2. Lions’ Defense Has To Improve
There was visible progress from the Lions’ defense during last week’s victory over the Cardinals. They forced three interceptions against Kyler Murray using zone coverage and appeared to be trending in the right direction. That didn’t continue in Week 4, to say the least.
Aside from the interception on Drew Brees at the beginning of this game, this Lions defense put together a letdown outing. The Saints’ passing attack continually picked apart Detroit’s zone and what was a strength last week became a real liability in New Orleans.
It was rare the Lions came away with an important stop on a crucial conversion down. There was rarely an issue for the Saints to move the ball upfield and to make matters worse, Detroit failed to stop New Orleans at all in the red-zone, too.
The performance of the Lions’ offense should have been enough to win this game. The unit put up 29 points and turned it over just once. They were quite efficient on conversion downs and in the red-zone. It will be tough for Detroit to win many games until their defense turns it around.
