Getty The Lions defense tries to stop Latavius Murray on the goal line.
The Detroit Lions haven’t had much harmony in 2020, and the big reason revolves around a lack of consistency with their offense and defense.
This season, as part of Detroit’s tough 1-3 record, the Lions have seen both sides of the ball be on different pages at different times. That’s prevented the Lions from stringing together wins and achieving some much needed consistency. How bad have they been? A new graph provided by Over The Cap shows every team in the league’s scoring prowess relative to their defensive success.
Detroit, while they weren’t considered a team with a bad offense and a bad defense, were certainly close to the line. Instead, the team landed on the chart in the field of a decent offense and a bad defense.
NFL scoring performance relative to their schedule through week 5
Top right= Good offense and defense
Top left= Bad offense, good defense
Bottom right= Good offense, bad defense
Bottom left= Bad offense, bad defense
Detroit shouldn’t be feeling wonderful about their offense either, but this analysis makes clear the fact that the defensive side of the ball hasn’t exactly met the offensive side halfway whatsoever in 2020. More balance will be needed to get the Lions back to winning down the stretch run of the season.
Lions Offense Struggling Within Red Zone
A big reason for their failures on the offensive side of things could be the fact that the 2020 Lions are having problems finishing in the red zone, ranking 22nd amongst NFL teams with a 55.6% conversion rate. That number, while not the lowest in the league, certainly isn’t great.
All these red zone struggles bring back bad memories for Lions fans of the team’s former offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter. Detroit under Cooter’s offensive leadership, got the reputation of a team that simply couldn’t finish drives off with touchdowns instead of field goals. During his time as offensive coordinator, the team was amongst the worst red zone offenses in the league. The hope was the Lions had turned the corner with this when Cooter was fired a few years back.
This is a small sample size naturally with only 4 games in 2020, so there is time for major improvement, but it’s likely the Lions are going to have to get much better at cashing in their red area chances in order to have a successful season. It would also help their offense be more potent as a whole.
Lions 2020 Offensive Stats
So far, the Lions have been a pretty average offense in 2020. Their red zone numbers are concerning, but they are the number 25 total offense in the league, racking up 334 yards per-game. They have an average passing offense in the league, throwing for 232 yards a game through the air. On the ground, they’re not much better with 101.8 rushing yards a game and 3 scores on the ground.
Obviously, the Lions have to improve everything, but at this point in time, it is not fair to blame one side of the ball relative to the other. Each side of Detroit’s attack has stalled together, even as the offense might be a tiny bit ahead of the defense with regard to these metrics.
A turnaround in the second half on both sides will be needed in a major way.