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Detroit Lions Wild Card PFF Grades: Secondary Exposed

By Alex Reno

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If you are not aware by now, Pro Football Focus is a website dedicated to grading NFL players’ individual performances based on in depth review of every snap of every game. If you’re interested, here is a look at their grading system.

Let’s take a closer look at what PFF had to say about the Detroit Lions and their brutal loss to the Dallas Cowboys, shall we?

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    • Offense

    Best Grades:

    Garrett Reynolds: +4.0
    Dominic Raiola: +1.9
    Corey Fuller: +1.2
    Joique Bell: +1.0
    Golden Tate/Jed Collins: +0.8

    Worst Grades:

    Riley Reiff: -3.1
    Cornelius Lucas: -3.1
    Brandon Pettigrew: -2.1
    Jeremy Ross: -1.3
    Reggie Bush/Eric Ebron: -1.3

    Analysis:

    The Detroit Lions’ offensive line has been their Achilles heel all year, specifically their interior line. That was not the case yesterday against the Cowboys. Garrett Reynolds deserves a lot of credit for his performance yesterday.

    If the Lions would have beaten the Cowboys, I would have argued that Reynolds was their MVP. Not only did he handle himself well and receive the highest grade via PFF, he also forced a crucial fumble late in the game to keep the Lions alive.

    Meanwhile, the Lions completely dissolved on the exterior. Reiff and Lucas gave up a combined seven QB hurries. One of Reiff’s came on the final play of the game for the Lions which resulted in a fumble.

    Though I’ve been critical of Reggie Bush in the past, I thought he had a solid game overall. PFF obviously didn’t agree with me here, but they did credit Joique Bell. Bush had a nice touchdown run early in the game, but the Lions did try a little to hard to force the ball his way, especially on third down.

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    Defense

    Best Grades:

    CJ Mosley: +2.0
    Jason Jones: +1.6
    Rashean Mathis: +1.4
    Darryl Tapp: +1.4
    Darius Slay: +1.2

    Worst Grades:

    James Ihedigbo: -2.2
    Glover Quin: -1.6
    Cassius Vaughn: -1.5
    Mohammed Seisay: -1.4
    George Johnson: -1.3

    Analysis:

    As you can see, the Lions’ secondary got torched by the Cowboys. They did a solid job to start the game (aside from Vaughn), but in the second half there were too many mistakes and penalties.

    Detroit’s safety duo has done well all year, but easily had their worst game when it counted the most. Ihedigbo has been especially up and down for the Lions, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try and find an upgrade at the strong safety position.

    The front seven did a much better job at putting pressure on the quarterback than they have in recent weeks. They combined for six sacks and 24 total pressures according to PFF.

    Now that the season is over, I’m betting this is the last time we see Cassius Vaughn barring injuries. He was just awful all year for the Lions. PFF gave him the lowest overall grade this year in Detroit’s secondary (-5.9).

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