Detroit Lions-St. Louis Rams: Q&A with Lions Featured Columnist Dean Holden

In anticipation of this week’s matchup, Lions Featured Columnist Dean Holden and I exchanged some questions and answers regarding our respective teams.  You can find my answers to Dean’s questions on the Lions board. 

Here are my questions and Dean’s answers on some key issues involving Detroit:

AD: The Lions have done a good job of acquiring skill players to surround their franchise QB, Matthew Stafford. Do you feel that this has, to some extent, been accomplished to the detriment of the offensive line, or do you feel good about the front five?

DH: You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Lions fan who really feels good about the Lions offensive line. It’s bad enough that even the people who defend the line (like myself) refer to it as “average.” Certainly, if the line were a little stronger, Matthew Stafford’s shoulder wouldn’t have been driven into the turf by Julius Peppers in Week 1, and Stafford would be playing this week, instead of Shaun Hill.

Still, the Lions have a line full of guys who, indeed, play right around average. A couple of players, like LT Jeff Backus and C Dominic Raiola, will need to be replaced soon due to age. The major upgrade is left guard Rob Sims, acquired from the offseason from Seattle, and he has really helped to solidify a position that was a revolving door of starters last year.

Ultimately, I have to say that I don’t hate the idea of building the skill positions before upgrading the line, especially when the skill positions were awful while the line was merely below average. Even an elite line can’t hold blocks for eight seconds when receivers can’t get open.

AD: What do you feel is the biggest reason the Lions have been unable to win the close games this year? Do you chalk it up to bad bounces and luck, or do you believe there is a deficiency that can be addressed?

DH: It’s hard to narrow this down to just a single reason. It’s easy to blame the “culture of losing” which gets a lot of talk around Detroit, but that’s a mental thing, and kind of intangible.

Actually, the reason Detroit has had so much trouble winning those games is because they’ve had the weakest part of the team tested each week: depth. At one point or another this season, the Lions have played with injuries to their starting quarterback, top two running backs, second wide receiver, second tight end, starting right guard, starting middle and weakside linebackers, starting strong safety, and starting right defensive end. All those players have missed at least a game, most have missed several. That’s not even counting players like Louis Delmas, who has been hobbled by a groin injury and is playing through the pain.

With so many players out, many late game situations have been decided by second-string players. And the Lions, as a whole, suffer a more severe talent drop between strings than most other NFL teams, indicative of where they are in their rebuilding process.

Of course, that might be the second-biggest reason. The biggest reason will be covered in your next question.

AD: Rams fans as a whole were very happy to see Scott Linehan removed from his position as head coach. How do Lions fans view his performance as offensive coordinator?

DH: Scott Linehan has taken a lot of heat in Detroit over the first quarter of this season, and a lot of it due to his play-calling in crucial situations.

Perhaps no place was it more apparent than in Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles. In the fourth quarter, with less than five minutes to go, the Lions sat in an 18-point hole. So Linehan decided to open up the playbook. After a second half that had produced almost nothing offensively, Shaun Hill started throwing deeper passes, as well as some stuff over the middle, and completing them. Three minutes, two touchdowns, and a two-point conversion later, the Lions were within three, and had recovered an onside kick.

Needing a field goal to tie, and having one of the better kickers in NFL history, the Lions needed to drive about 30 yards to get into range, and they had just under two minutes and a timeout to do it. Linehan promptly started calling lob passes down the sideline, into double coverage, despite the fact that the Lions had plenty of time and the middle of the field was wide open (and Jahvid Best had been carving the defense to pieces in that area). Four incompletions later, the Lions lost by three.

The offense’s surprisingly cohesive performance at Green Bay has quieted the calls for now, and it has started to dawn on people that Linehan is a competent OC. But in that game, too, a potential go-ahead drive stalled just outside field goal range, at which point the Lions punted and never got the ball back, losing by two.

The Rams game will be big for Linehan, especially since the Lions are expected to get No. 2 wideout Nate Burleson back in the lineup. If the offense sputters even with most of the players being back healthy, the rumbling about Linehan will get a bit louder, especially now that Shaun Hill is getting respect as a legitimate QB.

AD: Calvin Johnson is one of the most physically gifted WRs in the game. Do you feel that the Lions are getting the most out of his abilities, or do you think he is underutilized?

DH: Right now, Calvin Johnson’s biggest impact is freeing up other receivers. Through four games, the Lions’ leading receiver is TE Brandon Pettigrew. That’s not because of a decline in Johnson’s production; it’s because of a complete lack of respect for any non-Johnson receiver by opposing defenses. Johnson has been the only real weapon in the Lions offense over the last two years, and only now are they proving they can move the ball with someone else.

For years now, Johnson has been consistently double and triple-teamed on every offensive play. Defenses were content to do whatever they could to take Johnson out of the equation and dare the Lions to beat them another way. It hasn’t happened yet, but the Green Bay game shows it will soon.

In addition to Pettigrew, Nate Burleson was supposed to be the second option that took the pressure off of Johnson, but he has been hurt since the first play of Week 2. If he can become the complementary big-play threat he was in Minnesota under Linehan, it will start to loosen the coverage on Johnson, and his statistics will start catching up to his physical ability.

AD: When you look at the Lions stats, there does not appear to be a glaring strength or weakness. Rather, the team ranks in the middle to bottom of the league in most categories (sacks being one notable exception). What do you see as the biggest strength and weakness?

DH: Aside from depth across the board—the major weakness I mentioned earlier—I would have to say the Lions’ biggest weakness is currently in the linebackers.

Had you asked a couple weeks ago, I would have quickly said the secondary, but the secondary is coming off a very strong performance against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, so I want to wait and see if that’s a trend or a fluke.

The linebackers, though, consist of Julian Peterson, who is a shell of his Pro Bowl self; DeAndre Levy, who is coming off a standout rookie season but is learning his first year at middle linebacker and has been injured most of this season; and Zack Follett, a project weakside linebacker who spent last year as a star special teamer. And Follett and Levy have missed time, which has allowed time to veterans Landon Johnson and Ashlee Palmer. When healthy, the Lions linebackers exhibit an almost crippling lack of athleticism. And they haven’t been healthy.

On the flip side, the Lions first-round draft picks over the past couple of years have been their best players the past couple of games. Jahvid Best already has a Rookie of the Week award under his belt, Ndamukong Suh has been a force, and Brandon Pettigrew is the team’s leading receiver, and appears to be 100 percent healthy from his ACL surgery last year. Now if they could just get Stafford back on the field, they could get rolling.

Ultimately, the Lions can’t be graded by their offense until their quarterback gets back, much in the same sense that we don’t yet know what the Pittsburgh Steelers are capable of. Because of that, I have to say the Lions defensive line likely represents the team’s biggest strength right now. That is the only unit filled with real playmakers, and to have them all lining up side by side is a huge advantage for the Lions up front. They’re still playing inconsistent as of yet, and even THAT has brought them over three sacks a game. When they start clicking together, they’ll be a top-three unit.