Detroit Lions: Teryl Austin Will Be Patient, But Not Too Patient
By Zac Snyder
Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin says he learned from last season’s slow start on defense and won’t be as patient as he was a year ago.
It hasn’t been a good start for the Detroit Lions defense. Andrew Luck had his way picking apart the Lions secondary, they gave up a game-winning touchdown drive to the Tennessee Titans and the Green Bay Packers put up a games worth of points in just the first half.
That’s not a good early-season sign for a team who got off to a 1-7 start a year ago, in part because of an inability to get stops on defense.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin admitted today that he may have been too slow to make changes last year – a mistake he won’t make again this season. From his press conference today:
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"I probably was a little bit too patient last year. Right now there’s no panic, we’re not in that stage where we’ve got to make some changes and do some things. But if things don’t turn around, obviously we’ll have to do some things in terms of, maybe what we’re doing scheme-wise, or maybe what we’re doing player-wise. But, we’re not at that point yet."
You have to wonder if another poor defensive showing this week against the Bears will be the point in which Austin makes some changes. At that point a full quarter of the season will be over and done with an a poor game from the defense could mean the Lions are sitting at 1-3 and tied for last place in the NFC North if the offense doesn’t bail them out.
If that is the case, Austin didn’t let on to any sort of timetable:
"I don’t know if I have a set time that, ‘Okay, hey, here it is.’ We just again, we’ll see how the season goes. When we need to make changes, if we need to make changes, we’ll make them."
Note to Austin: don’t put a linebacker on Jordy Nelson. That’s a change worth making immediately so we don’t have to see something similar against a Bears receiver.
Best case scenario is the Lions put together a full game to get their seventh-straight win over the Bears and talk of wholesale changes on defense is rendered moot.
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That might be asking a lot considering DeAndre Levy and Ziggy Ansah aren’t expected to play. But if there is a team that the Lions could get right against, it’s the Bears.