Coordinator recap: Pitbull in the secondary, facing stacked boxes, and strain of prepping for the Chiefs

Allen Park — Detroit Lions coordinators Kelvin Sheppard, Dave Fipp and John Morton met with the media on Thursday. Here are some of the highlights from those sessions.

A pitbull in the den

Sometimes, you know how a coach feels about a player with the way their eyes light up when asked about them. Sheppard gets that way with several of his guys, namely the linebackers, the position group he coached before his promotion to coordinator this offseason.

Beyond Jack Campbell, Alex Anzalone and Derrick Barnes, there’s no way Amik Robertson can be omitted from the list of Sheppard’s favorites. If there was any doubt, see how Sheppard effusively praised the veteran cornerback on Thursday.

“That is my pitbull,” Sheppard said. “The ultimate respect. And I’ve got a lengthy history, from afar, with this player. I have a really close friend of mine, Jeff Martin. He’s in player personnel at LSU. He saw Amik coming out (of high school), and the first thing he ever told me when we got Amik, he said, ‘You just got a dawg.’ He said, ‘I stood on the table at LSU years ago when they said he was too small. I watched him put on a knee brace and go out at LSU camp and ask for (Vikings receiver) Justin Jefferson in one-on-ones.’

“That’s stuff that people don’t know about this player,” Sheppard said. “He’s always had the underdog mentality. People have always told him he wasn’t good enough, ‘You’re too small,’ this and that. And all he’s done is put his head down and continue to work and that’s why you see this player be able to plug and play. That’s not easy. It’s one thing to plug and play, it’s another thing to plug and play and get tasked with the receivers he’s tasked with. I mean we’re talking about the elite of the elite in the league and he doesn’t bat an eye. And it’s not fake, it’s not phony, it’s real. It’s who he is and it’s a part of his DNA. I love everything about Amik.”

Sheppard was highly complimentary of the job Robertson did on Sunday after the defender was asked to shadow All-Pro Ja’Marr Chase most of the afternoon. Sheppard said it was disappointing that Robertson’s aggression caused him to give up a long touchdown to Chase late in the game, but it’s that aggression that otherwise has served him well with these assignments, including a shutdown performance against Jefferson late last season.

“I’ll share with y’all like I told the team and like I told the unit, it’s just a shame, because this guy is going out and completely strapped up and eliminated two of the best receivers in football, and he doesn’t get the credit because Chase left that game with 110 yards,” Sheppard said. “But the real ball guys know and Chase knows.”

Finding a role

When Kalif Raymond went down with a neck injury against the Bengals, the Lions turned to rookie Dominic Lovett to field punts for the remainder of the contest.

That wasn’t a huge surprise, given that Lovett has been working in that role all offseason. Still, it’s notable given he didn’t do it during his college career at Missouri and Georgia.

I asked Dave Fipp how he went about identifying Lovett as an option.

“A lot of these guys can go back there and catch a kickoff, but catching a punt is a whole other story,” Fipp said. “It’s just a different animal. But, obviously, he’s got a great skill set. He’s kind of a make-you-miss in short-area spaces. Start, stop, redirect. And so, anytime you see a player like that, you naturally think, ‘Well, I wonder if he can be a punt returner.’

“I think he had done a little bit of it in the past, but just not a ton,” Fipp said. “...Since the offseason, we had him in here and said, ‘Hey, man, one thing that could really help your game and get you a role on a team, whether it be here or someone else, really, is start catching these punts and add that to your repertoire.’ And he did a good job in the preseason for us.”

Lovett didn’t have a chance to return one on Sunday, but Fipp liked the way the rookie receiver handled the decision-making aspect of the role, letting a couple go inside the 10-yard line.

“He let the ball go, obviously with the two balls that went back deep for touchbacks and made good decisions,” Fipp said.

Sleepless nights

Each week, we get a little more clarity regarding Morton’s crazy work routine.

