Detroit Lions: A tale of two defenses in the 2019 season

The Detroit Lions defense started hot in 2019 before floundering over the month of October as the team managed only one win.

What’s happened to the Detroit Lions defense? It’s been a tale of two defenses so far this season and, recently, the wheels have fallen off. Well, sort of. They did manage to hold the Chicago Bears to 20 points on Sunday. The problem is the Bears offense hasn’t been doing well lately and shouldn’t have been able to score a couple of easy touchdowns in the second half.

On the first touchdown of the game, Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky made a nice throw. Coverage was tight, the ball was out of reach of the defender and the receiver had to stretch to catch the ball. It was a nice play.

The next two touchdowns were just not good. Nobody wanted to cover Bears speedy running back Tarik Cohen on one and Bears wide receiver Taylor Gabriel easily beat man coverage on the other. Thanks to a missed extra point attempt, the Lions still only had to put up more than 20 points to win. And failed.

Asking this Detroit Lions offense to score more than 20 points isn’t unreasonable. But, you can also blame the defense for setting the bar that high for an offense missing it’s starting quarterback. This defense has done better against better opponents.

The first half of the season, Detroit surprised people when they shut down the Los Angeles Chargers and held the Philadelphia Eagles back enough to get victories. And they didn’t allow the NFL’s darling quarterback, Kansas City Chiefs Patrick Mahomes, to score a single touchdown in a game that came down to the wire. Admit it, that was closer than anyone thought the game would be.

The Lions held another one of the NFL’s and media’s favorite quarterbacks, Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers, to only 20 points. No, the last three points they scored due to phantom penalties won’t be acknowledged here (still salty). And that should be enough to get a win.

Then something happened. The Minnesota Vikings blew the doors off this defense. Completely destroyed them to the tune of 42 points. Since then, the Lions have given up 26, 31 and 20 points. The latest should have been enough for a win, but it wasn’t. Instead, fans are left searching for reasons why and answers to stop the bleeding.

In the first five games of the season, this Detroit Lions defense looked pretty darn good. Since then, they haven’t looked very good at all. Could it be linebacker Jarrad Davis, lineman Trey Flowers or a number of others not playing up to expectations? Could it be injuries holding out lineman Da’Shawn Hand, cornerback Darius Slay, safety Tracy Walker or others?

There was also a questionable trade of Lions safety Quandre Diggs to the Seattle Seahawks. Did that shift the tides of the defense this season? It happened after the Vikings debacle, so I’m not so sure about that one. But it has left this team thin at the safety position.

While the stats and yardage numbers might not show the same story, this defense wasn’t that bad to start the season. Look at the main stat that matters, points allowed, and you’ll see this team should have won a few more games. But when they don’t get the W, the focus will be on how bad they have been as a unit.

Sunday’s game wasn’t as bad as it looked for them as they only gave up 173 yards through the air and 81 yards on the ground. The three games prior were much worse. But the perception is lingering from those three prior games and the Lions need to do something to correct it. Otherwise, we’re on to draft season.