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Detroit Lions road to respectability starts in Green Bay

By Michael Kirkland

DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 29: Ryan Shazier #50 of the Pittsburgh Steelers stops Dwayne Washington #36 of the Detroit Lions on the one yard line during the second half at Ford Field on October 29, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 29: Ryan Shazier #50 of the Pittsburgh Steelers stops Dwayne Washington #36 of the Detroit Lions on the one yard line during the second half at Ford Field on October 29, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /
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Lions defensive line
DETROIT, MI – OCTOBER 29: Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger #7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers passes the ball during the first quarter against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on October 29, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Defensive line shuffling

Ends Ziggy Ansah and Anthony Zettel, have each registered four sacks in the first seven games. Other than that, only Haloti Ngata, injured defensive tackle, has more than one sack to his name, and he has two. That’s ten of our anemic thirteen sacks, ranked 24th in the NFL, from three guys.

The Lions must find ways to pressure and get in the face of opposing quarterbacks. Brett Hundley is a good athlete, but he is an extremely inexperienced professional signal-caller. It’s a perfect opportunity to disguise your defense and confuse the young player.

Even with Ngata out, he’s on injured reserve, the other guys have to step it up and beat the guy in front of them.

Back end

It seems like a weekly occurrence at this point, but each game we seem to give up big numbers to a guy who prior was only known to diehards of their team; Juju Smith-Schuster is a perfect example. Draftniks and Steelers fans knew about him, but now everyone knows about him.

Forget New York and Los Angeles, if you want to be famous, play Detroit!

Juju outran our entire secondary for 97 yards, nary a finger on him. This is a prospect who couldn’t break a 4.5 second 40-yard dash. He had little problem outrunning safety Glover Quin and cornerback Quandre Diggs, though.

Neither man was able to get an angle to stop the receiver. The Lions secondary is simply not very fleet of foot other than Darius Slay. They have little to no room for error due to their rather pedestrian speed.

Corner backs: Slay, rookie Jamal Agnew, and Nevin Lawson are the only members who can break a 4.5 forty time. Rookie second rounder, Jalen “Teez” Tabor, isn’t as fast as fellow rookie linebacker, Jarrad Davis, his college teammate. Most NFL wide receivers are faster than that, FYI. Team speed is an issue.

Next: Detroit Lions face a must win situation on MNF

What do you think needs to be addressed? What would you do if you were the Lions general manager, Bob Quinn? Comment below. Thanks for reading! Go Lions!

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