For Lions Defensive Coaches, ‘Tough to Watch’ Ravens Game
Aaron Glenn and the rest of the Detroit Lions defensive staff could only watch as Sunday's game slipped away.
The third-year defensive coordinator took it in Sunday as the Baltimore Ravens offense marched down the field for touchdowns on each of their first four drives en route to a 38-6 win over Detroit.
After not surrendering 100 yards on the ground to a team through the first six games, Glenn watched as the Ravens gashed his defense for 146 yards on the ground and 503 total yards.
The result was frustrating and made a review of the game film all the more difficult for the defensive staff. Now, Glenn and company are tasked with rebounding against the Las Vegas Raiders in front of a national audience Monday night.
"I think the first thing you have to do is identify the issues from a coach and a player's aspect," Glenn said. "We watched the whole game together, as a defensive staff. And, man, it was tough to watch. It was tough for all of us, as coaches and as players. You have to immediately correct the mistakes, because you can't go into the next game without identifying the issues that you had and then correcting them as a coach and then moving forward. That's exactly what we did."
In particular, there were lapses in coverage that led to big plays. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson hurt the defense by extending plays, which forced the rushers to work harder while the defensive backs had to cover longer.
Should these things occur simultaneously, it creates problems for defenses. On Sunday, the Ravens exposed these weaknesses. Jackson threw for a season-high 357 yards and three touchdowns.
As a result, the cushion given initially by Detroit's defensive backs came back to hurt the unit more often than not. With Las Vegas boasting two talented wideouts in Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers, another stiff test awaits.
"The greatest example of team defense is pass defense because rush and coverage, it all works together. Now there are several times where, the guys are covered, and man we did not get a chance to get to the quarterback as best we could. And then there are times when we got to the quarterback, we weren't as tight in coverage as we should've been," Glenn explained. "There were some times where we flat out missed our coverage. ... Those are things that we can easily, easily clean up from a coaching perspective and from a player's. They knew it right away, we knew it right away. Man, we look forward to getting on the field and playing this next game, so we can get right back on track with who we are."
