Post by JABF on Sept 14, 2020 8:59:41 GMT -6
For me the #1 issue is not the offense this year but the defense. Do you think it can get back to being as good as they have been in past seasons? Or is this what we have for this year?
Here are some Brad Biggs comments:
LINK
It will be interesting to hear from defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano later this week because my initial reaction was that was not a very good effort for his unit.
The Lions had 426 yards of offense, the most surrendered by the Bears since that ridiculously hot and humid overtime game in Miami on Oct. 14, 2018. The pass rush, a clear concern this year, didn’t get a whole lot going, sacking Matthew Stafford only once. That belonged to Akiem Hicks, but when you watch it, Stafford had forever to throw that ball away. Khalil Mack now has four sacks in his last 12 games, and while maybe it’s unfair to link it to the end of last season, he’s the Bears’ premier player on defense.
The one takeaway came on a deflected pass, created by free safety Eddie Jackson breaking downhill. The run defense suffered as the Lions totaled 138 yards — 4.8 per carry — and Adrian Peterson rolled for 93 yards on 14 attempts a little more than a week after signing.
Imagine what the Lions would have done had wide receiver Kenny Golladay not missed the game with a hamstring injury? He’s Stafford’s best target, and his replacement, Quintez Cephus, was targeted 10 times and produced three catches for 43 yards.
The loss of nose tackle Eddie Goldman in the middle was apparent. Lions center Frank Ragnow played pretty well. I thought inside linebacker Danny Trevathan looked slow in coverage. That was my vantage point from the press box on a handful of plays. Maybe I will react differently when I rewatch it, but check out the corner route rookie running back D’Andre Swift ran on the second-to-last play. Swift was going full speed when he went past Trevathan, who had him in coverage, and simply dropped the pass. The Bears had a bit of a hard time with Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson too.
I know this much: Pagano is going to hold his unit and surely himself to a higher standard.
It will be interesting to hear from defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano later this week because my initial reaction was that was not a very good effort for his unit.
The Lions had 426 yards of offense, the most surrendered by the Bears since that ridiculously hot and humid overtime game in Miami on Oct. 14, 2018. The pass rush, a clear concern this year, didn’t get a whole lot going, sacking Matthew Stafford only once. That belonged to Akiem Hicks, but when you watch it, Stafford had forever to throw that ball away. Khalil Mack now has four sacks in his last 12 games, and while maybe it’s unfair to link it to the end of last season, he’s the Bears’ premier player on defense.
The one takeaway came on a deflected pass, created by free safety Eddie Jackson breaking downhill. The run defense suffered as the Lions totaled 138 yards — 4.8 per carry — and Adrian Peterson rolled for 93 yards on 14 attempts a little more than a week after signing.
Imagine what the Lions would have done had wide receiver Kenny Golladay not missed the game with a hamstring injury? He’s Stafford’s best target, and his replacement, Quintez Cephus, was targeted 10 times and produced three catches for 43 yards.
The loss of nose tackle Eddie Goldman in the middle was apparent. Lions center Frank Ragnow played pretty well. I thought inside linebacker Danny Trevathan looked slow in coverage. That was my vantage point from the press box on a handful of plays. Maybe I will react differently when I rewatch it, but check out the corner route rookie running back D’Andre Swift ran on the second-to-last play. Swift was going full speed when he went past Trevathan, who had him in coverage, and simply dropped the pass. The Bears had a bit of a hard time with Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson too.
I know this much: Pagano is going to hold his unit and surely himself to a higher standard.