Ok, calm down. I know you looked at that title and you probably became enraged by it. Maybe you think I'm a slappy or that I work for the team or something. I've heard it all. Here's the thing, I get it. I know Lions fans want to be mad right now, but I think you're mostly wrong about this defense. 

What you're not wrong about is the fact that the Lions have not played their best defense in the last few weeks. That Ravens game really opened up the gates of hell didn't it? That Chargers game was something too. What you are wrong about it is that the Lions defense just isn't as bad as you think it is. I'm going to show you why I say that today. 

They aren't allowing a lot of explosive plays

There's this idea that the Lions are just allowing quarterbacks to just bomb it down field and that they are allowing a ton of chunk plays. That was true against the Ravens. That hasn't been true any other time. Here are all the explosive plays allowed by teams in the last 12 weeks. 

https://twitter.com/arjunmenon100/status/1729513728104624302

You'll see here that the Lions defense allows the third fewest explosive plays in the league. Part of that is becasue they have such a good run stopping game. They have allowed 34 explosive pass plays though. Good enough for 16th in the NFL. 

Let's dive a little deeper into those 34 plays for a second. Eight of those plays came in one game and that was the game against the Ravens. You might think that the other 26 come from the last few weeks where the defense is supposed to be god awful, but it's not. Here's the explosive pass plays given up during this stretch. 

• Packers: 2
• Bears: 3
• Chargers: 4

That would leave 17 other explosive plays throughout the season. Seems like the Lions defense is more normal than it is horrible when it comes to giving up big plays. 

They're tackling pretty well

Hey, I was shocked to see this stat earlier today as well. The Lions are 21st in the NFL in completions allowed. There's 20 teams that allow more catches than they do. What's more is that the Lions have allowed the fourth fewest yards after catch this season. Guys are catching the ball on the Lions and then getting stopped almost immediately. The Lions have allowed the 16th most receiving yards in the NFL this year too. So it's not a case of the Lions are getting bombed on and then they make a tackle. There are just so many worse teams. 

The Field position is killing them

The Lions have had a turnover problem in the last few weeks. The worst part is that they're turning over the ball in the worst possible spot. Here's where all of the Lions turnovers and turnover on downs have put them since the bye week. Plus what happened after that turnover. 

• Turned the ball over on downs on the Chargers 1-yard line. Chargers punt. 
• Intercepted at Bears 37-yard line. Bears punt.
• Intercepted at Bears37-yard line. Bears fumble.
• Fumble at Lions 40-yard line. Bears score touchdown
• Interception at Lions 43-yard line. Bears kick field goal
• Fumble at Lions 23-yard line. Packers turn the ball over on downs
• Turn the ball over on downs at Packers 35-yard line. Packers punt. 
• Turn the ball over on downs on Lions 23-yard line. Packers score a touchdown.
• Fumble on Packers 39-yard line. Packers punt.
• Turnover on downs on Packers 12-yard line. Packers punt. 

Man it is incredible how winnable that Packers game was if the Lions offense would just executed. Still, you can see that the Lions offense either left points on the board or they flat gave away points. That is a lot of turnovers in a three game span. 

I don't think you can really put this on the Lions defense. It's clear that you need to look in the direction of the offense on this one. These were back breaking. 

Let's just look at it by possessions

The Chargers game is what it is. That's a tough offense. The Chargers had the ball nine times and they scored on six of their drives. They otherwise punted twice and turned the ball over once. 

As for the Bears, they had 11 possessions and they scored on six of them. They punted twice and turned the ball over twice. Then they had a possession that they knelt on going into halftime. 

Lastly there's the Packers. The Packers scored those two early touchdowns and then did this. 

• Turnover on downs
• Field Goal
• Punt
• Missed field goal
• Punt
• Touchdown off the Lions failed fake punt
• Punt
• Punt 
• Kneel down

That just doesn't match the attitude around that game. So in the past two weeks the Lions have defended on 22 possessions and they've allowed scores on 10 of them. Look, that's not great, but it's not the horrible thing you think it is. 

That's the point of this whole story. To just put some of this stuff in to context. I'm right there with you that the Lions need to be better on defense going down the stretch. I'm just so far away from you when it comes to the idea that this is the worst defense in the league or that they're getting exposed and they're about to go 8-9 or something. This seems like nothing more than your average good team having adversity. Something that every team goes through. 

4 Lions that can have the most success against the Saints

After a little mini bye week, Detroit Lions football is back. The Lions  will head to the big easy this Sunday to eat some shrimp gumbo and play the Saints.  That means it's time to dive deep into the stats and analytics to find the four Lions that can have the biggest days. Here's what […]