Lions vs Bills: A Defence Still Searching for Answers

You won't win many games by going 21-0 down early. The Lions found that out the hard way in Buffalo, and a 41-31 loss leaves us with more questions about the defence than the offence.

The defence is out of sync

The scheme change hasn't bedded in. It doesn't look like everyone is on the same page, and it caught us cold again. Josh Allen was hit with a strip sack by Hutch on the very first series, but that was about as good as it got. From there he hurt us with his legs, exploited man coverage, and the bootleg kept coming. He ran right, then left, then walked in for the sneak. Later, on a 15-play drive, we still couldn't stop the play-action bootleg and he strolled in again.

We lost contain on Allen all night. When we got the coverage right, he beat us with his legs. When we didn't, we got busts like Joshua Palmer running free for a 43-yard touchdown. Quality is an issue too: we had weak spots at almost every position on that defence, and Allen found them.

Blitzing isn't the fix

Next Gen Stats had the Lions blitzing on 55.3% of Allen's dropbacks, the highest rate under Kelvin Sheppard. Allen went 12-for-17 for 137 yards and two touchdowns against it. It feels like Sheppard sees the issues and wants to speed the QB up into mistakes, but Allen rarely makes them.

The frustrating part is that the front four did their jobs. Alim McNeill, Tyleik Williams and Hutch all played really well. Hutch's PFF grade was 88.6 with a 90.7 pass-rush mark, and Tyleik and Alim both graded well too. We didn't need to send extra bodies, and it left the back end exposed.

The offence started slowly, then found its feet

When the offence splutters early, the defence has to stop someone or the hole gets too deep. Two great Gibbs runs opened one drive, then it ended with a strip sack on a high Scruggs snap. A Borom hold and a coverage sack stalled others.

The backups on the line struggled. PFF had Bartch at 33.1, Borom at 33.1 and Scruggs at 42.1, with plenty of pressure and a bad false start on 3rd-and-inches. Despite that, Goff navigated it really well and delivered one of his best performances as a Lion in a losing effort. He hit Gibbs on the seam, threaded a slant to Amon-Ra for a touchdown from two yards out, and later dropped in a deep slant from the slot for another. St. Brown (89.9) and Gibbs (88.6) both graded superbly.

That's 31 points in back-to-back games. The first time it barely got us over the line. The second time it wasn't close to enough.

What next?

Up next are the Jets, who should have beaten the Packers and been 2-0 for Aaron Glenn, our former DC. We can't afford to become a redemption story for him after his awful year last year.

The defence has a week to fix the basics: contain, communication, and a plan that doesn't rely on blitzing our way out of trouble.