The Carolina Panthers put starting cornerbacks Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson on injured reserve this week, and the Detroit Lions aren’t exactly sure what to expect from their replacements.
“It adds to the unknown,” Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing said Thursday, Oct. 1. “There’s an element of, 'Do they change? Do they not? Who’s going to be in the game? How are they going to organize it? What personnel packages do they want to play with?' So at the end of the day, and I think this has to be the mindset regardless of the opponent, it’s about us first and making sure that we handle our business and we’re on the same page and we’re doing the things that we can do to be dynamic and be difficult to defend.”
Horn suffered a quad injury in the
Panthers’ loss to the Cleveland Browns last week that could sideline him for up to three months and Jackson underwent surgery on his groin this week.
The two combined for nine interceptions last season, and Horn is considered one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.
Chau Smith-Wade, who started six games last year, rookie fourth-round pick Will Lee and special teams standout Akayleb Evans are the Panthers’ top healthy cornerbacks, but Petzing disputed the notion that Carolina’s depleted secondary presents a golden opportunity for his offense.
“In this league, I wouldn’t say you go into it any different,” Petzing said. “I think the mindset’s exactly the same. I think you start thinking that way and that’s where you get yourself into trouble.”
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Hail Mary defense explanation
The Lions deployed an unusual Hail Mary defense to defend the final play in the first half of last week’s win over the New York Jets: They kept one rusher (defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard) near the line of scrimmage, dropped eight men in coverage and had one defensive lineman along each sideline (Aidan Hutchinson and Derrick Moore) to prevent a quick pass that would have enabled a receiver to step out of bounds.
With 3 seconds left, it’s unlikely the Jets would have had enough time left to run another play after a short completion, but Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said Thursday he has no second thoughts about the Lions’ defensive formation because “I went into that game not only playing the Jets but playing Aaron Glenn,” the Jets coach and the former Lions defensive coordinator who Sheppard apprenticed under for four years.
“There’s a couple different ways you can play the Hail Mary,” Sheppard said. “We essentially have two to three different ways we can combat Hail Mary. The other alternative, my friend that was on the other sideline knows it in and out 'cause we did it here for four years and he was ready for it.
“A couple years ago, there was a certain team who exposed that, that certain defense, and if they would have threw it to a certain player we all would have been sick to our stomach. Luckily they didn’t. I won’t reveal to the public what I’m talking about but those that know, know.”
Sheppard said Hutchinson and Moore weren’t wasted defenders on the play, as both retreated from their spot on the sideline about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage as the play unfolded. When Jets quarterback Geno Smith released the ball, an incomplete pass, Hutchinson and Moore were around the 20-yard line running toward the end zone.
“Certain situational things we tuned and tweaked a tad, but not to the expense where we were doing something unorthodox,” Sheppard said. “Like I said, we’ve practiced for six years that exact sideline defense. It converts against the Hail Mary and we practice it every week and I liked where we were at.”
Hold on
Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp declined to say Thursday if the Lions would take advantage of the recent NFL rules clarification that allows teams to use a 12th man as a holder on kickoffs, with or without a tee.
“Never know,” he said.
Several teams have deployed the extra man to give their kickers a better angle to squib kicks inside the landing zone but short of the end zone. A touchback that lands in the landing zone is placed at the 20-yard line, while a touchback that goes in the end zone starts at the 35.
Fipp acknowledged using a holder can help get the optimal angle on the ball.
“It definitely helps,” he said. “I think some guys more than others. It's something that we played around with a little bit.”
He declined to weigh in on the debate about whether teams using a 12th man are violating the spirit of a rule that was designed to speed up play. Previously, teams could only use a holder if the ball fell off the tee two times because of the conditions on the field.
“It's fair to do anything inside the rules,” he said. “I mean, you guys know I don't really get involved with the rules. I hate that whole side. I just want to play the game. When they put this play in, I was an advocate for let's find a way to get the ball to be kicked up in the air and returned. So it was a good return and the ball wasn't on the ground doing all that stuff. But, hey, all good, to each their own. I mean, we're going to see it this week with Carolina. They do a good job getting the ball on the ground and it definitely helps the coverage team, if you can do it consistently without kicking it out of bounds and paying the penalty or short of the line and paying the penalty.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions ready to face defense nearly as depleted as theirs
