Getty Trey Flowers celebrates a big defensive play.
This January is the first winter Detroit Lions’ defensive end Trey Flowers has had off in quite some time. The former New England Patriots defender isn’t used to sitting on the sidelines instead of playing in the playoffs.
That’s just the situation Flowers finds himself in after his first season with the Lions. It didn’t go as planned given 3-12-1 mark, and that’s something which Flowers was frustrated about. Not just due to the record, but due to how hard the team worked and fell short.
“Disappointing, obviously, we came in with a lot of expectations. A lot of guys worked hard, put in a lot of work, sacrificed, but didn’t come out with the result we wanted,” he said honestly in an interview with Tori Petry of DetroitLions.com.
A major plus for Flowers? The fight the team shows. That’s something which the player thinks makes the team close to winning.
“We have a lot of fight on this team. There’s a positive in that. Something that you can build on. Guys willing to fight, willing to put in the effort. We just got to capitalize a little bit more and we’ll be as successful as we want to be,” he said.
Trey Flowers Explains Lions Season
So why did the Lions year not go as planned? According to Flowers, it’s not easy thing to explain, and is multi-faceted.
“I think it was a lot of things. At the end of the day, a lot of games came down to finishing. We were leading in just about every game, so just putting a team away. Staying focused through the whole entirety of the game,” he said.
How does Flowers propose the Lions do that? Dialing in just a tiny bit more, starting in the offseason.
“Just the focus, the mental focus throughout the game. Not beating yourself with penalties. Not beating yourself with situations as far as not being aware. Just turning your focus over and turning your intensity up when you gotta have it. With all that, just working during the offseason on turning your focus up mentally, physically and prepare yourself to be great that day. That can carry over to the season,” he said.
Wise words from a veteran player who’s been there and done that in terms of winning.
Trey Flowers’ Stats With Lions
The Lions signed Flowers this past offseason, and he got off to a slow start rushing the passer so much so that he had to be called out by pundits near the middle of the season.
In October, Flowers had plays which helped push the New York Giants back and thwart scoring opportunities 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 turning things around 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 while they weren’t able to turn the win into any momentum for the season, getting more of those plays consistently figures to be a goal well into the future.
As Baldinger accurately stated, Detroit’s defensive line needs to do more work like this in crunch time. 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.
Flowers answered the bell and played well himself with 7 sacks this season. Getting others to listen to him, dial in and raise their game is the biggest challenge for the Lions heading into next season.
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