Anyone who has watched the Detroit Lions play defense recently knows the story all too well. Breakdowns in coverage and communication gaffes abound with the cornerbacks and safeties, allowing the opposing passing offense to find unusual and frustrating levels of success.
Pro Football Focus and analyst Haley English have found a way to quantify the mistakes made by the defensive players in coverage, as well as how much it impacts the positive outcome for the offense. And the Lions–as expected–rank near the top in mistakes from both cornerbacks and safeties.
Detroit’s cornerbacks are second in percentage of errors, while the safeties rank fifth. The study goes back over the last three seasons, a time in which the Lions have ranked 30th, 32nd and 27th in QB Rating allowed. The mistakes and breakdowns in coverage on the back end help explain why those figures are so bad.
