Mebert
Not Mebert's Alt
Defense was near top half of the league to start, but now looks exactly like it did the year before. The dline is completely incapable of generating pressure without a blitz, which is why we blitz 5th most in the league. However on blitzing we can't cover long enough for it to get home, teams kill us when we blitz. Without a second option on the dline to make pressure consistent the line will always be bad.I honestly think we simply played a weak schedule. The Lions are fortunate that the NFC North drew the NFC South this year. We lost to every good team on our schedule (Baltimore, Seattle), aside from KC in week 1, and let's be honest, they dropped a few balls that game that should have been caught.
The Lions aren't as good as advertised, and the hope is they can draw a weak playoff team first round and get the playoff win drought off their back. They just need to win a playoff game, and I think the season will be a complete success. Then they need to spend most of their draft capital on the defense. They likely need to get a new DC too.
The future is bright, although we need Goff to wake up. I don't think the Lions have any shot at being a legit playoff contender this season. I think they would lose to the Eagles, Cowboys, or 49ers if they played them in the playoffs right now...especially on the road, and I don't think it would be a very close game against any of those teams. I hope I'm wrong though!
Goff is what he always is, under pressure he buckles, without pressure he does some truly amazing things. When the top 5 of Lions oline is healthy very few team generate the pressure and Goff is just fine. Once we lose one it starts and Goff struggles. If oline gets healthy and Houston comes back to fill in for the clear major gap of the defense the lions probably look a lot closer to the early season. Seems like a lot of ifs though.
I don't buy the schedule was easier in the first half of the schedule. A few weeks ago everyone was talking about how easy the schedule was for the rest of the year.