Lions film review: Hutchinson's sack parade, Arnold and Davis' outings and Reader's debut
We’re going to try something different coming out of the Detroit Lions’ 20-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, breaking Tuesday’s tape study into two posts: Offense and defense.
Let’s start with a three-part look at Detroit’s impressive defensive showing in defeat.
Sack party
Ok, let’s start with the biggest defensive story coming out of the game; defensive end Aidan Hutchinson popping off for 4.5 sacks. The Lions saw a mismatch with a backup right tackle and exploited it, having their Pro Bowl edge rusher on the left side of the alignment for nearly 77% of his defensive snaps.
Let’s break down each sack and how Hutchinson won. Like we saw with a handful of plays last week, a tip of the cap goes to linebacker Derrick Barnes for his role in creating the first opportunity for Hutchinson, on a third-and-goal during Tampa’s opening drive.
The Lions were in tight man coverage on the outside ahead of the snap, with rookie Terrion Arnold playing with outside leverage on 6-foot-5 receiver Mike Evans to quarterback Baker Mayfield’s left. That alignment called for Evans to run a slant, but when the QB looked for it as the primary read, Barnes had dropped from the line of scrimmage into the passing lane, not dissimilar from how the defender found himself in position to intercept Mayfield to seal Detroit’s playoff win last season.
The hesitation caused by Barnes’ drop was all Hutchinson needed to get home. Aided by defensive tackle Alim McNeill’s push on the snap requiring the attention of both the guard and tackle, Hutchinson took two steps forward before looping inside on a stunt and coming clean through the widened, right-side A gap to swallow up the QB and force a fumble that was recovered by the Bucs.