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Updated Oct 28,
2019; Posted Oct 28, 2019
DETROIT
-- Trey Flowers has been
one of the best defensive ends in the league against the run this season.
But he wasn’t paid $90 million just to set an edge.
He’s paid that kind of money to wreak havoc
in the passing game. He’s paid for chaos and disruption. He’s paid, ideally, to
dump quarterbacks on their rear ends.
On
Sunday, Flowers finally broke through by racking Giants rookie Daniel Jones for
sacks on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter of a 31-26 win against New
York. He becomes the first Lions player to post full sacks on consecutive plays
on the same drive since Kelvin Pritchett did it on Nov. 24, 1994.
These were big ones, too. The
Lions were playing their first game without starting safety Quandre Diggs
(traded), then lost fellow starting safety Tracy Walker to a knee injury in the
third quarter. That forced Tavon Wilson into an every-down role, and then he
suffered an injury of his own with about 10 minutes left in the game.
That left Detroit with just two healthy
safeties -- rookies Will Harris and C.J. Moore, the latter of whom is usually
just a special teams ace. Things were so dire, Miles Killebrew -- who moved to
linebacker last season and hadn’t played a snap of defense since Christmas Eve
in 2017 -- was pressed into emergency duty in the back end of the defense.
Throw in the absence of star cornerback
Darius Slay, and Detroit’s secondary was stretched to its limits. The Giants
were exploiting it, too, and crossed into Lions territory while trailing 31-19
midway through the fourth quarter.
That’s
when Flowers went to work, tossing left tackle Nate Solder to the ground and
then crushing Jones for a strip-sack. Jones was fortunate the ball bounced
right back to him, but New York lost 8 yards on the play. Then they lined back
up, and Flowers did it again, this time delivering an arm bar to Solder’s chest
and driving him so far into the pocket that Jones fell over. That play lost 6
yards, and suddenly, New York’s scoring opportunity was facing a third-and-26.
Spoiler alert: They didn’t get it.
They turned the ball over on downs, and
Detroit coasted to victory with relative ease.
“I think a lot of guys just continue to
work hard,” Flowers said. "It was just one of those deals where you work
hard, you continue to fight, plays are going to come to you. A lot of guys
doing their jobs. Guys in the back end making them hold the ball for a lot
longer, guys on each side of the ball collectively, keeping them in the pocket
and not allowing him to escape, things like that. We knew (Jones) was a dynamic
quarterback as far as his legs, he can definitely hurt guys. So, just keeping
him in the pocket and understanding that we still have to continue to press the
pocket.”
The Lions did just that, finally.
Their
defensive line was so heralded, so highly anticipated, after Flowers and Mike
Daniels joined Snacks Harrison, A’Shawn Robinson, Da’Shawn Hand and the rest of
what was already a terrific defensive front. But bogged down by performance and
injury issues almost across the board, they were one of the least effective units
in the league through seven weeks.
Nobody
was winning their pass rushes less often in the air game, and only six teams
were allowing more yards per carry in the ground game.
Against New York, though, Detroit stiffened
up. Flowers led the way
with a season-high seven pressures, and the Lions were credited with 21
as a team. That was a game high since Week 1, and nearly what they combined for
in losses to Minnesota and Green Bay the previous two weeks (23).
Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins had all day
to throw, and they hurt the Lions badly. Cousins had his best ever since
joining Minnesota last year. Jones did have some luck picking at that depleted
secondary, too, but the pressure up front helped limit the damage and force the
rookie into some critical mistakes.
That includes Jarrad Davis lighting up
Jones on a delayed blitz up the middle in the first quarter, jarring the ball
loose. Devon Kennard scooped up the pill and returned it for a touchdown, his
first since high school.
“It was a lot of fun,” Kennard said.
"It was my first time scoring since high school, so touching the paint and
getting in the end zone was a lot of fun for me.”
And
in the ground game, the Lions held talented back Saquon Barkley to jut 64 yards
on 19 carries, his worst yardage and per-carry outputs in a full game this
season. None of his carries went for longer than 13 yards.
The Lions held New York to 80 rushing yards
overall, after giving up at least 112 in each of their first six games.
“We tend to stay just even keel with
anything,” coach Matt Patricia said. "We never tend to get too high or too
low with all of that stuff. We don’t like to ride the wave. Good from a numbers
standpoint, but I’m sure there are a lot of plays in there that we have to do a
better job of getting coached up, and getting taught and technique.
"We’ll just keep pushing forward to
try to get better because what would be nice is to try to do just do it
consistently. I think that’s the biggest challenge for us going forward from
that standpoint.”
