Allen Park — Here are some notes and observations from Saturday’s Detroit Lions’ training camp practice.
▶ Earlier in the week, we gave the offense its flowers for dominating a practice. On this day, the shoe was on the other foot as defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn’s group took control early and never let up as part of a dominating day, the team’s second in full pads.
The opening snap of full-team work set the tone for the morning. Getting first-team reps in place of Isaiah Buggs, rookie defensive tackle Brodric Martin made a jaw-dropping play, casting aside the block of Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow before exploding into the backfield and dropping running back David Montgomery for a sizable loss of yardage.
The quality run defense continued throughout the segment with Aidan Hutchinson shedding Brock Wright for a stop near the line of scrimmage, linebacker Derrick Barnes shooting a gap for a TFL, and defensive lineman Josh Paschal also cutting down a running back for a loss.
▶ Rookies Jack Campbell and Brian Branch provided a pair of successful blitzes, both recording sacks on play-action snaps. Campbell closes ground in a hurry when he has a lane, while Branch wasn’t fooled in the slightest by the play fake, arriving to the quarterback Nate Sudfeld before he was even able to come out of his designed rollout.
▶ Undrafted rookie cornerback Steven Gilmore continued his recent surge by forcing a pair of turnovers. On the first, he was rewarded for having good positioning when Sudfeld and Maurice Alexander had a miscommunication, with the QB looking inside at the top of the route and the receiver breaking toward the sideline. The errant ball went directly into the chest of Gilmore, who made the play, holding on for the interception.
Then, later in the day, Gilmore conceded a short comeback route to Denzel Mims, before ripping the ball loose from the receiver’s grasp. The fumble was scooped by defensive back Savion Smith.
Here’s what Lions coach Dan Campbell had to say about the 174-pound Gilmore before practice.
“Yeah, we like Gily,” Campbell said. “We liked his tape, too, when he was coming out and he has some awareness about him. He has some instincts, he has ball skills, pretty good movement skills. I think for him, it’s going to be some of it, along with development, is the physical development. He’s not a real big guy. He has to get a little bit of mass on him, get a little bit stronger. I think that’s kind of going to be part of what, with him, how fast can those things come to really help him? But we see growth out of him.
▶ The kicker battle is still in its early stages, but Riley Patterson is doing little to secure his frontrunner status. For the second time in camp, he missed his first kick, a 33-yard effort he sent wide right. After that, he settled down, making his next four, ranging from 41 to 50 yards.
Parker Romo, the young, big-legged challenger, made all five of his attempts with plenty of distance to spare on the 50-yarder.
▶ Safety Ifeatu Melifonwu had a good practice thanks to excellent pursuit angles. Early in the day, he tallied a tackle for a loss when he dropped running back Craig Reynolds in the backfield. Melifonwu later drew praise from Glenn as he cut off and limited the damage on a pair of passes into the left flat.
▶ It was a pretty solid day for Tracy Walker in the back end of the defense, as well. He combined with cornerback Cam Sutton to break up a deep shot for Josh Reynolds, nearly picked a “turkey hole” throw that quarterback Jared Goff sailed, while also batting down a Goff pass at the line of scrimmage.
If there was one play Walker would like back it was when Amon-Ra St. Brown took a short slant and badly juked the safety when cutting the ball back up field.
▶ Linebacker James Houston suffered an undisclosed injury, briefly returning inside before returning without his helmet or cleats.
▶ Detroit’s interior pass rush has been toothless for the past few seasons, but have been showing some signs of life early in camp as both Alim McNeill and Benito Jones found their way to the quarterback in full-team drills.
▶ Practice ended with a situational drill, with the offense taking over near midfield with 51 seconds remaining, one timeout, down six and needing a touchdown. Things started well enough for the offense when Goff connected with Trinity Benson for a 24-yard gain on third down, but a would-be sack by Julian Okwara effectively ended the series.
The situation was then reset, with the offense still needing to put it in the end zone with nine seconds remaining from the 15-yard line, but another sack, this one via Charles Harris, ended that threat.
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers