smith about a potential reunion, but he ultimately signed a one-year, $4.25 million deal with the Eagles last week.
The Lions are expecting Josh Paschal to give them a boost when he returns from injury likely sometime in October, though his pass-rushing production through three seasons leaves lots to be desired. On the interior, injuries to Alim McNeill and Levi Onwuzurike loom large. While rookie Tyleik Williams and veteran DJ Reader are stout against the run, neither one provides much in the way of pressure on the quarterback.
Asked last week about their decision to not bring back Smith, Campbell said the Lions were good with the pass-rushers on their roster. He reiterated that on Tuesday: "I do believe we have the guys that can win 1-on-1’s, and there’s different ways to win."
"Certainly everybody would love to see the speedball off the edge and nobody can touch him, but that’s a rarity when you can find one of those guys," Campbell said. "But then it’s these guys who can push the middle of the pocket, man. You can get an edge and you can open it up and drive it right back into the quarterback’s lap.
"There’s different ways to apply pressure on the Q. And the bottom line is, you just gotta make him uncomfortable. If we can make him uncomfortable, get in his lap here a little bit, then normally good things will happen. But it requires everybody doing their job and you gotta get there with urgency."