Dawgs By Nature
This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns are are at home as they take on the Detroit Lions in Week 4. To help preview a few topics from the Lions’ perspective, we reached out to Ryan Mathews from Pride of Detroit and exchanged five questions with him.
Chris: “The Lions have exploded for 90 points in the past two weeks, but seemed to be held in check by the Packers in Week 1. What unfolded in that game that led to the offense struggling?”
Ryan: “The further we get from Week 1, the more that game is becoming an outright outlier. As you mentioned, the Lions have hung 90 points on the scoreboard the past couple of weeks, and the miscommunication and missed assignments that led to the offense feeling disjointed and ineffective has since been ironed out.
The Packers executed the Cover 2 defense to perfection, and it led to Jared Goff and the Lions to checkdown after checkdown. Goff had a couple of throws he missed on, but for the most part, he was content with getting it to a stationary receiver situated a few yards past the line of scrimmage—and that happened a lot. His average depth of target was 4.2 yards, the lowest mark of any quarterback in Week 1.
On top of that, those missed assignments along the offensive line led to the worst rushing performance (22 carries for 46 yards, just 2.1 yards per carry) the Lions have had since Week 6 of 2023–a game where Jahmyr Gibbs was inactive and David Montgomery was injured and ruled out before halftime.
Again, I think that game was ultimately an early-season hiccup where everyone was still getting on the same page: players and coaches alike. Not to say it’s all been perfect since, but it’s been nowhere near as disastrous as it was nearly a month ago, and in the friendly confines of Ford Field, communication should be far less of an issue than it was at Lambeau in Week 1, especially as Detroit has continued to show it’s turned a corner in that respect.”
Chris: “What do you view as the Lions’ biggest weakness right now?”
Ryan: “Right now, entering Week 4’s matchup against the Browns, the Lions’ biggest weakness is in the backend of their defense, specifically at cornerback. Terrion Arnold, the Lions’ first-round pick from a year ago, has gotten off to a rough start, and that much has been a bit perplexing considering all the talk out of camp from both media and coaches seemed to suggest he was looking poised to take a jump this season.
Instead, Arnold has found himself back to square one from his rookie season, where penalties of the handsy-variety plagued him. On top of that, he’s been a step out of phase here, a flip of his hips away from making a play there. He currently ranks 99th out of 110 qualifying cornerbacks with a PFF coverage grade of 44.0, and he’s getting targeted like someone...
