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Three and Out: Aaron Glenn vs. attrition and viewing dreaded replay through fresh eyes
Justin Rogers
Nov 29
Here are three observations after a second viewing and a night to ponder the Detroit Lions’ 23-20 win over the Chicago Bears.
Glenn vs. attrition
OK, the injury situation on defense is getting ridiculous. Let’s recap, just to have it all in front of us.
On injured reserve: Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport, Derrick Barnes, Alex Anzalone, Kyle Peko, John Cominsky, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Ennis Rakestraw
Ruled out this week: Carlton Davis III
Injured in pre-game warmups: Emmanuel Moseley
Lost to injury during the game: Josh Paschal, Levi Onwuzurike, Malcolm Rodriguez
That’s up to six projected starters, plus several key reserves. It's left the Lions to dig deep for replacements. Against the Bears on Sunday, the team’s No. 4 and No. 5 cornerbacks entering the year, Kindle Vildor and Khalil Dorsey, rotated at one of the starting spots. Linebackers Ezekiel Turner and David Long, who weren’t on the roster a month ago, combined for 34 snaps, just shy of the 31 played by Trevor Nowaske, who hadn't logged a single rep as an undrafted rookie last year. And up front, another mid-season addition, Al-Quadin Muhammad, played 43.
Like we said, it’s all kind of ridiculous. And before anyone starts in on a cliched rant about Detroit’s training staff needing to be investigated by the F.B.I., consider the randomness of most of those injuries. No training staff is responsible for Hutchinson’s leg snapping, Anzalone’s arm getting crushed, Barnes taking a helmet directly to his knee, Davenport’s elbow getting chopped or Davis’ cleat getting stuck in the turf. The strained joints/muscles on that list are normal by professional football standards, the Lions have just had some bad luck.
Yet through it all, Detroit has remained one of the top defenses in the NFL. That might be the most ridiculous aspect of this ridiculous situation.
The patchwork crew continued to exceed all reasonable expectations through the first half on Thursday. After keeping the previous three opponents out of the end zone for 10 consecutive quarters, the Lions extended that streak to 12, preventing the Bears from putting a dent in the scoreboard by the half. Not only that, the Lions didn’t surrender a single first down until the final minute of the second quarter.
Whether it was attrition, execution, or a combination of the two, the team had a post-Shaboozey hangover down the stretch. Yes, there were some blown coverages, missed tackles and flags that allowed the Bears to climb back into the game before they aided in their own demise with penalties, missed blocks and egregious clock management.
It admittedly wasn’t the highest note for the Lions to end the win, but taken in totality, it was the fifth time in six games they’ve held the opposition to 20 or fewer points. So even though five games remain on the schedule, providing plenty of time for the conversation to shift given the emphasis on how teams finish vs. how they start, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has earned frontrunner status for the AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award, which was introduced in 2024.
Among the previous 10 winners of the honor are current head coaches Kyle Shanahan, Todd Bowles, DeMeco Ryans, Dan Quinn and Brian Daboll. All but current Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman have been a head coach in the NFL at some point in their careers.
Glenn isn’t without stiff competition. Defensively, Jesse Minter of the Chargers has translated his success at the University of Michigan into the league’s top scoring defense in his first season back in the NFL.
Under Brian Flores, the Vikings have the league’s top rushing defense and rank top five in scoring, sacks and turnovers.
And Denver’s Vance Joseph, long considered one of the league’s better defensive minds, has his unit second in scoring, third in points, first in sacks and fourth in rushing efficiency.
On the offensive side, Baltimore’s Todd Monken has orchestrated a historically productive rushing attack and has quarterback Lamar Jackson pushing for a third NFL MVP with the best passing statistics of his career, far and away.
And there’s always Glenn's colleague Ben Johnson, the runner-up for the award last year. He has leveraged continuity to new heights with Detroit’s offense, which leads the league in scoring behind one of the most versatile power/finesse combinations the league has ever seen.
But as we head into December, it’s Glenn’s award to lose. Detroit’s defensive statistics stack up against any of the other contenders, but they haven’t had to overcome the caliber of losses he has in 2024.
