The Detroit Lions are the hottest team in football after 13 weeks. The Lions improved to 11-1 after surviving a fourth quarter comeback by the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving. The narrow 23-20 victory extended the Lions’ winning streak to a league-best 10 straight games. Yet while the team keeps finding ways to win, there is growing concern over Detroit’s defense, which has endured a number of injuries to key players.
Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick questioned if the team is capable of playing championship-level defense after allowing the Bears to score 20 second-half points on Thursday.
“I think they need to do better than they’ve been doing. I think they’ve gotten away with some things and it looks good now. I just don’t know if it’s going to last against really good passing teams or quarterbacks who can extend plays a little bit,” Belichick told McAfee.
“I just worry when they get against a good offensive team, if Love has a good day or Darnold has a good day, which I didn’t think either one of them did, you know what that would look like. They can outscore people and if they have to win 42-41 they’re probably capable of doing that, but I think to really be a well-balanced team, a championship team, they want to be better on defense,” Belichick added.
The Lions would absolutely love to be better on defense. Unfortunately, the team has lost some of its most important playmakers to long-term injuries.
The Lions’ defense has been forced to overcome significant losses this season
Detroit lost superstar pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson to a fractured leg in Week 6 against the Dallas Cowboys. Hutchinson was leading the league with 7.5 sacks at the time of his injury. But he broke his tibia and fibula in the matchup against Dallas and the Lions were forced to move forward without their best defender.
Detroit also lost Marcus Davenport to a season-ending injury in Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals. With Davenport and Hutchinson out, the Lions lost two elite, first-round defensive ends.
And the bleeding didn’t stop there. Detroit is exceptionally thin at linebacker after Derrick Barnes’ knee injury early in the season was followed by Alex Anzolone suffering a broken forearm in Week 10 that could keep him out two months. Most recently, Malcolm Rodriguez’s season ended when he tore his ACL in the Lions’ Thanksgiving Day matchup against the Bears. Josh Paschal also went down in Week 13 but his knee injury isn’t considered serious.
Detroit’s defense is also missing linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, defensive end John Cominsky and tackle Kyle Peko.
As Belichick mentioned, the Lions’ offense is capable of carrying the team most weeks. Detroit boasts the league’s best scoring offense and the second-best overall offense in football. If the defense can continue to overcome its many losses, the Lions figure to be legitimate title contenders this season.
