The Detroit Lions Were Already Dead
The Lions were never going to win the Super Bowl, the Divisional Round collapse was inevitable.
“Season’s over”
It was a pretty dramatic text to send while my 3-1 football team currently led 34-6 early in the third quarter against the Dallas Cowboys. The Detroit Lions were a juggernaut. A team on a mission, ripping apart a Dallas team that – at this point– looked like it would be a contender.
But Aidan Hutchinson’s devastating, gruesome leg injury in the third quarter took the air out of an exciting day for Lions fans. After the game, the locker room celebration had a damper on it. Detroit had just won a statement game against a team that beat them in a heartbreaker a year ago. Everyone’s mind was on Hutchinson, though. The gravity of how badly the team’s Super Bowl aspirations had just taken a hit was starting to sink in.
Detroit did not miss a beat. They extended a three-game win streak all the way to 11. They had 50-point performances against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, swept the Green Bay Packers, and beat playoff teams such as the Minnesota Vikings and Houston Texans.
Excitement was palpable, but the flaws remained. Detroit could not consistently generate a pass rush. Za’Darius Smith was a good midseason addition from the Cleveland Browns, but while he was a wrecking ball some weeks, he was totally absent in others. James Houston didn’t even finish the season on the roster. Everyone else was either injured at some point during the season – such as standout defensive tackle Alim McNeil – or ineffective – like 2022 second-round pick Josh Paschal.
All of the Lions’ other issues were downstream from their issues rushing the quarterback. Pass coverage became harder as defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn often had to send both linebackers on the field to blitz, leaving defensive backs exposed. While the likes of Terrion Arnold, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph and Carlton Davis were great for much of the year, they could only hold up for so long. Then Davis went down with an injury, and it felt like things were unravelling.
The Hutchinson injury is the linchpin of it all, though. The edge rusher was ascending to superstardom before he went down with the freak injury. He notched 7.5 sacks in five games, leading the NFL and on pace to challenge all-time sack marks set by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan.
Had Hutchinson been around, the other injuries – 15 other players were on injured reserve for the divisional round loss against the Washington Commanders, not including the several who were activated previously – would not have mattered as much. Detroit had most of the pieces to at least have an ok defense, they were just missing true star power at the most important position on defense. Without a stud pass rusher, Detroit’s defense was dead in the water.
I glanced over to one of my best friends when Gus Edwards took a toss from Lamar Jackson, and then jogged into the endzone – untouched until the goal line. I shot him a quick smile out of disbelief, and he chuckled back. Neither of us could believe what we were watching.
The Baltimore Ravens were an extra-point away from taking a 28-0 first half lead against a 2023 Lions team that entered the game 5-1. To this point, the Lions hadn’t even successfully converted a first down.
Jackson was unstoppable as the Lions surrendered 500 yards and went on to lose 38-6. The uncharacteristically bad performance from the offense could have been written off. Everyone has a bad day, and while there would certainly be red flags, you’d hope the Lions could learn from their mistakes on this day.
What happened on defense caused more alarm bells for me, as I sat there in the cheap seats at M&T Bank Stadium. Going into the game, I talked a bit of trash with one of my other good friends that was there, a Ravens fan. But I also admitted that, yes, the Lions often had trouble with mobile quarterbacks.
Every team in the NFL has had trouble with mobile quarterbacks, you might think to yourself, but the Lions have had unique issues dealing with them. Justin Fields, the three year Chicago Bears quarterback who can confidently be declared a draft bust, had some of his best days against the Lions. Jackson exploded on them. Josh Allen looked like Superman during a late-season matchup with the Lions. Even Geno Smith, a quarterback who is more athletic than some may think, has had multiple standout performances against the Lions.
The reason is twofold. First, the lack of great pass rushers means it is hard for Detroit to truly contain a mobile quarterback. Even if one rusher gets into the passer’s face, the reinforcements to close in on them and stop the escape are just never there.
But the second issue is more existential. Detroit’s defense is fundamentally not built to contain these types of quarterbacks. Glenn, now head coach of the New York Jets, had a very specific type of edge defender he liked.
Someone who is big and tall. A mauler not a trickster. An end that could secure the edge and bullrush the opposing tackle. It was fine if they had limited tools in their pass rushing arsenal as long as they could bully their opponent down-to-down. Hutchinson is the prototypical example of this type of player.
This player provides a lot of value. The right guy can be both an elite pass rusher while losing nothing in the run game. It puts less stress on linebackers, who already have a huge load in a defense that plays half of its snaps in man coverage.
But it leaves the team vulnerable, not quick enough, lacking agility, when taking on a quarterback who can move around the pocket with ease. The most frustrating part about being a Lions fan over the past four years has been the number of third-and-longs they have given up when it felt like they had the opposing quarterback dead to rights, just for the opponent to juke, escape, reposition, and find a receiver for a first down on the fly.
With Hutchinson in the lineup, there was at least someone quick enough as a pass rusher and adept enough in the open field to give opposing mobile quarterbacks something to think about. Without him, the entire system was always going to collapse.
I was pretty happy when the Lions drew the Commanders as their Divisional Round matchup. Washington has a poor rush defense and a secondary with as many problems as Detroit’s. I expected Jahmyr Gibbs to run all over them, which he did, notching 105 yards on 14 carries (he finished with nearly 180 all-purpose yards).
But after a year of watching the Lions march to a 15-2 record, I had entirely forgotten about their Achilles heel. The fatal flaws that have tormented them.
Detroit’s defense had no answer for Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels. They never had an answer for the standout rookie. He notched 350 all-purpose yards and the Commanders offense scored 38 points (seven more came on a defensive touchdown).
The Lions’ Super Bowl bid died the day Hutchinson was injured.