Allen Park — It’s trade deadline day, which means the focus of a significant chunk of the fan base is elsewhere.
Heck, my focus is split, too. But I still wanted to make sure to re-watch the film of Sunday’s 19-9 victory over the Miami Dolphins, combing through each play to get a more complete view of what happened and why.
Instead of a traditional, comprehensive breakdown of each side of the ball, we’re going to combine both and skip to seemingly everybody’s favorite part of the weekly breakdowns, concluding thoughts to better manage the day’s time, particularly with a flight to Germany on deck tomorrow afternoon.
Takeaways from the tape
● Going into the game, how could you not be locked into how Detroit’s linebackers would respond to the absence of captain and leader Jack Campbell?
Campbell had been as reliable as they come since arriving in Detroit. He’d appeared in all 58 games during his four-year career, started 44 in a row, and played 100% of the snaps in 31 of the previous 33 games prior to suffering a serious neck injury in Week 8.
Campbell’s absence was going to be undeniably palpable, even before factoring in the potential for declining performance without the first-team All-Pro.
Derrick Barnes took over the sideline communication duties, via the green dot helmet, but the far more significant change was to Malcolm Rodriguez’s workload.
Rodriguez played 55 defensive snaps, matching the largest tally of his five-year career, while topping his previous high play-time percentage. And let me tell you, the tape was highly encouraging.