It was clear the Detroit Lions' defense was going to have a great challenge against the Buffalo Bills in Week 2. Overall, the game had a "first team to 40 points wins" vibe.
Well, that came to fruition in a 41-31 Bills' victory on Thursday night. Josh Allen will make a lot defenses look feeble, but the Lions' defense had no answers for anything Buffalo did on the way to allowing 446 yards of offense, 5.6 yards per carry, 7.4 yards per pass, etc.
Of course that performance has rightly turned up the heat on defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard. Head coach Dan Campbell and defensive end Aidan Hutchinson both pointed to changes being necessary, with some extra time to do something before the Lions take on the New York Jets in Week 3.
Firing Sheppard after two games wouldn't accomplish anything, so let's not go there. But he appears to be channeling former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn did, by running a scheme without the required personnel to get it done effectively.
Injuries are an important layer to impact things, but circumstances require adjustment and the best coaches do it. When something simply isn't working, regardless of available personnel, in-game adjustments need to be made. It's ultimately on players to execute, and not have physical or mental breakdowns, but a coordinator has to be able to adapt and Sheppard has fallen short there way too often.
Lions' defensive strategy is rightly being called into question
According to Next Gen Stats, the Lions blitzed Allen on 55.3 percent of his dropbacks Thursday night. That's their highest blitz rate in now 19 games with Sheppard as defensive coordinator. Coming after Allen also did not work in any capacity.
"Passing vs. Blitz: 12/17, 137 yards, 2 TD
Scramble Runs: 5 for 49 yards, TD
QB Sneaks: 4/4 conversions, TD"
On "Get Up" Friday morning, ESPN's Dan Orlovsky pulled no punches to call out the Lions' defensive strategy.
"Defensively, they're a major liability, and it's because they, right now, are overly aggressive in how they stylistically play", Orlovsky said. "They make it way too easy on quarterbacks, and I think they minimize the impact of Aidan Hutchinson."
After talking about Hutchinson a bit, Orlovsky got into the brass tacks of the issues defensively.
"One, they're calling their defense like they got four Hutchinsons. They only got one. They're calling their defense like they have four Fred Warners. They don't have any. They're calling their defense like they have four Darrelle Revises, they don't have any."
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Orlovsky noted how the Lions make it easy on quarterbacks, with "so much man coverage, so much pressure", before reaching the bottom line.
"Aaron Glenn brought this overly aggressive defense there, and it was great. They've just continued to replicate their overly aggressive defense, without the necessary people to call it."
The "too much man coverage" thing has been dismissed a bit. Through the first two games this season, according to Sumer Sports, the Lions are middle of the pack (17th) with a 21 percent man coverage rate. Of course we've only had one Week 2 game, so we'll see how that holds up.
Last year, the Lions were third with a 35.4 percent man coverage rate. In 2024, they led the NFL at 44.2 percent. That said, any idea they should play more man coverage rings hollow, since it requires cornerbacks who can do it well.
Let's move to the other area of the Lions' defensive strategy against the Bills.
Blitzing a lot can work if: it gets home far more often than not, coverage can hold up when it doesn't get home and/or the marriage of blitz and coverage looks confuses the quarterback. The Lions got none of that done against Allen and the Bills, and it's not a new thing. It happened a lot when Glenn was the coordinator, and it has continued under Sheppard.
Something has got to change for the Lions' defense, and better health will only go so far to potentially fix things. What the change looks like, immediately or eventually, is very much to be determined.
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