The Detroit Lions defense has big issues, but Seahawks running back Rashaad Penny called out the core problem.
When you allowed 41 points and a shade more than 550 yards to an offense quarterbacked by Geno Smith, your defense has a lot of problems. That’s where the Detroit Lions are after Sunday’s 48-45 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, even if Dan Campbell wants to break toward a technicality that a pick-six thrown by Jared Goff provided the losing margin.
As part of that undressing of Detroit’s defense, Seahawks’ running back Rashaad Penny had 17 carries for 151 yards and two touchdowns. His second score, a 41-yarder with a little over two minutes, was the dagger that sealed a loss for the Lions.
It’s pretty clear, beyond personnel deficiencies, the Lions’ defense is being out-schemed to some degree too. Offenses know what Aaron Glenn is going to call, and when he’s going to call it.
Penny talked about that after Sunday’s game.
Rashaad Penny calls out predictability of Lions’ defense
Starting with his 36-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, Penny went in on how predictable the Lions’ defense was. (h/t to 97.1 The Ticket).
"It wasn’t the play call, but we alerted it because we knew what defense they were going to run on third down because our coaches do an amazing job of just preparing us for those moments,” Penny said. “That was just one of our alerts and once we saw that they were in that kind of defense, it was kind of a no-brainer.”That’s just what they do on defense,” Penny said. “That’s the game plan for us. Been watching that on film, that on third and long, they’re going to play that, so just anticipated it.”We just take advantage of the bad looks the defense shows us,”"
So the book is out on what the Lions will do in certain situations defensively, and adjusting correctly in the moment is not really a guess when it’s right over and over. It was on tape for the Seahawks to see heading into Sunday, per Penny, and there’s more damning tape out there now.
Glenn surely knows he needs to do a thorough self-scout, as he sits on the hot seat. But having an opposing player openly call out how easy it was to predict what the Lions were going to do is on a different level, and lays wide open a core issue with the NFL’s worst defense.