After the first quarter of the Detroit Lions’ Week 5 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals, we were staring into the abyss. Detroit was outgained 84 yards to -9 after the first 15 minutes, and it looked like we were headed for some major changes. I won’t lie. I even considered if this was the beginning of the end for the entire regime.
But the rest of the game told a completely different story. The Lions offense scored on their next seven possessions, including six touchdowns. The Lions defense forced
five consecutive three-and-outs and seven scoreless drives in a row. It was a complete and utter beatdown for the remaining 45 minutes, and it’s the best the Lions have looked all year by a country mile.
But how much does it mean? How many of Detroit’s problems seem solved vs. how much was this just beating up on a bad Cardinals team?
Today’s Question of the Day is:
How are you feeling about the Lions after their blowout win over the Cardinals?
My answer: I would say a little to a lot better.
It’s impossible to know whether Detroit’s defensive success will carry over to future games. I find it hard to believe that they are suddenly going to be a top-half-of-the-league defense all of a sudden. Certainly, they won’t find as much success against teams with deeper wide receiver rooms and better quarterbacks. They’ll have a much bigger test out of the bye with a Green Bay Packers team that isn’t afraid to air it out deep.
However, I’m not going to discount the possibility the Lions may have figured some things out. The entire defense looked far more comfortable in more man-heavy coverage looks. The back-end settled down considerably with rookie Keith Abney manning one of the safety spots. And say what you will about how bad the Cardinals are, there isn’t a single team so far that has held them to five straight three-and-outs. Hell, the undefeated 49ers defense only held them to two three-and-outs all game.
In terms of Detroit’s run defense, they held the Cardinals to their lowest success rate (22.2%), second-lowest EPA/run (-0.24), and highest stuffed rate (27.8%) of the season—even after playing the Seahawks and 49ers defense. Arizona hadn’t been sacked more than twice in a game, and the Lions got to Jacoby Brissett five times.
Point being, even as bad as the Cardinals are, Detroit beat them more handily than just about anyone this year, and that counts for something.
I haven’t even touched on the offense, which managed to brush off a dreadful start to put together their most complete game of the year, as well. Not only did offensive coordinator Drew Petzing find some solutions in the passing game, but Detroit penetrated what had been a pretty successful run defense from the Cardinals all year. The Lions’ +0.10 EPA/rush, six rushes of 10+ yards, and +1.38 rushing yards over expected per attempt were all season highs allowed by Arizona this season.
So, yes, the Lions played a crappy Cardinals team. But they played them better—or at least as well—as some of the best teams in the NFL. Going into the bye week, I couldn’t have really asked for more from one single game.
So I’ll say I’m feeling a lot better.
What about you?
