Dan Campbell says it all about Lions' pass rush without Aidan Hutchinson

After the first game without Aidan Hutchinson, Dan Campbell echoed the broad sentiment about the Lions' pass rush.
Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
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It has only been one game, so it's not appropriate to overreact. It's also impossible to replace someone like Aidan Hutchinson, who still leads the NFL in quarterback pressures (according to Pro Football Focus) despite not playing in Week 7.

But the Detroit Lions will have many more games without their best pass rusher, since he's out for the season after suffering a fractured left fibula and tibia in Week 6.

The Lions sacked Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold four times on Sunday. But three of them came from linebackers (Malcolm Rodriguez, Jack Campbell, Trevor Nowaske), with Josh Paschal tallying the only sack from a defensive lineman.

The Lions had 15 pressures of Darnold as a team on Sunday (according to PFF). As Nolan Bianch of the Detroit News noted, Hutchinson had that many by himself in his last full game (Week 4 against the Seattle Seahawks).

Dan Campbell hits obvious note about Lions pass rush without Aidan Hutchinson

For at least one game, the Lions clearly wanted to see what they had pass rush-wise without Hutchinson. Campbell's comments the day after the injury regarding a lack of urgency to add someone made a lot of sense.

Campbell was asked about effectiveness of the pass rush against the Vikings during his press conference on Monday.

"An area where we could be better is, there was some things where our coverage had to — we ask them to do a lot and they had to hold on a little bit", Campbell said. "There were some things where we fabricated some rush, we got there a few times. But to answer your question, we need just a little bit more. There was a couple of them that did get long, a couple of these plays that you'd like to believe we can get somebody there just a little bit sooner. We'll keep working with it, A.G.'s gonna keep coming up with a great plan, he's a stud as a defensive coordinator, he maximizes everything we have and we'll figure it out."

Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn had a good day on Sunday overall, as the Lions limited the Vikings to 22 offensive points and Minnesota had zero possessions reach the red zone. But scheming up pass rush concepts can only do so much, and in general Darnold was hardly hit on Sunday.

One game wasn't going to entirely change how the Lions envision replacing Hutchinson, and there is enough reporting out there to suggest they are looking for outside help. It'll of course have to be someone who's seen as the right fit, but a move to trade for an edge rusher is a notch or two more important after what was shown by the pass rush against the Vikings.

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