Here are three observations after a second viewing and a night ponder the Detroit Lions’ 45-21 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
Shifting secondary
Following the first month of the season, Detroit entered the week of preparation for the Arizona matchup battling a five-alarm fire in the team’s secondary.
To calm the raging inferno, the team deployed a multi-layered approach, starting with a seemingly obvious shift to more man-to-man coverage. It was dancing with the one who brought you, a return to the schematic preference established under former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and maintained by Kelvin Sheppard prior to swinging more heavily toward zone concepts this season.
Make no mistake about it, you have to be able to play both coverage variations in the modern NFL. In fact, going into the week, every team but the Cleveland Browns played more zone than man, and they sat barely above 50%. For the Lions, playing more man meant closer to the 35-40% ratio of previous seasons vs. under 20% this year.