Lions film review: Breaking down defensive struggles against the Chiefs
By now, we've all turned our attention to the Detroit Lions matchup against the Tampa Bay on Monday Night Football. The Lions will be playing that game with a depleted secondary as every single projected starter to begin the season is either out with an injury or suspended.
Talk about spooky season.
It doesn't help that Baker Mayfield is coming to town and despite hamstring injuries to wide receivers Emeka Egbuka and Mike Evans, there's speculation that both players will suit up for that game. We'll see what happens. For now, I want to go back to last Sunday night and break down some of the defensive miscues that happened with the Lions defense against the Chiefs.
Despite the injuries to certain players on the Lions' defense, it was a very lackluster performance in Week 6 from Detroit. They allowed 355 total yards and 30 points, and it raised plenty of eyebrows. Let's dive into some film and look at the Lions poor performance from last week!
When the Chiefs took the field on their opening drive, it felt as if the Lions defense was just off. They took bad angles to the ball, seemed out of position on certain plays and it allowed Kansas City to just march down the field. Starting with the play above, we'll want to focus on Lions LB 46 Jack Campbell. Aligned in a '20', Campbell is over top of the left guard and is the 'MIKE' linebacker.
Once the ball is snapped, you'll notice that Campbell is a bit slow to get going. He doesn't take any read steps and is flat-footed in his original alignment while everyone else is moving. That may not matter with the pass being completed or not, but it does change his speed through the process. He has to speed up due to his slow start, and that puts him in a disadvantage when taking a poor angle like he does on the play above.
Despite a little shake from Chiefs TE 87 Travis Kelce, we see Campbell take a 90-degree angle up the field rather than a 45-degree angle down the field. It's unclear if Campbell didn't see Brian Branch closing in on the football as well but either way, this was a poor angle that could have been avoided.
Onto the next play, I want to focus on the eyes of Lions CB 27 Arthur Maulet. Something that happened often in this game was that the Lions defenders were caught staring into the backfield. That's something that cannot happen when you've got Patrick Mahomes standing back there at quarterback. As we know, he can sling it and can fit just about any pass into any opening.
Looking at the play above, you can see Maulet aligned in the slot at the top of the screen. Prior to the snap, Mahomes sends TE Travis Kelce on a "glide" motion that condenses him to the formation. Once the ball is snapped, Kelce simply runs a quick out and has plenty of space to secure the catch and get upfield for a first down. Much of this happens due to Maulet staring into the backfield and watching Mahomes rather than the pass catcher. This is something that happened far too often last week for the Lions secondary, and it's a big part of why Mahomes completed almost 75% of his passes.
Lastly, I want to focus on the Lions lack of ability to just finish plays against the Chiefs. One example could be the 3rd and 18 screen pass to Chiefs WR JuJu Smith-Schuster but the primary one I want to focus on is the play posted above. We focus on Lions EDGE 97 Aidan Hutchinson working through an obvious hold to then not bring Mahomes down for a sack.
Looking at the play above, you'll see Hutchinson aligned in a 7-technique on the outside shoulder of the left tackle. As the left tackle jump sets, you'll see Hutchinson work to the inside shoulder of the tackle. In the process, he quickly hits a swim move and despite being held at the waist, he closes quickly to Mahomes. The issue is that he doesn't finish and Mahomes is able to extend the play by spinning out of the sack and complete it downfield for a first down.
Sure, there's a chance that Hutchinson let up because of the pump fake from Mahomes but it's unclear. However, we saw Hutch commit a roughing passer later in the game so if you're going to hit the QB, you have to finish and make it count. It will be interesting to see how the pressure gets home for the Lions this week against the Buccaneers.
Overall, there's plenty to clean up for the Lions defense. Much of their issues are due to the injuries within the secondary, but as we've seen in the past, this team can win despite injuries and personnel. Executing and finishing are all part of the job, and unfortunately, the Lions defense did not do that in week six. Hopefully, that changes moving forward as the Lions are getting ready to enter the 2nd half of their season.
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions film review: Breaking down defensive struggles against Chiefs