Is the Detroit Lions poor preseason play legitimate cause for concern?

Meanwhile the Lions brass of Quinn and Patricia spent a fourth-round pick on defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand and signed veteran defensive tackles Sylvester Williams and Ricky Jean-Francois.

Those weren’t bad signings, but the concern about depth is still valid.

Bob Quinn has stated that the Lions will build from the ball out. That means it all starts with the offensive and defensive lines and so far the question marks start there as well.

The offensive line didn’t have a great game in Oakland, but they did play well enough to allow Kerryon Johnson and Ameer Abdullah the opportunity to shine. Which they did. On Friday against the New York Giants, they gave their backs very little chance to display their talents.

It should also be pointed out that they didn’t do a particularly good job of protecting their quarterbacks in either game.

On the defensive side of the ball, the concern has been entirely in the front seven.

Through two games this team still hasn’t learned basic defense 101; set the edge and funnel everything inside. The Giants did get some yards up the middle against these Lions, but it is certainly alarming how poorly they have played the edge.

Patricia’s mandate was that this team would play smart, disciplined, tough football. Well, they have been tough…

However, these defenders seem to have no concept of playing smart, much less disciplined football. This has been exhibited not only by their refusal to set the edge defensively, which has allowed both preseason opponents to run wild off the edge, but the truckload of penalties they’ve accrued so far speak volumes about a lack of discipline.

Now is all of this the end of the universe since, once again, it’s only the preseason?

To quote the old adage; ‘you play like you practice’. These games are nothing more than glorified scrimmages where they keep score, but the Lions have played poorly overall.