Lions' Defense Being Used as Blueprint to Slow Down High-Powered Offenses

Matt Patricia and the Lions' defense have now been credited twice in the past year with having an effective blueprint for stopping the league's top offenses

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

The Indianapolis Colts pulled off an upset of the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday on Sunday Night Football. It was the first time in 25 games that the Chiefs did not score at least 25 points. You may ask yourself, how does this relate to the Lions?

Only a week after the Lions were almost able to pull off an upset victory over the Chiefs, it appears the Lions have once again produced a blueprint on how to slow down an elite offense. 

In the postgame Sunday night, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes offered some thoughts on what the Colts did to stymie his production. 

"They played man coverage, they rushed with four people and they found ways to get pressure and to cover long enough,” Mahomes said. “For us, Detroit did it last week, (and) New England did it in the playoffs. We’re going to have to beat man-coverage at the end of the day.”

Maybe not the most complex answer, but heavy man defenses that feature a small number of pass rushers force quarterbacks to throw into tight windows. Seems simple enough, but it has been working.

This is not the first time that the Lions have been credited with finding a defensive scheme that effectively hindered an explosive offense. 

In week 13 of the 2018 season, the Los Angeles Rams' offense was clipping along at record paces ... until it played the Lions.

In the 13 games Rams QB Jared Goff's played in -- including the 2018 playoffs -- since facing the Lions, he's completed 60 percent of his passes, has thrown for 3,505 yards, 14 touchdowns and 15 interceptions and has recorded a 77.7 passer rating. 

In the 12 games Goff played in before facing the Lions, he possessed a 66.2 percent completion rate, and he threw for 3,806 yards with 27 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

After the New England Patriots' victory over the Rams in Super Bowl LIII , the Lions were given props by Bill Belichick for containing the Rams' lethal offense.

"We felt like if we could make them drive it, make them earn it, similar to what the Lions did,” Belichick said. “Make them run a lot of plays, and if we get them in third down, we felt like we could get them off the field.”

So far this season, the Lions have faced Kyler Murray, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz and Patrick Mahomes. Three of those four quarterbacks -- Rivers, Wentz and Mahomes -- are considered to be in the upper echelon of signal callers. 

Detroit's defense has a combined 80.3 passer rating against -- good for fifth-best in the NFL.

It's a nice change of pace to see teams copying or using the Lions' defensive philosophy. 

That's not to say the Lions' defense can't improve. However, give the team and coaching staff some notice for having gameplans that other teams want to replicate.