Offensive coordinator John Morton, defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard and special teams coordinator Dave Fipp spoke to the media Thursday as they do every week during the regular season. Here are my 10 biggest takeaways from those media sessions:
1. Sheppard was disappointed his defense didn't execute some things within the scheme in Kansas City he thought they'd done a good job of for most of the season. He described last week's performance as a lot of 'one-offs' for his unit. They target opponents being 50 percent or less in the red zone. Kansas City was 4-for-6. They want to hold opponents to 35 percent or less on third down. Kansas City was 40 percent (4-for-10). Sheppard likes the way his players have come back this week and corrected the mistakes, and he's liked the week of practice leading up to Monday.
2. Morton said watching Tampa Bay's defensive tape was like watching a 'blitz fest.' The Lions must be ready for a Bucs' defense that ranks third in the NFL in blitz percentage at 32.6 percent. Morton said they must be ready for it and they will be ready for it. He mentioned how facing Detroit's defense in camp and their multitude of blitz packages has helped prepare them. Lions quarterback Jared Goff has a 129.9 passer rating against the blitz this season with a 78 percent completion percentage.
3. Fipp had some interesting numbers regarding the new kickoff play through the first six weeks of the season. There's been just under 800 kickoff returns so far. Last year, that number was a little over 900 for the entire season. Through seven weeks, we'll likely already have more kickoff returns than all of last year. Fipp said there are fewer touchdowns and fewer negative plays. Teams are taking the extremes out of the play.
4. The standard is high for Alim McNeill’s return to the lineup for the first time since tearing his ACL Dec. 15 last year. Sheppard said that standard has been set by the way McNeill's practiced the last two weeks.
5. When asked about Jameson Williams’ toughness, despite his slimmer frame, Morton described Williams' play style as a kamikaze, both in the pass and run games.
"He's tough, man," Morton said. "I love what he's doing."
6. When Fipp first got here in 2021, one of the things he talked about improving with punter Jack Fox was the situational punting near midfield or on the positive side of midfield. To his credit, Fox has really embraced that. The Lions are second in the NFL with 13 punts inside the 20-yard line. Denver leads the league with 16.
7. I thought it was interesting when Sheppard was talking about the weekly meetings he has with Goff.
"He gives me nuggets, things that he sees because Dan makes sure we do competitive things still within the season, good on good," Sheppard said. "He'll come back and be like, 'Shep, you shouldn't (do this) or if the quarterback sees this be careful because they'll get to this.'
"Just having a quarterback like that with that much detail that care to come up to the defensive coordinator every week whether it's two minutes or 20 minutes he's done that with me this whole season."
8. Getting left tackle Taylor Decker back Monday would be a big boost. Decker has returned to practice this week after missing the last two games. Morton said if Decker is in the lineup Monday, it will allow him to devote less resources to shifting help to the left side which could be huge against this aggressive blitzing Bucs defense.
9. Drive start point or return yards allowed? Fipp cares more about the drive start point. The Lions currently rank 17th in the NFL with an opponent average starting spot at the 29.9-yard line.
10. Sheppard said linebacker Jack Campbell was part of an NFL memo/tape to make sure players are punching at the ball, not the ball carrier themselves, when they're looking for forced fumbles on defense.
