Detroit Lions on the brink of losing the season already
Detroit Lions offense
First of all, the scores of the two losses are not telling of the horrid early production from the offense. The Jets handed a pick-six to the Lions defense, but the Lions offense has been slow to start games. Despite their 6th place passing attack, the turnovers and playing from behind have padded their numbers.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, the Lions rank 30th in rushing.
I know, shocker.
The lack of an effective running game early, the poor defense, and the generally slow offensive starts to games have all contributed to the abandonment of the running game later in games. Which is exactly the formula to lose a lot of games.
What you want is to establish some ground attack early, perhaps mix in a few passes, play good defense, and then run the ball to kill the clock near the end. As you can plainly see, we have it backward.
DISCLAIMER: Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades are A way to look at player’s performance, not the only way. Here KITCW is using it to illustrate basic effectiveness through two games.
Rookie offensive lineman, Frank Ragnow, has been bad in pass blocking (17.2 Pro Football Focus rating vs. 49’ers), but has an average rating, overall. Which is to say that as a run blocker he is effective. If he can grow into his role as a pass blocker, he will be worth the first round pick.
Another issue up front is the health of guard T.J. Lang. Lang missed the contest against San Francisco and has been dealing with back injury issues for his duration as a Lion. The good news was that his replacement, Kenny Wiggins, did a decent job in his stead (67.1 PFF grade).
Meanwhile, starting left tackle Taylor Decker has an overall grade of 63.2 from PFF; this is an average rating from our most important lineman.
Along with the running game being absent, quarterback Matthew Stafford hasn’t hit many long passes to the likes of Marvin Jones, Jr.; this quick-strike ability is key to the offense putting up points and opening up run lanes for running backs.
Receiver Kenny Golladay has been a bright spot for the Lions, as he has come close to putting up back to back 100-yard performances. Rookie running back Kerryon Johnson has added a spark but hasn’t seen a lot of work so far.