Pride of Detroit
After an intense Monday practice, the Detroit Lions took some intensity off of Wednesday’s training camp session, working only in shells during the two-hour field work.
The main takeaway of the day was, again, a strong day from the defensive unit. Let’s get into that and a lot more in our Detroit Lions training camp Day 11 observations.
I don’t know if there’s been a single day of training camp when the offense has been significantly better than the defense. They’ve had some stalemates, but any lopsided day of practice have certainly favored the defense, and that was the case again on Wednesday.
During red zone work, the Lions offense did eventually score a touchdown—a Kalif Raymond catch in the back of the endzone—but it required a continuation of a drive that was essentially already ended by a fourth down stop (and possible bobbling interception from D.J. Reed—it was unclear if he was still inbounds).
Then, when it came to a situations drill, it was even sloppier from the offense. Holding the ball at their own 31-yard line with 3:41 left, down 14-24 with three timeouts left, the offense essentially went four-and-out. After a drop from Amon-Ra St. Brown and a couple of short passes, it set up a fourth-and-2. Jameson Williams ran a short crossing route and had Reed beaten by a couple of steps, but the fourth-year receiver dropped the pass for the turnover on downs.
The team kept the drive going anyways for practice, and they were able to dink and dunk their way down the field. Again, the offense got a little assistance from the coaching staff, allowing the play to continue when Aidan Hutchinson and Alex Anzalone picked up what would have likely been easy sacks. Still thanks to a nice play from Jahmyr Gibbs, catching a ball in tight coverage from Jack Campbell, they were able to get the ball into the red zone. St. Brown capped the drive with a short touchdown pass in the flats with 1:21 left.
From there, the Lions simulated a three-and-out stop, giving the ball back to the offense, down three with 56 seconds left, 80 yards to go, and zero timeouts. The drive lasted just two plays: a batted down pass from Hutchinson, and a pick from Avonte Maddox after the ball appeared to deflect high in the air off of Williams.
Prior to practice, coach Dan Campbell shrugged off concerns that the defense appears to be ahead of the offense right now.
“I think (the defense is) a handful right now,” Campbell said. “And then offensively, certainly, we want to be clicking a little bit better, but I also know we’re like this far away. Every practice you come out, it was even the other day, it’s like, we hold up a half second longer, and this is a 30-yard touchdown. Bad footwork on one play, Gibby spits out of there, instead...
