Getty Trey Flowers forces a fumble against the Giants.
Trey Flowers was a big money signing of the Detroit Lions in the offseason, but thus far, Flowers has struggled to get off to a hot start and make much of an impact in his new city.
That was true until the fourth quarter last Sunday against the New York Giants. Flowers, when the team needed him the most, stepped up and delivered back to back sacks of Daniel Jones, with one play resulting in a fumble that Jones quickly recovered.
The plays helped push the Giants back and thwart another scoring opportunity they had late, and it was finally a case of Flowers stepping up big in a significant spot for his new team. NFL analyst Brian Baldinger took notice, and thinks more plays like this are the key to the Lions remaining in the hunt this season.
“They signed him to make plays like this. The Lions have been terrible in the fourth quarter this year, everybody knows that. But they’re 3-3-1 with two games on the road, at Oakland and at Chicago. If they’re going to get back in the race, they need more plays like this from Trey Flowers,” Baldinger says while breaking down the game saving defensive play.
Safe to say Detroit doesn’t win without the key sequence from Flowers, and getting more of those plays figures to be a goal well into the future.
More Needed
As Baldinger accurately states, Detroit’s defensive line needs to do more work like this in crunch time if the team is to have a chance in order to make their playoff dreams and goals come true. The good news? Flowers might just be getting started in terms of making a large impact down the stretch.
“He’s more than capable of doing it. They brought him here to do that. Trey Flowers is more than capable. Dishing Nate Solder, forcing the fumble, he’s got a lot of bounce in his step. More from Trey Flowers and that whole defensive front. They could get it,” he said.
As a whole, Detroit’s line has been dinged up and has been feeling the pain. Da’Shawn Hand, Mike Daniels and Damon Harrison have all been dinged up or victims of inconsistent play thus far. Romeo Okwara hasn’t made the same plays he did a year ago. All of that has helped the Lions have some of their biggest defensive issues thus far this season.
The Path
Detroit’s postseason hopes likely rest on what happens the next two weeks, meaning everyone on the Lions has pressure on them to step up, something Baldinger also admits to.
“This next two weeks, the Lions fate is going to be determined. Are they going to play meaningful games in December, Or are they going to play out the string? The Lions have it all in their hands,” he said.
Detroit can likely forget about the postseason if they drop both of their next two games, so the biggest path is to win those two, then have some things benefit them in the standings. After that, they will likely need to win against the Dallas Cowboys in a vital game at home. Three straight wins would likely keep the Lions in the conversation into November, which could set Detroit up to make a run. A game against the Washington Redskins, and a home Thanksgiving game against the Bears could help swell the Lions record further if they could manage to get those.
In other words, the best path is to keep winning consecutively, and a major way to do that is to get better play out of the big guns like Flowers on defense.
It’s a tall order, but looking at the relative record of the teams that play, it’s not impossible whatsoever. That’s especially true if Flowers and his mates start to show up along the defensive front.
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