Detroit Lions: Biggest Takeaways From Preseason Week 2

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Matt Patricia’s approach to preseason games as the Detroit Lions head coach, to him, they’re just another practice. Another tool to evaluate the talent he has and how it performs in different situations, situations he often creates himself, and I’m 100% okay with that.

Avoiding injuries seems to be especially important to Patricia during practice as well lately. In turn, there were a lot of Detroit Lions players sitting out last night including, Matthew Stafford, Damon Harrison, Trey Flowers, Da’Shawn Hand, Jarrad Davis, Marvin Jones & Danny Amendola.

So as long as we’re all looking at last night for what it is, an injury-riddled practice with a quarterback who has been with the team for four days…I got a few takeaways for us on both sides of the ball;

OFFENSE;

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With Stafford missing the first week-two preseason game of his career, the only time we’ve seen the new Darrell Bevell offense ran with an even marginally talented quarterback was Tom Savage‘s first couple drives last week. This was only Josh Johnson‘s fourth day with the team still learning a new language, and it showed. Johnson played about as you would have expected in the first half, then unraveled a bit more on the last drive of the first half with a wide-open miss fire to Lacy on a scramble drill, followed by an INT on the next play.

David Fales, on the other hand, proved anyone could have a moment in the preseason, going 12-19 for 226 yards and a TD. There’s a pulse here. He’s going to have to do it two more times while having Josh Johnson not make much improvement in the next two weeks and have Tom Savage be out with a concussion for Fales to grab a roster spot.

The offensive line starters played the first three drives, that should tell you the coaching staff was not satisfied at all with the performance up to this point. I thought Joe Dahl had a good night besides some penalties, though they could have easily not been called as well. Aboushi didn’t get into the game until the third quarter, not a good sign for his stock with the coaches.

Running backs had a reasonably pedestrian night, Kerryon played much of the first half but only ran it 3 times for 16 yards. Ty Johnson’s first action was in the slot, he also had a 9-yard catch out of the backfield, furthering the notion the Lions see him as a receiving option as well.

With no Marvin Jones or Danny Amendola, it was an opportunity for some bubble WR’s to step out. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the quality quarterback play for much of the game to do so. In the second half with Fales playing decent, Fulgham had a nice over the shoulder catch for 35 yards. Fulgham still needs to prove a bit, being a rookie helps his case for the 53, but you still need to show something to warrant a spot. It looked like Bevell was trying to get Fulgham involved early in the second quarter with two quick passes, one for a drop in tight coverage and the other for about three yards, overall I thought he had his best performance on camera.

DEFENSE;

The defense started out allowing Deshaun Watson to go 5 for 7 on the first drive of the game. With no pass rush, Watson was able to pick apart the Lions secondary.

With Jarrad Davis out Jahlani Tavaii took his spot as the play-caller and man in the middle. Though he slipped on the first play of the game and lost coverage on his man, Tavaii played really well for his first crack at big minutes as MIKE. Jaylen Reeves-Maybin was maybe the player of the game, continually reading the plays and using his speed to break on the ball was impressive.

Welcome to the party Will Harris, who was your other option to be player of the game on defense. Harris got in with (most) of the ones on the second drive of the game and really stood out with a pass break up on third down, which really should have been a pick it was such good coverage. Then on the first play of the very next drive for the defense, he had a nice tackle for loss on a blitz off the edge.

The coverage looked like a problem on the first drive, but they were also asked to hold it for a while with no pass rush, as the game went on the coverage seemed to tighten up. Darius Slay had a nice pass break up on De’Andre Hopkins in the end zone, though Hopkins beat Melvin two plays later for a touchdown.

Andrew Adams did what he’s been doing all camp, jumping routes on bad throws for interceptions, last night it was a red zone pick. Seems to be his niche but it has also costed him when he misses.

Romeo Okwara played well into the first half and forced a fumble that was picked up by Will Harris for the Detroit Lions first touchdown of the season. Okwara and Robinson played deeper into the game than most of the defensive starters.

OVERALL;

It’s hard to get a good read with the way Matt Patricia approaches preseason games. Even harder when your quarterback and most of your starting defensive line isn’t playing. Even so, I thought it was a better showing than last week’s practice under the lights against New England.

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Maybe in Friday night’s dressed rehearsal against the Bills, we’ll get to see some more of the missing pieces and an actual game plan. Until then, treat these preseason games as nothing more than a tool for Matt Patricia and the coaching staff to evaluate their talent.

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