For what it’s worth: Encouraging Detroit Lions Preseason stats
By Mike Payton
Rushing
Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Seriously people it’s just preseason, but Lions fans also have to be excited about how their rushing game looks so far. For years it seems as though the Lions back field has been cursed. After all, the Lions have never ranked higher than 17th in rushing since Barry Sanders retirement in the late 90’s. In 2014, you could tell during the preseason that things were going to be a nightmare.
| Rank | ATT | Yards | YPC | YPG | TD’s | Fum |
| 24th | 25 | 362 | 3.6 | 90.5 | 3 | 3 |
The Lions would go on to rank 28th in rushing after Reggie Bush sustained multiple injuries and only offered 550 total yards to the Lions. Joique Bell had trouble getting off the starting block until the end of the season and Theo Riddick proved what many already knew. He can’t run the ball in between the tackles. Everyone who can claim they have eyes could see that this unit was not improved in 2014. Let’s just move on to 2015.
| Rank | ATT | Yards | YPC | YPG | TD’s | Fum |
| 8th | 24.3 | 347 | 4.8 | 115 | 1 | 1 |
Despite the fact that the Lions have run for less yards and less touchdowns in 2015, the stats to really look at here are the yards per carry, yards per game, and fumbles. Yards per carry has to be the most exciting stat as it’s so much higher than 2014. The Lions rushing unit has shot up to 8th in the rankings and has shown a lot of promise so far. But it’s only preseason.
The Lions new nightmare is figuring out who to keep and who to cut.
Next: Defense