Notes: Aaron Glenn Says Jared Goff Stood Out Against Texans

Glenn explained his thoughts on Goff's performance against Houston.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16). / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions managed to emerge victorious despite five interceptions from quarterback Jared Goff. Though the statistical profile indicates a rough game for Goff, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn came away impressed with his resilience.

In fact, Glenn mentioned Goff as one of his standouts emerging from Sunday's game.

“Man, for him to go through what he did and to be able to take this team under his wing and drive the ball and score the touchdowns that we needed, and make the critical plays that we needed to give us a chance to win that game was outstanding," Glenn said. "He didn’t blink. That’s the one thing that showed up more than anything, the leadership, the toughness, the ability to take a team on his back and go win a game was outstanding to see. So a lot of kudos to our quarterback.” 

Glenn also indicated that he has grown in a number of areas as a defensive coordinator. Among the most important things to his development that he has done is to meet with offensive coordinators and college coaches to discuss schemes.

“Being able to understand offensive coordinators has helped me a ton," Glenn explained. "I’ve spent a lot of time throughout the years, and since 2021, going to visit offensive coordinators and talking to them on how they see the game and how they prepare for a game. And that has opened my eyes on how I should prepare for a game."

"And the other thing is, man, I am always eager to learn. And there’s a number of college coaches that I’ve went and visited from a defensive perspective," Glenn continued. "Just to understand their thought process of the game. There are some concepts that they have that I will never use, but it’s good to sit there and listen to them and get the why behind why they use them, because at some point I might use it. There’s a lot of information that I’ve gathered throughout the years to help me be not just a better defensive coordinator but a better coach. And that could be understanding offense, special teams, across the board.” 

Offense focused on being explosive

The Lions struggled with turnovers against Houston and have struggled to be explosive in recent weeks. They were able to score 52 points against Tennessee after being gifted several short fields, then scored 24 points against the Packers in the elements. They were able to manage 26 points against the Texans despite five turnovers.

As a result, the Lions are focusing on developing their offensive efficiency in the coming weeks. Quarterback Jared Goff has his eyes on the unit being more explosive.

“Yeah, I think so, and I think the last three games are kind of indicative of that," Goff said. "I think the Tennessee game was somewhat of an outlier, but when we weren’t in the red zone, we weren’t really moving the ball down the field and then Green Bay, just conditions and whatnot, we weren’t able to be as explosive as we wanted to, and then obviously last week wasn’t as explosive as we wanted to. So, yeah, getting that back on track, I think he’s absolutely right and it starts this week for us.”

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Ben Johnson has learned and grown from relationships with Lions coaches

Glenn wasn't the only coordinator to speak on the importance of collaboration on Thursday. Ben Johnson explained that he's been able to learn plenty from working with Glenn and the rest of the coaching staff in growing his own personal approach to the game.

"Every year in springtime and camp, they've shifted philosophies a little bit over the last three years," Johnson explained. "A natural evolution of who he has on his side of the ball, you could kind of tell early on in camp they were gonna be really potent this year. And schematically, I think it's probably less in general, first and second down, even third down, it's more the minutiae of situational football. You learn more from each other than anything else."

A big element of this has been meetings that the staff conducts weekly to better approach game management. In these meetings, coaches such as Johnson and Glenn are able to bounce ideas off of each other.

"We sit in these game management meetings with with Coach Campbell almost every week, and see things from around the league that are going on, and we can kind of spit ball back and forth," Johnson said. "'Hey, what would we do if we were in this two minute drill with this situation?' 'A.G., what would you be thinking with your call?' So there's a lot of banter back and forth, and I think that's really how you grow as a coach, is get put in those, in those types of spots that, if you're not challenging yourself and and ask yourself those tough questions you wouldn't normally get to."

Notable

The Lions are currently favored by 14.5 points over the Jaguars per SI Sportsbook, which is the largest point spread in the NFL this season. It's the second time the Lions have become double-digit favorites this season, joining their Week 8 game against the Tennessee Titans.

Detroit fans were also excited to see the television assignments for this week, as popular broadcaster Kevin Harlan will be the play-by-play broadcaster for Sunday's game.

Game odds refresh periodically, and are subject to change.

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