Getty Darrell Bevell celebrates with Matthew Stafford.
The Detroit Lions have seen troubles with their defense bring them down at times in 2019, but interestingly enough, their offense has met them more than halfway.
Coming into the season, the narrative was Darrell Bevell might need a little time to install his system. So far, Bevell hasn’t missed a beat in helping to turn things around in Detroit. Whereas the Lions’ offense was the problem for chunks of last season, things have turned around quite quickly in 2019.
So far this year, the Lions offense has put up some solid statistics through the first half of the season, as ESPN writer Michael Rothstein pointed out in a tweet. They’ve managed to be a top eight team in terms of yardage, including the sixth best passing attack in the league. They are also 13th in points per game with 24.83, and while their ground game is the most average of the bunch, they’re still 18th in the league with 103.2 yards per game.
In years past, the Lions would have killed for such a balanced and explosive in spots attack, especially on the ground. That only serves to illustrate why they must get things right on the defensive side. There’s hope the offense can continue to put up numbers even as the learning curve continues. That is the reason why the defense needs to meet them halfway.
So far, though, the Lions offense has managed to at least put the team on the map.
Trust in the System
The Lions players seem to be excelling within the scheme, and that’s something which Marvin Jones recently alluded to in an interview. Jones said that the Lions have a ton of trust in Bevell and are motivated to keep the big plays coming on the field.
As for the offense as a whole under Bevell, Jones is happy with what he has seen so far and admits he loves the offense that Bevell is running. That’s true for his teammates in the room as well, who have been able to see the group finally reach some of their potential very early on.
“We love it in our room. No complaints. He’s a great mind, he’s done it for a while and he’s had great success so we want to continue that,” he said to the media.
Finally, it seems as if the Lions have the right man calling the shots for their offense that has not only the trust of the team, but the numbers to back it up as well. This trust has likely been a big reason the team has been able to lean on their offense as much as they have.
Defense First
Matt Patricia is known as a defensive coach, so it puts pressure on him to get his unit right. The good news? At least the Detroit offense has shown major signs of life. There are some things to iron out, but the Lions have to make sure they stay consistent on that side in order to give themselves a chance at doing some big winning.
Problems have taken over Detroit’s defense lately, but the Lions think that the troubles are able to be corrected. Patricia himself hinted that the Lions don’t have scheme problems, but rather, they need to clean up the fundamentals in order to improve.
Whatever the case may be, the Lions should be thankful their offense has picked up the pace under Bevell. The hope is their defense can soon meet them halfway given their offense’s decent start to the year statistically.
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