Schedule Preview – Lions
June 1, 2022
By Noonefromtampa
This is the second week of my new series previewing all of Washington’s opponents. This time we look at the Commanders’ week 2 opponent, the Detroit Lions. I remember going to see the 1968 movie Paper Lion starring Alan Alda from sportswriter George Plimpton’s book about participating in training camp with the Lions. It is available on YouTube and Amazon; I encourage you to check it out sometime if you have never seen it before.
Game Details
Opponent: Detroit Lions
When: Week 2 – Sunday, September 18 at 1:00PM
Where: Away game at Ford Field
TV Network: Fox
2021 Lions
Record: 3-13-1 – picked second in the draft
Offense: 22nd [passing 18th, rushing 19th]
Defense: 29th [passing 24th, rushing 28th]
Points Scored: 25th
Points Allowed: 32nd
Head-to-Head: 15-28 all-time from 1932 to 2020. Detroit has won five of the last six games. Washington is 3-0 against the Lions in playoff games.
Lions Coaching
Dan Campbell is in his second year as the head coach of Lions, his second head coaching position after his interim gig in 2015 with the Miami Dolphins. Campbell has not faced Washington as a head coach. He is 8-20-1 overall.
Ben Johnson is the offensive coordinator. He is in his first year as a coordinator, replacing Anthony Lynn. He worked with Campbell in 2015 as an assistant quarterback coach. During his coaching career, Johnson has mainly worked with tight ends and wide receivers.
Aaron Glenn is the defensive coordinator. He is also in his second year, having previously spent five years as the Saints defensive backs coach.
Lions Schemes
On defense last season, the Lions played mostly a 3-4 look. They were not very effective, finishing in the bottom five in the league. Campbell hinted during this offseason at revising the defense for the upcoming season. Expect a base 3-4 at times, but like a lot of other 3-4 teams, expect to see a lot of four-man fronts when opposing teams have passing personnel groupings on the field. They focused a lot of their offseason player acquisitions on the defensive side of the ball.
Johnson took over as passing coordinator mid-season after Lynn’s offense faltered. Goff improved later in the season. Various players stated that the offensive scheme is being changed during OTAs. The question is how the scheme is being changed. The Lions are being tight-lipped at this point. If Johnson’s prior coaching stops are a guide, it will most likely be a blend of Air Coryell and Erhardt-Perkins. The major difference between the two schemes is that Erhardt-Perkins relies more on route combination concepts for personnel grouping that assigns individual routes to specific receiver positions. I would assume that Johnson will incorporate some the Air Coryell vertical passing concepts into the Erhardt Perkins calling notation. This would figure into the statements that the Lions want to be more up tempo and one advantage of Erhardt-Perkins is the quicker relay of the play call.
Roster Changes
Key Losses: LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin (HOU), S Dean Marlowe (ATL), WR Khadarel Hodge (ATL)
Key Additions: S DeShon Elliot (BAL), WR DJ Chark (JAC), CB Mike Hughes (KC), LB Chris Board (BAL), LB Jarrad Davis, DT Michael Brockers (LAR)
Draft Picks: DE Aidan Hutchinson (1-2), WR Jameson Williams (1-12), DE Josh Paschal (2-46), DB Kerby Joseph (3-97), TE James Mitchell (5-177), LB Malcolm Rodriguez (6-188), LB James Houston (6-217), DB Chase Lucas (7-237)
Key Players Returning: QB Jared Goff, RB D’Andre Swift, T Penei Sewell, T Taylor Decker, WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, C Frank Ragnow, TE T.J. Hockenson, LB Charles Harris, S Tracy Walker III, CB Jeff Okudah, DT Alim McNeill
Conclusions
Detroit opens the season with two straight home game, with the first game being against the Eagles. The Commanders could be facing an 0-1 Lions team if the Eagles are as good as media people are predicting. The Lions figure to be an improved team this season in their second year under Campbell. Goff is still a decent quarterback and the Lions added additional weapons with Chark and Williams (though he may miss the first few weeks of the season coming back from his knee injury). Even with all that, this should be a game in which Washington is favored.
Noone’s Prediction
In their first away game of the season, the Commander edge the Lions in a hard-fought battle.
Commanders 24 Lions 21