The first day of Detroit Lions training camp in several weeks with no fans in the stands made for a quieter experience. Aaron Glenn’s defense did its best to make a lot of noise at the Tuesday afternoon practice.
On an overcast day with the team in full pads and live tackling, Detroit’s defensive dominance was the story.
Here’s some of what stood out from the August 22nd practice in Allen Park.
Putting the D in Detroit
The bulk of practice was a full-game simulation, offense versus defense. With the starters squaring off against each other and then the second-team offense vs. defense mixing in some drives, Aaron Glenn’s defense won 63-27.
How does the defense score so much, you might ask? The offense scores like normal, while the defense gets points based on accomplishments:
Forcing a punt = 3 points
4th down stop = 5 points
Takeaway = 7 points
The defense earned at least two scores of each type, with the game ending when Brian Branch picked off Jared Goff on a too-easy read, stepping in front of TE Sam LaPorta for a nice leaping catch.
After scoring on the opening drive, an efficient 13-play drive that slowly nibbled at the defense, the first-team offense didn’t contribute another point in the first half. The D went into halftime — the units left the field to simulate an actual halftime break — with a 28-14 lead.
Frustrated offensive starters David Montgomery and Penei Sewell were quick to give credit to the defense right after practice ended, but both also acknowledged the rough performance by the first-team offense.
“We just got smoked,” Sewell said to no one in particular as he headed to the locker room. And the Pro Bowl right tackle was correct.
No Amon-Ra St. Brown
Amon-Ra St. Brown sat out, still nursing an ankle injury suffered last week in the joint practices with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He worked to the side with trainers, including some full sprints and simulated hook/curl routes that tested his ability to plant.
After practice, St. Brown did his customary Jugs machine receiving work and looked no worse for the wear. He had to hurry and finish it to do an interview with a German media crew, and the session was conducted entirely in German.
Defensive back Ifeatu Melifonwu also worked with the trainers. He had his left thigh/quad heavily wrapped. Melifonwu was injured in Saturday’s loss to Jacksonville. Fellow DB Saivion Smith was not spotted on the field or with trainers; he too left Saturday’s game with an injury.
Lineup cues and clues: Defense
With roster cutdown looming in a week, I paid close attention to players on the roster bubble, or those fighting for slots on the depth chart. The sequence in which they were deployed is just as telling as how they played.
The starting defense:
DL – Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Isaiah Bugg, John Cominsky, Charles Harris
LB – Derrick Barnes, Alex Anzalone
DB – Cam Sutton and Jery Jacobs at CB, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Kerby Joseph at safety
They mixed and matched with the offensive personnel sets. When an extra WR came in, either Cominsky or Buggs would come out and Brian Branch rotated in at slot CB. Josh Paschal also got quite a few substitution reps at DE.
When the starting D went “heavy,” Anzalone and Harris came out and were replaced by DT Benito Jones and LB Jack Campbell. That happened on two separate drives, which leads me to believe it was an intentional rotation.
On the second unit, Paschal and Cominsky were the primary DEs, though Romeo Okwara did rotate in for some reps. Campbell was joined by Malcolm Rodriguez at linebacker. Levi Onwuzurike and rookie Brodric Martin were the primary DTs, with Jones also rotating in. Romeo Okwara and Cominsky both took what would be considered DT reps as well, typically when the offense brought in an extra WR or flexed out the tight end.
The base second-team secondary featured UDFA rookies Starling Thomas and Steven Gillmore at outside CB, Will Harris in the slot, and Tracy Walker and another UDFA, Brandon Joseph, at safety. Branch and Chase Lucas got some duty as well, with Lucas replacing Gilmore on obvious run situations.
The third-team D only played one series and had many players from the second-team interspersed. LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin absolutely dominated on the unit, and he also looked good when he spelled one of the second-teamers too. Khalil Dorsey and Brady Breeze were the primary playing time bumps on the unit, with UDFA rookie LB Trevor Nowaske getting a little run ahead of veteran Anthony Pittman, too.
