The first four weeks of the NFL has the Lions sitting at 1-3. Detroit only won 25% of their games through the first quarter of the season.
There are many culprits as to who is to blame for the the lack of success early on this season. The offense has under performed greatly, the defensive line has been underwhelming, and special teams have been anything but special.
The Lions began the season with a 27-23 victory over the St. Louis Rams, but have lost three straight close games to the San Francisco 49ers (19-27), Tennessee Titans (41-44 OT) and Minnesota Vikings(13-20).
There has been numerous problems that have shown up in all games. The offense has failed to be consistent in any game, even in the game in Tennessee where the offense scored 41 points. There has been too many turnovers, there is an identity crisis in terms of trying too much to run the football, and the team is settling for way too many field goals.
Defensively, there lacks consistency like the offense. The defense had a good performance against the Rams and the Vikings, but struggled to make an impact against the 49ers and Titans. The defensive line has failed to perform. With the poor play in the defensive line, the weakness in the secondary has been shown, allowing large chunks in passing yards. The Lions have only forced two turnovers as a team, but have not recorded an interception yet this season.
Special teams have proven to be a glaring weakness thanks to the last two games in which the unit allowed a kick return and punt return touchdown in each contest. Return man Stefan Logan has a 10.9 yard per return on punts, which is a very solid number, however, he has failed to perform on kickoff returns when he does get a chance to return.
All of these issues are rather easily fixable.
Offensively, it is only a matter of efficiency and consistency. The running game can give more of an impact because the Lions have made it obvious they want to establish the run. Many times in the games against Minnesota and San Francisco, running plays on first and second down ranged from a loss of yards, no gain, and a modest one to two yard gain. The Lions need to be gaining four to six yards a carry if they want to be successful. Calvin Johnson has a total of one touchdown reception. One. Opposing teams have been defending the Lions deeper to prevent the big pass to Johnson, but the Lions have failed to adjust early in games and give the ball more to Johnson along with other weapons such as Titus Young or Tony Scheffler. Being able to sling the ball to those weapons along with more consistency in the run game will make the Lions a more efficient offense like we saw last year.
Defensively, Detroit's strength has failed to show up. The defensive line was supposed to be the strength for the defense with the weaknesses in the secondary. However, there has been no pass rush to assist. Ndamukong Suh has been the only one to get the best rush on the quarterback, and the interior defensive line should not be the only ones getting sacks. Defending the run hasn't been too much of a problem, which is a good sign seeing that the Lions faced running backs such as Steven Jackson, Frank Gore, Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson in the first four weeks. The key is for the nine men getting into the rotation on the front line (Suh, Nick Fairley, Sammie Hill, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Cliff Avril, Corey Williams, Ronnell Lewis, Willie Young and Lawrence Jackson) to be more consistent and be the dominant force many people expect out of them.
Finally, the special teams. Needless to say it has been the weakness of the team. Giving up a kick return touchdown and punt return touchdown in back-to-back weeks tend to make it glaringly obvious that the unit is a weakness. Simple to fix. Mainly the kick coverage should be able to keep their lanes better and actually tackle the returner, which they failed to do on the punt return touchdown from the Vikings. Punt return has been fine as I mentioned with Stefon Logan, although, there could be more of a spark from the kick returns. The problems with kickoff coverage could be kicker Jason Hanson isn't kicking the ball through the endzone. Perhaps the struggles on special teams could be limited if Hanson gets more touchbacks and avoid the opposing returners. The same could be said about the punt coverage. Nick Harris is now the guy at punter after Ben Graham was injured and he should kick the ball out of bounds more often, especially when the schedule holds many teams with dynamic kick returners such as Desean Jackson, Devin Hester (twice), Patrick Peterson and Leon Washington.
All that I have mentioned for the Lions to improve on is easier said than done, but to progress for the second quarter of the season (at Philadelphia, at Chicago, Seattle and at Jacksonville), these improvements must be met if the Lions have any plans of making the playoffs.
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