Lions midseason grades for offense, defense and special teams
Week 9 is over and done with. Now it's time for us to look back at the first half of the Detroit Lions season. That's just what we're going to do. All this week we're going to be doing a series of mid-season articles. We'll be talking about both the good and the bad of […]
Week 9 is over and done with. Now it's time for us to look back at the first half of the Detroit Lions season. That's just what we're going to do. All this week we're going to be doing a series of mid-season articles. We'll be talking about both the good and the bad of this year so far. Here's what we've done so far:
We've done some induvial stuff. This time we're going to be judging players as a group. It's time to hand out grades for the three different phases of the team. Offense, defense and special teams.
Offense
The Lions offense has been pretty good this season. Right now they’re second in the NFL in total yards gained and seventh in points for. If you prefer the analytics side of things, the Lions are sixth in the league in offensive DVOA. That’s pretty good.
They've been moving the ball up and down the field at will all year. The place where they've had some struggles though is in the red zone. You really saw that io Monday night. The Lions are 21st in the NFL in scoring percentage in the redzone. Part of the problem is that the Lions have been missing David Montgomery. He can really drive it into the end zone when the Lions are in those positions. The other problem is that the Lions don't have a guy that can just go up and get the ball in the contested situation. That's probably why they traded for Donovan Peoples-Jones. He specializes in contested catches.
The red zone efficiency is going to bring this grade down a little. But not a lot.
Grade: B+
Defense
The defense is performing well too for the most part. The Lions are 12th in total yards allowed and 19th in points allowed. They are seventh in defensive DVOA.
Where the Lions really shine is against the run. They've allowed only 614 rushing yards this season. Only the Eagles have allowed less with 524. They've played some pretty good running backs too. Guys like Josh Jacobs, Isiah Pacheco, Kenneth Walker III, Bijan Robinson and Aaron Jones.
Where the Lions struggle is in the pass game. You can't help but feel like there's been a tinge of luck there for them nearly every week. You see a receiver running free a lot and a quarterback over throwing them. Baltimore really showed what could happen if those passes start to get completed. The Lions had some bad injury luck for sure. They signed three big players in the secondary this offseason and two of them got hurt. Then Branch missed a few games as well.
Maybe we'll see a bit of rebound in the second half of the season. But this is going to hurt their mid-season grade.
Grade: B-
Special Teams
Jack Fox has been Jack Fox. Nothing new there. The guy is super good. The Lions have also been good on both sides of the return game too.
The big problem is that they have a kicker that they largely don't seem to trust from distance and after he missed that chip shot on Monday night, now you have to worry a little bit about close range kicks too. He did hit a 52 yarder though.
The other problem is that the Lions just lost their long snapper for the rest of the season.
Grade: C
The Lions are in the driver seat for big things in the NFC playoff picture
We're halfway through the season and it's time to talk about the playoffs and where things stand for the Detroit Lions. Going forward we will be talking about this every week. Playoff standings right now: Team Record Eagles 8-1 Lions 6-2 49ers 5-3 Saints 5-3 Seahawks 5-3 Cowboys 5-3 Vikings 5-4 Right now the Lions […]
