6 Lions Coordinator Takeaways: Detroit’s Defense Starting To Hit Its Goals

The Detroit Lions’ three coordinators held their weekly press conferences on Thursday to recap the Green Bay Packers win and preview the upcoming game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Here’s what you need to know.

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing

Time to get the run game going

Detroit’s running game has been relatively effective, but there have been a lot of negative plays, too. Petzing identified three reasons those negative plays have been happening:

• Poor identification up front
  • “Are we going to the right people? Is everybody on the same page? Did we get that communicated out?”
• Losing your matchup
  • “Losing your one-on-ones, are we using proper technique? Did we create a bad matchup?”
• Poor scheme
  • “Is that a good play? Should we have called in that situation? No, we can’t get to that guy. The angle’s not great.”

Against the Packers, Petzing said all three were at play, but picked out “poor identification” as the main culprit.

This week against the Vikings, Petzing noted the importance of getting the running game going and avoiding negative plays.

“It’s huge. And I think if you can make us one dimensional as an offense, you know exactly what you’re attacking. And we need to keep a defense like this and any defense for that matter off balance because if they know they have to do this to win the game, well, here’s what we do to take that away. But if they’re constantly trying to figure out, is it a run? Is it a pass? Can we stop this and this? Can we stop that and that? I think it limits their flexibility too and makes them a little bit more predictable.”

Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard

Defense has hit its goals the last two games

Each week, Sheppard sets three specific goals/benchmarks for their defense. He says in each of the past two games, they have successfully ticked off each goal, which sounds more rare than you’d think.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen back-to-back games where we went out, we do these keys to victory, and they’ve gone out back-to-back games, and I mean hit every single one of them. And that’s when you know you’re trending the right way. That’s when you know it’s hitting home with the players.”

Sheppard wouldn’t give out the three goals for Vikings week, but he detailed the three for last week’s game against the Packers:

• Don’t let Christian Watson and Matthew Golden get behind them and limit them in the passing game
  • Combined 11 catches for 96 yards, 0 TDs
• Dominate the run game
  • 19 carries, 60 yards, 3.2 YPC
• Force takeaways
  • 1 interception

The explosive plays are still happening, but decreasing

Sheppard was very happy with the way the Lions played against the Packers, but he still points to six explosive plays given up, several of which were self-inflicted.

“It was six explosive plays in that game, and half of those were nothing that the Green Bay Packers did. It’s what we did. And I said, ‘Imagine you clean that up. Imagine we hit on the six, seven plays of those details. Imagine what that’ll look like.’”

Sheppard later clarified that three of the self-inflicted mistakes all came on Green Bay’s fourth-down conversions. He believes they were simple mistakes and they’re getting corrected.

“Those were three of the busts, if I’m being honest with you. And the players know it, so it’s not like I’m saying anything that you guys don’t see. Pretty much everybody around the league runs that coverage, and they know who was supposed to be where they were supposed to be. The player took accountability towards it, and we’re moving onward and upward.”

When asked if some of the repeated coverage busts were the result of youth and inexperience, Sheppard refused to play the blame game.

“Those are excuses, and those are for losers. And if you start to go down that road, your role will diminish here. So, we don’t even travel down there. If you get an opportunity, I don’t care if you’ve never gotten a rep, if you’ve never gotten it in practice, and we call you off the sideline because you’re the last man that we have. You’re expected to go in there and play at the same level as the guy that’s taking every rep.”

Credit to Deshea Townsend

Last week, the Lions came out with a cornerback rotation to help combat the Packers’ deep-ball offense. When talking about the origins of that idea, Sheppard gave a ton of love to Lions defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend.

“He gave me kind of some different scenarios of how he could do it and keep guys in the flow of the game and things like that. With him playing 12 years in the league, being out there, knowing how a DB flows in the game. And I’m going to be honest, I trusted him. I trusted him the same way I trust all my staff. That’s what leadership is, I believe.”

Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp

How the Lions knew they may get a blocked FG

DJ Wonnum’s key blocked field goal that earned him Special Teams Player of the Week honors did not just happen with pure luck. It happened because the Lions recognized something mid-game and exploited it. Fipp credited special teams linebacker Trevor Nowaske with identifying the weakness.

“You love when the players talk to you throughout the course of the game and give you information, and really, when that information is good. And earlier in the game, Nowaske came to me and said, ‘Man, we really like that call that we made on that field goal rush.‘ So, it ended up coming down late in the game, and it was like, okay, for me, you have got a choice of one of a couple calls. And it’s like, well, they obviously liked that one, so let’s go back to it. We went back to it, and that’s the one that made the difference.”

Vikings returner Myles Price is a weapon

This year, Vikings returner Myles Price ranks first in the NFL in punt return average (19.2) thanks to an 86-yard touchdown return. He’s also third in kick return average (30.7).

Fipp explained what makes him so dangerous.

“He’s got a great feel for setting up blocks. He’s got a great feel for where space is. He can see the whole field. So, if they’re setting up a return to take it down the left side, let’s say, he’ll take it down the right side if it opens up and he’ll see it.”