Allen Park — The power of the mind is quite something.
Everyone is dying to get to the bottom of what makes this Lions team — specifically, this Lions defense — different now from where it was at the beginning of the year. Notably, what flipped the team’s turnover luck?
Through the first seven games, the Lions had come down with just two interceptions and four fumble recoveries. In six games since, they’ve intercepted seven passes and forced a total of 11 turnovers. One could argue Isaiah Buggs stripping Dalvin Cook inside the 5-yard-line right before half was the defining play in an 11-point win this past Sunday.
What’s changed? Mentality, intention, desire, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said.
“I think it’s more the mindset of being intentional about it, of understanding who the targets are, and (when) we do have a target, they intentionally try to go after that target,” Glenn said.
“I’ve said this before, and it’s something that (Hall-of-Fame head coach) Bill Cowher had told me about creating an identity. You don’t know what that identity’s going to be until later on in the season, and the guys really hung onto that, and they know who they want to be. And I know who we want to be, so the things that we do stress, we want to make sure that that comes out by the way we play.”
The Lions have taken a trickle-down approach to forging the members of their defense in such a way. For the first half of the season, it felt as though nobody had an interest in helping the mission.
Then came the catalysts: Rookie safety Kerby Joseph, who recovered Cook’s fumble, started picking off passes and knocking balls loose. Rookie defensive end Aidan Hutchinson picked off Aaron Rodgers in a turning-point win over Green Bay in Week 9 to pair with another two interceptions from Joseph. Two weeks later, Hutchinson and Joseph each added another interception in a win over the Giants.
“That’s just who (Joseph) is,” Glenn said. “But I would say, when you’re part of a team, and that’s not you, but everybody else starts to do it, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. And you might not be a part of that.
“Either you get with it or you better move out, and guys are really getting with it.”
The ones that got away
As camp wore on, and it looked like the Lions had found a legitimate starting linebacker in sixth-round draft pick Malcolm Rodriguez, Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp must admit he was a little bummed. He was hoping to get Rodriguez in special teams.
Against the Vikings last week, Rodriguez made up for lost time. He executed the crucial block on C.J. Moore‘s 42-yard fake punt conversion in the third quarter, then made another critical maneuver to loosen up Kalif Raymond on a 35-yard punt return.
“We liked him coming out and I was thinking we were gonna get him a little bit more than we got him, which is good for all of us, really, and obviously … for him,” Fipp said. “He has played great for us and what we’ve asked him to do. … I think he’s one of the leading tacklers on our punt team and he’s got a unique skillset.
“Obviously, his wrestling background, he’s able to engage and block guys in the return game, which we haven’t been able to use him as much on.”
Rodriguez isn’t the first guy to vanish from Fipp’s dreams. Moore, who was a fake-punt dynamo last season, ended up with Houston’s practice squad earlier in the year after he suffered an injury and was released by the Lions. But right before that, Fipp was under the impression he was coming back to Detroit’s active roster.
“He had come back in our building and he had worked out. It was right before the bye week and my wife and I went out to breakfast during the bye week and sure enough, C.J.’s there,” Fipp said.
“I’m like, Man, this is great. We’re going to pay for his breakfast, he’s going to stay here, and whatever it takes.’ And then like the next day he went to Houston. I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Hey man, eat and run.’
“But anyway, to get him back was incredible.”
As the saying goes, “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s meant to be.”
Feeling right at home
Glenn doesn’t any extra motivation for his team to get a win in New York, but playing against the team that gave him his start as a player and coach, some extra motivation will inevitably be there. The Jets drafted Glenn as a corner out of Texas A&M with the No. 12 pick in 1994, then hired him as a personnel scout in 2012.
“Very fond of that organization. … They gave me my start in a number of different ways as a player and as a coach, really as a scout,” Glenn said. “They’re really good friends of mine, so any time I have a chance to go against this team, I want to beat the hell out of them.
“Even though I have a lot of love for the organization — I really do — I want to beat the hell out of them.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi