With regular left guard Jonah Jackson sidelined with an ankle injury, the Detroit Lions plugged Kayode Awosika into the starting lineup for the Week 6 matchup with the Buccaneers.
It was a bit of a surprise move, with regular starting RG Halapoulivaati Vaitai active after missing time with a knee injury. Vaitai only played on special teams, however, with top reserve Graham Glasgow still inserted in his place.
This was Awosika’s first start in 2023 and his first for the Lions at left guard. The third-year vet did start two games at right guard in 2022, in Weeks 12 and 13 (Buffalo and Jacksonville games). He’d been earning praise from teammates for his work in practices, and Awosika got the chance to prove himself against the Buccaneers.
Here’s what head coach Dan Campbell said about Awosika’s performance in his Monday press conference,
“Yeah, I think – look, I would say it was solid. It was solid. Look, that’s the first time this year he goes in there and bangs away. That’s a dang good unit, really good D-line. And there was some good and there was some that wasn’t so good, but I thought all-in-all, man, he really competed in there and gave us a chance.
And so, I thought it was positive. I thought it was positive. And I think really what it was is Big V is just steadily coming back from this. He’s kind of been on reserve, he was better this week than last week, but we just want to make sure that he’s 100 percent ready to go and then we’ll take it from there. But certainly, what Yode did is encouraging and I have a lot of faith in him. He’ll only get better as well.”
As part of the weekly film review session, I decided to focus on Awosika and grade out his performance. The criteria are pretty simple:
- Wins on a rep earn a plus
- Losses on a rep earn a minus
- Not every rep has a win or loss
Here’s how it tallied out for Awosika over the course of 70 offensive snaps.
No. 74 earned his first plus on Detroit’s third offensive play. He nicely stayed with DT Calijah Kancey on a twist, not taking the bait with the end twisting inside. Center Frank Ragnow easily neutralized the loop, too.
That was the only mark, positive or negative, from the first drive.
Awosika’s first plus (or minus) in the run game came on a negative offensive play shortly after the Will Harris INT. From left guard, Awosika pulled across the formation and successfully engaged and pushed back the outside LB beyond the right end. Alas, the chaotic blocking assignments on the play saw RB David Montgomery swallowed by three defenders in the backfield. Somehow, Glasgow wound up on the ground outside left tackle Taylor Decker, who was behind right tackle Penei Sewell, who blocked the DT who was directly in front of Awosika at the snap.
His first minus came on the next Lions drive, in pass protection. This was a “look for work” opportunity where the Bucs didn’t have anyone for Awosika to block immediately. The scheme left him as the help assignment, and the help was needed with the Bucs blitzing the slot DB and an inside backer. David Montgomery picked the LB, but Awosika was exposed in never even seeing the backside help assignment. It’s a very difficult ask of a young player, but that’s a play we’ve seen Jonah Jackson make. Good on the Bucs for testing it, too. Jared Goff completed the pass under pressure to Amon-Ra St. Brown on the play.
At the half, Awosika had an even ledger:
6 plusses, 5 minuses
In pass protection, he was at three plusses and four minuses in the first half. Three of his minuses overall came on consecutive plays immediately after Montgomery left with an injury.
Second half
The second half was interesting, because it was an opportunity to see how Awosika adjusted to the Bucs’ defensive attack. Conversely, it also afforded an opportunity for those defenders to adapt to how No. 74 was playing.
The first two drives were a definite advantage to the defense. Awosika earned three minuses and one plus, all in pass protection.
As a general observation, cut blocking is not something Awosika should ever be asked to do again. Cut-block assignments against a quick DL like Kancey are setting Awosika up to fail. And he did.
For the game tally on Awosika
15 plusses, 16 minuses overall
In pass protection, it was an even split of 8/8. He was technically on the hook for one sack, though I had a hard time giving Awosika a minus on the play, a coverage sack where Goff stepped into the defender more than Awosika got beaten.
Run blocking saw seven plusses against eight minuses. When he was blocking someone in front of him to start the play, the split was 3/6. He was much better on the move in the run game. I didn’t grade Glasgow for this game, but the amount of times he didn’t engage anyone in the run game when asked to move was troubling. There’s a balance to be found there for OC Ben Johnson and OL coach Hank Fraley.
