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Updated Oct 19, 2020; Posted
Oct 19, 2020
Jacksonville
Jaguars wide receiver D.J. Chark is sandwiched between Detroit Lions defensive
end Trey Flowers (90) and cornerback Jeff
Okudah, right, after catching a pass during the second half of an NFL football
game, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M.
Ebenhack)AP
By Benjamin
Raven | braven@mlive.com
ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions made some
critical defensive adjustments in Sunday’s win against the Jacksonville
Jaguars. Detroit sent more pressure and dropped back in zone coverage more than
it had all season.
While Matt Patricia’s defensive adjustments
deserve credit, it’s hard
to look past what Trey Flowers accomplished in Jacksonville. The Lions
defensive end was a monster against the run and turned in a picture-perfect
strip-sack of Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew. Flowers even left his mark
dropping back in coverage, which drew his head coach’s attention on Monday.
“Trey
is someone that shows up every single week and does stuff that you’re just like
-- it’s almost clinic-like teaching,” Patricia said via Zoom. "Phenomenal
play on the edge -- they ran the stretch over to him, he sets the edge on the
tight end and knocks the line of scrimmage back by 2 yards and escapes off the
play and makes a very violent tackle. That was phenomenal. He had a great rush
off the edge, obviously, and turned the ball over with the strip-sack, which
was good. I’d say one of my more favorite plays I saw -- he actually had a play
where he was in coverage.
“There
was a crosser coming from the other side and, I mean, he looked like he had
been doing that naturally all the time. Maybe less coaching is better right
there because he played that thing phenomenally. I just think that he’s a guy
that pays attention to the details. He goes out and works extremely hard every
single day to just be the best that he can be. I think it’s a great example for
everybody that’s around him of how you need to approach every single week. You
don’t know what plays are going to impact the game, but just go out and focus
on that play, and if it’s not a great play, then go out and do the best you can
on the next play. I think that’s just how he is. That’s how he’s wired. That
was good to see.”
Someone order a Chark sandwich 🥪❓@III_Flowers X @jeffokudah 😤 pic.twitter.com/G4nF1JSubm
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) October 19, 2020
Flowers was credited with two pressures and three tackles to go with that perfectly executed strip-sack. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the top overall edge defender from Sunday’s games. He slotted second in the pass rush and seventh against the run. Flowers even brought home PFF’s fifth-best coverage marks at his position with the fine play.
Detroit’s defense sacked Minshew only once but hit him another four times while racking up a ridiculous 21 pressures. The Lions entered with only 43 pressures on the season through their first four games, which was quite the turnaround performance.
It was even better against the run, with
Detroit’s league-worst run defense holding Jacksonville to just 44 yards on the
ground. James Robinson could not get it going, with the rooking running back
running 12 times for 29 yards. Heading into the Week 6 matchup, Flowers said he
thought the pass rush would improve once the Lions stopped the run. Well, it certainly
worked out that way on Sunday.
“We knew it was a task coming in here to
Jacksonville; they were a running team. We knew it was a challenge,” Flowers
said after the game. “We stood up to the challenge throughout practice and here
today. Yeah, it definitely allowed us to control the game. Obviously, like I
said in the past if they can run the ball. Why would they pass it? We got them
one-dimensional by stopping the run. Got them one-dimensional, know we can pin
our heads back as a defensive front (and) dial a lot of different things.”
https://twitter.com/erikschlitt/status/1318237168272289794
Flowers
and Romeo Okwara have dominated snaps on the edge, and that continued in Week 6.
Okwara led the team with four pressures, landed two quarterback hits and also
recovered the fumble.
Sixth-round rookie John Penisini has
continued to see his role grow on the interior, seeing another 21 snaps in
Jacksonville. PFF was impressed with Penisini, ranking him as the fifth-best
interior defender against the run. Patricia gave the rookie props in his Monday
media availability, saying Penisini’s ability in the middle of the line opens
up other avenues to move guys around in the trenches.
For those wondering what the rotation on
the inside looked like, Nick Williams (33), Danny Shelton (32), Da’Shawn Hand
(32) and Penisini (21) led an evenly split charge.
“I think John has done a good job all the
way through from camp and just really steadily improving,” Patricia said.
"That’s something that we saw -- his play was able to get better in
through some of the practices that we’ve had. I thought it was good to kind of
put him in the middle and see how that anchored some things for us to allow
those other guys like you said to move around and maybe be in some different
positions.
“It was good to see. I thought he played
well. He’s strong. He can play very low to the ground. He does a good job with
his hand placement, and it was good to see for his first chance to get a lot of
reps out there and play really well. We’ll see how that goes moving forward,
but I was proud of him for going out and competing hard.”
