The Lions have the #1 Defense???

That last post was written mainly over the course of 2 days, with some finishing touches put in today. Well, a number of things are going on right now that I'd like to touch on, namely:

• The Lions have the #1 defense in the NFL, and won on Sunday to pull to 4-2
• The Red Wings opened their season with a nice win over Boston
• The Pistons have opened their pre-season strongly, with KCP and Drummond looking pretty good (until KCP went down with a knee injury that'll probably have him out for some weeks)

Ok, first things first - WHAT? The Lions have the #1 defense in the NFL? Setting aside the fact that the last time they had a good defense, it featured Chris Spielman and Jerry Ball, this team has lost it's starting MLB and half a dozen DBs (a position of weakness to begin with). How is this defense this good?

Well, scheduling helps. 5 of the 6 of the offenses they've faced - the Giants, the Jets, the Packers, the Bills, and the Vikings - are among the league's worst (Detroit also falls in the bottom 10, fyi), and the Panthers' offense is only fair to middlin'. The next 2 weeks feature a couple of the top 5 offenses (the Saints at #2 and the Falcons at #3), which should prove to be sterner tests than Detroit has faced so far. Still, Detroit's defense is part of the reason those offenses are so bad. Even when adjusting for strength of opponent, Detroit's D is still #1.

How did they get so good? Looking at this season in comparison with the previous 10, the differences are pretty stark:
 
 

There's definitely been some trending up since they were the bottom defense for 3 years in a row, but the last 2 years they were only average. What happened? Well, in 2009 the Lions drafted DeAndre Levy in the 3rd round, in 2010 they picked Suh (and Willie Young although he's getting it done for the Bears now), in 2011 they picked Nick Fairley (and no one else, apparently), in 2012 they got Tahir Whitehead, and in 2013 they got Ansah & Slay.

Whitehead has stepped up capably for the injured Tulloch (2 picks yesterday!). Suh, Ansah, FA pickup George Johnson and Nick Fairley are all playing solidly on the defensive line. Slay has come out of nowhere as a solid cover corner, and then there's Levy...

Levy is currently 4th in tackles, he's got half a sack, a crazy INT, and a tackle for a safety. He's putting together a solid Pro Bowl season after getting ripped off last year (tied for 2nd in the league in INTs as a linebacker and he doesn't get in???). It's only 6 games into the season, but right now Levy is in the Defensive POY conversation and the Lions have the top defense. We've come a long way.

As surprisingly good as the defense has been, the offense has been equally surprisingly bad. The kicking game bears part of the blame, adding 2 more misses yesterday and 1 make. Following this season as closely as I have, I've become a connoisseur of botched FG attempts and I can say that yesterday's 2 misses were quality misses (I'm at least 75% serious when I say that). Seriously, while the two missed FGs didn't make me happy, I think Prater was a little rusty and will be better down the road.

The offense has lacked that downfield element since Calvin Johnson sprained his ankle in week 2 or 3. The running game has gotten gradually better the past 2 weeks, despite missing Reggie Bush. Matt Stafford wasn't particularly effective, but he took care of the ball this week.

The main problem has been the pass blocking, which was a strength last year. The Lions have allowed the 3rd most sacks in the NFL, and Stafford has little time to get set before he has to get rid of the ball or move out of the pocket. The main culprit yesterday was Dominic Raiola, who twice allowed a rusher to blow right up the middle. One play he got beat, the other he completely missed his assignment. He may have had a hand in one of the other sacks, but I can't remember. The point is, Raiola seems to be falling off rather steeply. He's at the point of retirement and may have stayed on a year too long. Travis Swanson is the rookie waiting in the wings, but I don't expect him to step in for Raiola unless the vet gets injured.

I do know this - the offense will have to step up to keep up with New Orleans. That Saints defense is pretty bad, but the Lions just don't have an offensive playmaker without CJ in the lineup.

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Not much to say about the Wings yet. They won their first game, getting the game winner on the power play (an area of weakness last season). Then they lost game #2 against the Ducks 3-2. The Ducks' first goal was Howard's fault when he misplayed the puck behind his own net. The game winner was thanks to the refs swallowing their whistles when Getzlaf hooked Kronwall to steal the puck in Detroit's end. Stuff happens, what are you gonna do?

Nyquist is the goals leader with 2 thru 2 games (on pace for 80!) and Franzen is the points leader with 3 assists. Datsyuk is still out with a shoulder.

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The Pistons are in the preseason, so I'll keep this short as well. Drummond looks good, shooting 9 for 9 in his last game and hitting shots as far out as 12 feet (now if he can just get that to translate to the free throw line). KCP continued his hot streak from the end of last year by scoring 18, then 20, then 12 in the last game before going down with a knee injury of some type. Hope it isn't bad.