Detroit Lions: Quintez Cephus flashes future in first two starts

Game Two: Three catches on three targets for 54 yards

Against the Green Bay Packers, we didn’t see much of Cephus. Despite that, he had a much better overall performance. Having the same amount of catches on fewer targets for more receiving yards.

Somewhat disappointing as he was expected to see a lot more action. He did play close to 70 percent of the Lions’ snaps. Obviously, I’ll highlight one major play from this matchup (you can along watch here).

4th quarter at 4:21, Packers 42-Lions 21, 1st and 10 on Lions’ 10-yard line 

Green Bay has a comfortable lead at this point in the game and is playing against the deep ball. It appears that their defense is playing cover-two with man to man coverage. This is an attempt to disguise that coverage to confuse Stafford.

In reality, they’re running a defensive play called “Tampa 2”. In Tampa 2, the middle linebacker slides back to cover the middle of the field (making it cover-three). When a defense uses this play, their goal is to eliminate any throws deep or flats. Forcing a quarterback to throw underneath.

So, if Stafford wants to throw a deep ball, it has to be perfect. He throws it right above the defender to where only Cephus can catch it. His route is a deep post.

Concentration is what we’re looking at, which was a cause of concern against Chicago. A tough catch was made in stride and he picked up a good chunk of yardage after the fact. We saw more of Cephus’ capability of running after the catch in his other two plays.