Aidan Hutchinson: Lions' Defense Needs to Play 'Complementary Football'

How Lions can improve pass-rushing efforts.

One of the Detroit Lions' biggest issues so far this season has been their inability to generate sacks.

Through the first two weeks of the 2023 campaign, the Lions have amassed just one sack – tied with the Chicago Bears for the lowest amount of sacks in the league.

Meanwhile, second-year EDGE Aidan Hutchinson – Detroit's leading sack producer a season ago (9.5 sacks) – has failed to record a single sack. Linebacker Alex Anzalone has accounted for the only time Detroit has brought a quarterback to the ground this season.

After reviewing the film from the Lions' first two games this year, Hutchinson believes that the defense needs to play "more together."

“We’re just not playing complementary football with our back-end,” Hutchinson told reporters Thursday. “They’ll be playing really good coverage, where we don’t get as good of a rush and then vice versa. So, it’s just about playing complementary football with our secondary, and also just being more on the same page with our D-tackles (defensive tackles), as an EDGE player.”

Going into Detroit’s matchup with the Atlanta Falcons Sunday, Hutchinson emphasized that he and his teammates need to communicate much better “pre-snap.” According to the University of Michigan product, it’ll help him and the team’s other defensive linemen get on the same page.

“I feel like when you’re out there sometimes, it just sometimes doesn’t work,” Hutchinson expressed. “Sometimes, there’s no communication, and there’s a wide-open ‘B’ gap for the quarterback to go right through. So, I think communication was a really big thing this week, and I think that’s what we’ve been working on.”

Through two games, Hutchinson, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, has recorded 13 total pressures, and has earned a solid 72.2 pass-rush grade from Pro Football Focus.

Yet, as noted above, he’s been unable to produce a single takedown of the quarterback thus far this season. In stark contrast, by the time Week 3 rolled around last year, the Michigan native already had three sacks under his belt. In case you were wondering, all three of Hutchinson’s first three career sacks came against the Washington Commanders in a Week 2 contest last September.

Undeniably, Hutchinson and his defensive counterparts are focused on improving their pass-rushing efforts, and understand that the sacks will come when they start more consistently finishing plays.

“I mean, we’re getting there a lot of the times, but we’ve just gotta get the quarterback on the ground,” the former Wolverines EDGE defender said. “We’ve got to match up our good coverage with our good rushes. I think ideally that’s how you get sacks in this league, is when you’re playing good coverage and you’ve also got the good rush paired up with that.”

In the Lions’ Week 3 tilt with the Falcons, Hutchinson & Co. will also have to concentrate on stopping Atlanta’s ground game. Rookie back Bijan Robinson – the No. 8 overall selection in this past April’s draft – spearheads the Falcons’ rushing attack, and is coming off a 19-carry, 124-yard effort against the Green Bay Packers.

Hutchinson is readily aware of the fact that Detroit’s defense will have its hands full with the first-year pro.

“Yeah, he’s going to be a stud, man,” Hutchinson said of Robinson. “You see, he’s got the explosiveness, he’s got the jump cut. He’s got it all. So, the same goal (to stop the run) this week.”