For a good portion of Lions training camp, the Detroit defense has been good at making plays and stymying the high-powered offense. After a troubling few years where Aaron Glenn’s unit struggled to stop vastly interior offenses to the one it squares off against in practice, the rise of the defense is a very welcome development.
Yet, despite the fans clamoring for better performance from the defense, it’s invariably a different message from the Lions fans at practice. And that pushed veteran linebacker Alex Anzalone to snap a little during Wednesday morning’s practice.
With the first-team units squaring off and the defense largely having its way in the shorts-and-shells practice, Anzalone wanted some respect from the fans in attendance. He let them know it when cornerback Kindle Vildor made a very nice pass breakup in the corner of the end zone on a Jared Goff throw to Amon-Ra St. Brown. It was quiet enough in the stands to hear a pin drop, or to hear Anzalone admonish them.
“It’s okay to cheer for more than one player,” Anzalone said with some frustrated intent in his voice.
Anzalone has a point. For as much as everyone wants the Lions defense to play better, they’ve gotten very little love from the fans in attendance throughout training camp. Other than big plays from Brian Branch and Terrion Arnold, the defense outplaying the offense or finding success is met with relative apathy and some consternation from fans about “what’s wrong with the offense?” We hear that a lot as media standing between the fans and the field.
Echoing Anzalone, it is indeed okay to cheer for the defense when Aidan Hutchinson smokes Penei Sewell for a sack (which happened twice in this practice), or Jack Campbell picks off an errant Goff throw (also happened Wednesday) or Alim McNeill throws Graham Glasgow to the ground and forces Goff to quickly turf a screen pass (also happened). The silence of the fans when the much-maligned defense was notable to everyone, especially the defensive players.
Anzalone, as the leader and heartbeat of the unit, wants fans to know it’s okay to like it when they do well, too–even at the expense of the venerated offense.