Whether he can maintain pole position to the finish line won’t be easy. The Packers are coming to town humming after dismantling the 49ers and Dolphins the past two weeks. After that, it’s the league’s No. 3 scoring offense, Buffalo. Plus there’s a trip to San Francisco on the docket, and no matter how down they’ve been this year due to their own injury woes, Shanahan’s group is always potent.
Regardless of how it finishes, Glenn won’t make or accept excuses. It’s not in his DNA and not a component of the organization’s standards. It’s next man up, even if we’re on the next man after the next man after the next man, in some cases.
Still, even if he won’t accept excuses, he should accept the flowers for the job he’s done, but we'd understand if he won't sign for the delivery until after the season is over.
Overreaction Monday Friday
With the win on Thursday, the Lions snapped a seven-game losing streak on Thanksgiving, while simultaneously matching the franchise’s longest winning streak at 10.
What a time to be a Lions fan.
Still, sifting through comments, social media messages and emails last night, you might think Detroit lost the game. Maybe we've unearthed a subconscious correlation between tryptophan and the Same Old Lions attitude that lingers deep within the fan base.
“They didn't deserve to win, Justin,” one emailer wrote, within seconds of Caleb Williams’ game-ending heave falling incomplete. “With Green Bay, Minnesota and Buffalo coming up, they'll be lucky to win the division.”
Look, I’m not promising you the Lions will win the NFC North. For all the injury-related reasons highlighted above, it won’t come easily. Despite an 11-1 record, Green Bay and Minnesota are still nipping on the Lions' heels.
But let’s put things in perspective. Many fans have seemingly gone from not knowing what it’s like to have success to not knowing how to handle it. Yes, most weeks this roster has made it look easy. They’d won six of the previous eight games by double-digits, including a handful of blowouts. But regardless of the point spread, a win is simply never guaranteed in this league. That’s doubly true against divisional opponents.
That red-hot Bills team we mentioned earlier nearly lost to the Jets last month, the Broncos took the Chiefs to the limit a few weeks back, and the Ravens were upended by the Browns. Plus, look no further than the Bears, who went toe-to-toe with the Vikings and Packers the previous two weeks before falling short in both games just like they did Thursday.
You can’t blow out everyone and a single-game sample size is indicative of next to nothing in professional sports.
The Lions are one of the best red-zone teams in the NFL. On Thursday, they had an off day in that department. They entered the day the league's best third-down defenses. In the second half, they had their share of hiccups in those situations. Still, isn't a season’s worth of data more meaningful than a below-average afternoon?
The Lions aren’t a perfect team, but what they’ve proven time and time again this season is they know how to win, and they know how to win multiple ways. They’re one of the league’s most mentally tough squads. It wouldn’t hurt for fans to get on the same wavelength.
The bad man can’t hurt you anymore
Speaking of mental toughness, yours is going to be tested this week. You see, the last time the Lions played a Thursday primetime game immediately after Thanksgiving, it was also against the Packers.
I can already sense the hairs sticking up on the back of your neck and your blood boiling. With an untimed play after a questionable face mask call against the Lions, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers dropped back and heaved a Hail Mary pass that was hauled in by tight end Richard Rogers for a 61-yard, game-winning score.
Whether you like it or not, it's an iconic moment and one surely to be replayed multiple times this week. But for all the anger you felt in the aftermath, both at the officiating and the horrendous defensive scheme the Lions deployed on the play, none of those emotions are worth revisiting.
Those were the days of the Lions living in the hamster wheel of mediocrity. Jim Caldwell was a good coach, one who squeezed a lot from a roster lacking depth of talent, but those teams were going nowhere.
Up until the moonshot left Rodgers' hand, we were trying to convince ourselves the 2015 Lions could climb out of the 1-7 hole they dug themselves and make an unprecedented run to the playoffs because they'd won three in a row. But even if they had beaten the Packers and gone on to run the table, did anyone really believe they would make noise in the postseason?
You would have been lying to yourself.
The following year, Detroit needed an NFL record number of fourth-quarter comebacks — some exceedingly improbable — to go 9-7 and squeak into the postseason where they were predictably overwhelmed by a superior opponent.
