Getty Aaron Glenn looks on during Lions vs. Bengals in 2021.
The Detroit Lions have enjoyed a decent start on defense, but even though that is the case, Aaron Glenn still wants to see the team improve in a major way on the field.
Glenn knows that the Lions have some work to do in order to improve the rest of the season, but he has come away very impressed by what the Lions have been able to do early-on in the season.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, September 22, Glenn was asked for his assessment of where the Lions are at. As he said, it’s been a mixed bag, but the Lions have some improvement to hang their hat on at this point in time.
“I think we’ve done some stuff really, really well. Obviously there’s some things that we gotta work on, but I’ll tell you what, you look at our young guys and you look from game one to game two, you see growth there,” Glenn said. “You look at some of the guys that I spoke of before that we count on from game one to game two, you see growth there. It kind of marries up to what our head coach expects, (which is) a race to improve. So if we’re measuring off that, I think those guys have done a pretty good job now.”
In terms of all the points the team has given up, Glenn admitted he took a deep dive and found a lot have been in short yardage. While it’s not an excuse, it’s a teaching point.
“The points we’ve given up, I did a study on that actually, and man, one yard line, two-yard line. Which is hard to stop in those situations. But we got to stop them. We have to stop them,” he said. “I do think our guys are doing a pretty good job. We have a ways to go. We will get there, but I think this defense is going to be a pretty damn good defense as we’re going through this year.”
The start has been a bit slow, but the Lions have managed to do a nice job early on with their work. Though they have given up some yards and points, the team is playing well and holding together.
That clearly leaves Glenn encouraged about where the Lions will be trending in the near future the rest of the season.
Glenn Planning for Different Minnesota Attack
A step toward having a good defense would be having a solid effort on the road this week in Minnesota. With that in mind, though, the challenge isn’t going to be easy for the Lions at all.
The Vikings have a solid offense and can throw the ball with Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen and Kirk Cousins. They also have Dalvin Cook at running back. That much is known. Glenn, however, is more interested in
“When it comes to knowing these guys, we know their faces. We know who they are as athletes, but the sample size as far as (Kevin) O’Connell’s offense, it’s not a large sample size,” Glenn said. “The one thing I do know is we have to take what they’ve done these first two weeks and then probably take a look at what he’s done when he was the coordinator in Washington to see how some of those things match up. Try do the best we can just having a good sound game plan and being able to adjust off of that to see exactly what he’s trying to do.”
Glenn understands that O’Connell will lean on some of his previous experience with the Rams, but also realizes that he is going to bring his own mix.
“Obviously you’re going to see some of the Rams stuff, but I think he has his own identity on who he wants to be, because you see some two-back offense with some really good players that he’s utilizing,” he said.
Finding a way to adjust and stop this will be a big key for the Lions this week.
Lions Defense Struggling Against Pass
Currently, the Lions have offered little resistance on the back end. The team has some ugly statistics in terms of pass defense to start the year in spite of a decent start.
Detroit sits 27th in pass defense through two weeks of the season, allowing 273.5 yards per-game on average. They have also allowed three touchdowns this year, and have a long catch allowed of 54 total yards. The Lions have allowed a total of 547 total yards in a pair of games.
Naturally, these numbers are more than a bit alarming early on for the Lions. They did play one of the NFL’s best offenses in Week 1 and were pitching a shutout until letting up a big in the second-half of Week 2. Still, there’s a lot of numbers to be concerned about, pointing to a need for a turnaround.
Glenn knows the Lions have to get things squared away, but he still understands that the team might be trending in a solid direction. After Week 3, he’ll have a good idea of how much further the team has to go.
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