Surprise! Defense hasn’t carried the Detroit Lions as expected
By Robert Jones
The Lions have gotten offensive
The real surprise this season has been how quickly the offense has started coming together. Often times when a team has to learn a new offensive system, it takes half to three-quarters of the season before they start looking comfortable as an entire unit.
While the Lions offense has been a work in progress, the passing game has been pretty impressive right from opening day. Matthew Stafford is the productive gunslinger of old that is actually looking to make plays instead of being afraid of making mistakes.
Ball safety is obviously a big part of the game. If a team turns the ball over, they generally lose. But to be so concerned about ball security that it prohibits a quarterback from actually making plays only inhibits the production of the offense.
Plain and simple if a quarterback or a player at any position does their job scared, whether it be of turning the ball over, getting hit or mental mistakes, then they can’t play fast and effective.
No one wants the turnovers, but somewhere there has to be give-and-take. If you want Matthew being the gunslinger he’s comfortable with, then we need to accept that the ball will occasionally get turned over.
It’s that gunslinger mentality that allowed him to hit Kenny Golladay with that laser pass between the whole Chief defense for a touchdown. The plus side is that he hasn’t thrown too many bad passes, but he does need to watch the fumbles.
The offensive line has steadily improved, the receivers are taking turns lighting up opposing defenses and Kenny Golladay is becoming a go-to money player before our eyes.
Against the Chiefs, Kerryon Johnson was finally turned loose and he made the Kansas City defense look powerless to stop him and the ground game should be trending upward.
In truth, if anything, the Lions offense has carried the rest of the team so far. They have made big plays when needed in every game to this point including what could have been the game-winner late against the Chiefs.
And the best part is that this Darrell Bevell offense should only get better. Like diversified powerful better. Given some more time and work, the theory is they should be equally as good by land and air. And quite frankly you can see then heading in that direction.
However, defense does win championships and getting this Lions squad of defenders together on the same page is crucial.