Of note, I did not notice Julian Okwara, certainly not with the top two units. James Houston also didn’t play much, rotating in as a pass-rush specialist on the second-team D and getting a couple of reps in the red zone D on the first-team as a SAM.
Lineup cues and clues: Offense
With no St. Brown at WR, the Lions kicked Josh Reynolds into the slot and inserted Marvin Jones into the starting outside spot, with Kalif Raymond on the other side. David Montgomery repped ahead of Jahmyr Gibbs at RB, as has been the case most of the summer.
Craig Reynolds took almost all the second-team RB reps, with Devine Ozigbo and Benny Snell each getting exactly one touch by my unofficial count. If Jermar Jefferson played, he did nothing notable; he is the only offensive player to not appear in any form in the notebook today.
Halapoulivaati Vaitai and Graham Glasgow continued to evenly split the first-team RG reps, with Vaitai earning the start. More on that in a minute…
The second unit on the OL didn’t use either Big V or Glasgow. From left to right: Matt Nelson, Colby Sorsdal, Brad Cecil, Kayode Awosika, Germain Ifedi. Nelson and Ifedi switched sides once again after Nelson moved to RT last week.
The tight end rotation went as expected, with Sam LaPorta getting nearly all the first-team reps. When he sat, Brock Wright replaced the rookie. James Mitchell was next in line, getting a lot of work with the 2s, followed by Darrell Daniels and then Daniel Helm. Daniels was the primary blocking TE whenever the reserves went to a 2-TE look.
Quick hits
–Above, I noted that Glasgow and Vaitai split the first-team RG reps. They played about equal individually, but there is a pronounced difference in RT Penei Sewell when Vaitai is next to him. Sewell just plays better, a lot more consistently, with his fellow Samoan to his inside flank instead of Glasgow. It’s absolutely nothing about Glasgow, either, but it’s something that has made my notes in three of the last four padded practices. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest the coaching staff sees it, too.
–Sewell did not have a good day overall. Low rips and outside-in rushes from Harris, Hutchinson and especially Cominsky gave him problems all afternoon.
–Cominsky was a massive problem for the offense in both the run and pass game. After he made two successful stops in a row, someone from the defensive sideline yelled “7-9 can’t be stopped.” And whoever it was (my guess: Gardner-Johnson) was spot-on. No. 79 was the best player on the field a lot of the afternoon. When he plays with Hutchinson, Cominsky almost always gets single blocking and he’s simply too good for that treatment, even against the starting OL. He proved that v. the Jaguars last week too.
–QB Jared Goff also struggled. Between the defensive front generating a lot of pressure and the back end of the defense eliminating open options, this session was a reminder that Goff isn’t someone who goes off-schedule well.
–At least Goff did have some impressive moments amongst his meh performance. Backup Teddy Bridgewater took all the other reps; Nate Sudfeld and Adrian Martinez both dressed but did not play one snap.
Bridgewater looked very much like a quarterback who didn’t have a working familiarity with his receivers, as was the case against the Jaguars. Outside of one great throw to a sliding Dylan Drummond to split coverage, Bridgewater was unimpressive. He’s still new to the team, and it shows. It needs to start showing less soon to ease some increasingly edgy nerves.
–I watched a few reps of the head-to-head matchup between undrafted rookies Starling Thomas and Chase Cota closely. I had Thomas with two clear wins, including one PD on a ball Bridgewater threw behind both of them. Cota got free over the top once but the play rolled to the other side and didn’t react to the action.
–Kicker John Parker Romo clanked a 30-yard FG off the right upright. That’s not going to help him in the battle against Riley Patterson, who made his kick attempts.
–The Lions pumped in all kinds of white noises to simulate a crowd. And it was louder than the Australian alt-metal I listened to on the drive to Allen Park.
