Detroit Lions bye week report card: Grading the first five weeks
By Zach Payne
Run defense: 1/5 stars
It’s a jarring shift from how good the Lions’ offense has been to how bad the defense has been. Detroit currently sits 31st in the league in rush yards allowed per game, helped by allowing over 200 yards on the ground to both the Eagles and Seahawks.
Why the run defense has been so bad comes down to a few factors. One is personnel. Between injuries and a pure lack of talent, the Lions are at a disadvantage on the defensive side of. A big reason is execution, from over-running edges and gaps to failing to get penetration. Missed tackles have been a big issue too, as they were last season.
Pass defense: 1/5 stars
Perhaps partially a residual of the bad run defense, the Lions’ pass defense has also been quite poor. Play-action, underneath, over the middle, down the field…it doesn’t matter, Detroit has been bleeding yards everywhere. You don’t get to dead last in total yards and points allowed by accident.
Outside of Jeff Okudah (more on him in a moment), the secondary has been a nightmare. Amani Oruwariye was playing so poorly he was a healthy scratch in Week 5. DeShon Elliott was also benched for the Patriots game, before the early injury to Saivion Smith put him back into significant action. Safety Tracy Walker is out for the season after suffering a torn Achilles in Week 3 against the Vikings.
A thinned secondary has been further exposed by the lack of a pass rush for the Lions
Best defensive player: CB Jeff Okudah
In the span of just over a month, Okudah went from entering training camp fighting for a starting role, to being the unquestioned No. 1 corner for the Lions. Over the first three games, he was a shutdown corner.
However, the good play has started to trail off slightly over the last two weeks. Okudah had a pretty rough game against DK Metcalf and Patriots receivers had sucess against him
Ultimately, Okudah has looked like a starting NFL corner. It’s easy to forget he has just 15 games of NFL experience, so more improvement should be ahead.
Worst defensive player(s): The defensive line
There is an argument that all parts of the defense have been bad, without singling one out. But relative to expectations the defensive line is the unit that has disappointed the most so far. We knew the linebackers would be lackluster, and we knew the secondary would struggle. But there was hope for the defensive line.
Since taking over as general manager Brad Holmes has allocated significant resources to the defensive line, be it draft picks (Aidan Hutchinson, Josh Paschal, Levi Onwuzurike, Alim McNeill), free agents (Charles Harris), re-signings (Romeo Okwara) or a waiver wire pickup that worked out nicely before he was injured in Week 2 (John Cominsky).
With Okwara, Paschal and Onwuzurike injured and having yet to play this season and Harris not making the same impact he did last year before missing Week 5, Hutchinson has had to take on a heavy load. Outside of his three-sack game against Washington in Week 2, his production has been nearly nil–which is somewhat a product of facing lots of double teams with few other threats up front to worry about.