The rest of the football nation witnessed on Thanksgiving something Lions fans know all too well: Detroit’s pass rush is seriously lacking.
The Lions defense did not sack Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love once. Detroit registered just four QB hits on Love’s 32 dropbacks, per the NFL’s official statistics. The lack of pressure and negative play generation showed in the Packers’ 29-22 upset win, a game where Love consistently had time to survey the field and pick apart the Lions’ outmanned secondary.
Unfortunately, the national television audience saw the ongoing status quo from Detroit’s defense. The Lions have registered just two sacks in their last three games, both of which came in the Week 11 win over the Bears. One of those was Aidan Hutchinson’s strip-sack/safety on Chicago’s final offensive play. Alim McNeill had the other on Justin Fields.
Detroit didn’t sack Chargers QB Justin Herbert in the Week 10 win. In that game, Hutchinson hit Herbert thrice and LB Alex Anzalone hit him twice on blitzes, one of which forced an interception. That was the total production on 40 pass attempts by Herbert, who threw for four touchdowns and 323 yards in the Lions’ win.
The game before that was a bright spot. Julian Okwara had one sack in Week 8 (the Lions had a Week 9 bye) against the Raiders, a game where McNeill had two. Linebacker Alex Anzalone also bagged two sacks and safety Tracy Walker added another against sitting duck Jimmy Garoppolo.
Prior to that game, the last sack also came from Okwara in the Week 6 win over the Buccaneers. That was a cleanup sack of Tampa Bay QB Baker Mayfield that produced just a one-yard loss.
Keeping track of all that:
In their last six games, the Lions have nine sacks. Six of those came against the Raiders. Other than McNeill’s three in that span, the line has produced only three other sacks in six weeks. Julian Okwara has two and Hutchinson, who has the highest double-team rate in the NFL in that span per SIS, has one.
It’s the utter lack of any pressure coming from the front four (or five, at times) that has become a major problem for the Lions. And it’s not trending in the right direction as the team efforts a playoff push.
Okwara was a healthy scratch on Thanksgiving. Charles Harris hasn’t touched an opposing QB since Week 4. Romeo Okwara, per PFF, has created one pressure on 28 pass rush reps since Week 6. John Cominsky has five QB pressures in 88 pass rush reps in the last five games; PFF hasn’t credited Cominsky with one QB hit in that span. Josh Paschal got his first two QB hurries since Week 7 on Thanksgiving, a span of 80 snaps.
Outside of blitzing Anzalone and occasionally a safety, the Lions generate next to nothing beyond Hutchinson (3rd amongst EDGEs in pressures) and McNeill (18th among DTs).
Coordinator Aaron Glenn has not been effective in scheming up pressure from the front. How much blame Glenn deserves depends on your perspective of the talent on hand and how much juice can be expected from a sack of lemons.
One thing is clear — the pass rush must improve if the Lions want to make noise in the NFL postseason. Somehow, some way, Glenn and his players have to do better. The Detroit secondary doesn’t have the coverage talent to cover it up, and opposing offenses have figured that out.