Last week, he said he typically doesn’t leave the facility until Friday. As he left the podium, I asked about the sleeping situation at the practice facility, which prompted a rare chuckle from the gruff coordinator.

“I’ve got a good trifold bed (with) eight-inch memory foam,” he said.

How much he uses it is up for debate, particularly when preparing for a Super Bowl-caliber opponent like Kansas City, which has a defense led by respected play-caller Steve Spagnuolo.

“He kept me up late last night,” Morton said. “He does a really good job. He’s got four Super Bowls for a reason. …He does a good job with his scheme. Especially now, he’s had the same type of players for a few years now there. They don’t even think twice about whatever he calls. ...He tries to see what your strengths are, and he tries to take it away. Just like what every other defensive coordinator does. He’s got a really good blitz package, so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Morton works hard for the weekend. Well, he works hard for Sunday, at the very least. On Friday, when he finally heads home, he grabs a two-hour nap, gets up and snags dinner, then it’s right back to bed.

“I’m in bed at eight,” Morton said. “I must do that or I can’t function.”

Sleepless nights, Part II

Speaking of losing sleep preparing for the Chiefs, there are few steeper challenges in the NFL than corralling the opponent’s offense, led by legendary coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a two-time league MVP.

Sheppard said the biggest challenges are the unpredictability of the play-calling, the off-schedule plays and the speed of the personnel.

“It’s unorthodox,” Sheppard said. “(Reid’s) going to keep you off-kilter on defense. He’s never going to show his hand. And by that, what I mean is some coordinators will show you what they’re doing per down-and-distance. (They’re) always off-base. And then the off-schedule plays that 15’s able to make, Pat Mahomes, it’s why that offense goes, because the play is never over with him. Just when you think it’s over, it’s not.

“Then this is going to be the most explosive group that we’ve seen and probably will see,” Sheppard continued. “It’s a track team over there. Andy Reid’s always built his teams like that. When I played in Buffalo, I came out of the tunnel when I was playing Philadelphia, and I’d see Mike Vick, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Shady (LeSean McCoy). Now, you look up, it’s the same thing. I told this to the staff, I looked through those speeds, I saw 4.24, 4.28, 4.32, 4.4. I was like, ‘Woof. Let’s stay deep. Let’s stay back.’

Of course, Sheppard knows it’s not that easy. Mahomes has never had a problem checking it down over and over, just to set up the deep shot.

“They cut you, cut you, cut you and then they knife you,” Sheppard said. “It’s death by a thousand cuts with them because they can do it in a bunch of different ways. We understand that. Seriously, the utmost respect and we’re going to prepare with the utmost respect and be ready for 60 minutes of high-level football come Sunday.”

Running into (and through) a brick wall

It’s been tough sledding for running back David Montgomery the past couple of weeks. The Cleveland Browns held him to 12 yards on nine carries, and the Bengals were similarly shutting him down until he broke free for 27 yards on two runs in the third quarter, including an 8-yard touchdown.

Still, Montgomery averaged just 3.6 yards on 18 carries on Sunday. A quick look at how he’s being defended offers some explanation. Only Cleveland’s Quinshon Judkins and Seattle’s Kenneth Walker III are facing stacked, 8-man boxes more frequently than Montgomery.

I asked Morton if there’s anything he can do to get defenses to back off the strategy.

“Well, you can throw it, but we don’t do that,” Morton said. “We block it up, man, because we’ve got wideouts that can block. Now, if you don’t have wideouts who can block, that’s a different story. But our wideouts block. They’re the best in football.

“A lot of teams, they see a loaded box like that, they’re just throwing it,” Morton said. “But not with our guys. It’s pretty impressive what our wideouts do. That’s the reason why we’re one of the tops in the run game, because of what they do. And then it just helps out with everything else, the play action and then the movement game and stuff. This is who we are. You know that. I mean, we’re going to pound it no matter what — 10-man box, it doesn’t matter. We’ll just keep doing it until they stop it.”

Given the Lions are averaging a league-best 34.8 points per game, there’s really not much of a counterargument.