Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn breaks down what he learned about his team after it was dominated by the Baltimore Ravens.
The Detroit Lions defensive coordinator led his Friday news conference stating the obvious after the team’s 38-6 loss to Baltimore Ravens.
“This was not one of our best games overall as a team and, more importantly, defensively,” Glenn said.
The message inside the building all week was that the game was tough, but necessary to swallow. No one wants to get beaten that badly, but the worst thing a team can do is waste a learning opportunity. And that’s what Glenn and his buddies did.
“We watched the whole game together as a defensive crew. And, man, it was hard to watch. It was hard on all of us as coaches and players,” Glenn said. “And you have to correct mistakes right away, because you can’t go to the next game without identifying the issues that you had.” Then correct it as a coach.”
On radio this week, coach Dan Campbell admitted that one of the big issues with the Lions’ defensive performance is that their defensive backs are playing too far back in their coverage. Lamar Jackson was able to complete 21 of 27 passes for 357 yards and three touchdowns on the day, while Detroit’s defense failed to register a single pass.
However, Glenn responded when asked if Detroit’s soft coverage was a result of players not listening to the game plan.
“I don’t want to say that, because if it’s a matter of not listening, the previous shows won’t be the same. That’s completely outside the norm,” Glenn said.
Glenn did not go into detail about what went wrong, but suggested it was a lack of supplemental defense. When the coverage was good, the pass rush was not. When the rush was good, Lamar Jackson found easy ways to get rid of the ball quickly.
“There were a few times where guys were covered, and man, we didn’t get a changeup to get down the middle as best we could,” Glenn said. “And there were times when we got to the quarterback, we weren’t as tight in coverage as we should have been. And there were some times where we missed our coverage completely.
However, Glenn was happy that his coaches and players were able to face one of the best and most established teams in football. It shows that the Lions still have room to grow, and sets a strong example of the team the Lions can strive to be.
“I told you guys last week, this is the NFL. Things like this happen, so I don’t know where this idea comes from that everything’s going to be roses every time you go out and play,” Glenn said. “I don’t care who. You have them on your team, every week you have to be on top of this game, and that’s another thing that I think Baltimore does a really good job of, and they understand that. Because they’ve done it for a long time. You may have ups and downs, but the identity of that organization and franchise is: “Listen, we have to be at the top of our game.”
The Lions clearly have some room to get there. But with a defense that looked a huge improvement from last year and a team that has won 13 of its last 17 games, Glenn believes they are close to that standard.
“We’re going there. I’ll tell you, now I’m talking about both sides of the ball including special teams.
Read more
“Alcohol enthusiast. Twitter ninja. Tv lover. Falls down a lot. Hipster-friendly coffee geek.”