Those Lions needed everything to break their way to barely finish above .500. They weren’t winning divisions. They certainly weren’t Super Bowl contenders. You understandably hate it because it was Aaron Rodgers delivering the blow, but that Hail Mary was a mercy killing of an inferior team in a long line of them for this franchise.
When you see that replay this week, you can shrug because it’s not applicable to today, or you can appreciate it for being part of the rocky road that’s brought you to these unprecedented times of prosperity.
Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net
X: Justin_Rogers
Bluesky: Justin-Rogers
Justin Rogers
Nov 29
Here are three observations after a second viewing and a night to ponder the Detroit Lions’ 23-20 win over the Chicago Bears.
Glenn vs. attrition
OK, the injury situation on defense is getting ridiculous. Let’s recap, just to have it all in front of us.
On injured reserve: Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport, Derrick Barnes, Alex Anzalone, Kyle Peko, John Cominsky, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Ennis Rakestraw
Ruled out this week: Carlton Davis III
Injured in pre-game warmups: Emmanuel Moseley
Lost to injury during the game: Josh Paschal, Levi Onwuzurike, Malcolm Rodriguez
That’s up to six projected starters, plus several key reserves. It's left the Lions to dig deep for replacements. Against the Bears on Sunday, the team’s No. 4 and No. 5 cornerbacks entering the year, Kindle Vildor and Khalil Dorsey, rotated at one of the starting spots. Linebackers Ezekiel Turner and David Long, who weren’t on the roster a month ago, combined for 34 snaps, just shy of the 31 played by Trevor Nowaske, who hadn't logged a single rep as an undrafted rookie last year. And up front, another mid-season addition, Al-Quadin Muhammad, played 43.
Like we said, it’s all kind of ridiculous. And before anyone starts in on a cliched rant about Detroit’s training staff needing to be investigated by the F.B.I., consider the randomness of most of those injuries. No training staff is responsible for Hutchinson’s leg snapping, Anzalone’s arm getting crushed, Barnes taking a helmet directly to his knee, Davenport’s elbow getting chopped or Davis’ cleat getting stuck in the turf. The strained joints/muscles on that list are normal by professional football standards, the Lions have just had some bad luck.
Yet through it all, Detroit has remained one of the top defenses in the NFL. That might be the most ridiculous aspect of this ridiculous situation.
The patchwork crew continued to exceed all reasonable expectations through the first half on Thursday. After keeping the previous three opponents out of the end zone for 10 consecutive quarters, the Lions extended that streak to 12, preventing the Bears from putting a dent in the scoreboard by the half. Not only that, the Lions didn’t surrender a single first down until the final minute of the second quarter.
Whether it was attrition, execution, or a combination of the two, the team had a post-Shaboozey hangover down the stretch. Yes, there were some blown coverages, missed tackles and flags that allowed the Bears to climb back into the game before they aided in their own demise with penalties, missed blocks and egregious clock management.
It admittedly wasn’t the highest note for the Lions to end the win, but taken in totality, it was the fifth time in six games they’ve held the opposition to 20 or fewer points. So even though five games remain on the schedule, providing plenty of time for the conversation to shift given the emphasis on how teams finish vs. how they start, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn has earned frontrunner status for the AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award, which was introduced in 2024.
Among the previous 10 winners of the honor are current head coaches Kyle Shanahan, Todd Bowles, DeMeco Ryans, Dan Quinn and Brian Daboll. All but current Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman have been a head coach in the NFL at some point in their careers.
Glenn isn’t without stiff competition. Defensively, Jesse Minter of the Chargers has translated his success at the University of Michigan into the league’s top scoring defense in his first season back in the NFL.
Under Brian Flores, the Vikings have the league’s top rushing defense and rank top five in scoring, sacks and turnovers.
And Denver’s Vance Joseph, long considered one of the league’s better defensive minds, has his unit second in scoring, third in points, first in sacks and fourth in rushing efficiency.
On the offensive side, Baltimore’s Todd Monken has orchestrated a historically productive rushing attack and has quarterback Lamar Jackson pushing for a third NFL MVP with the best passing statistics of his career, far and away.
And there’s always Glenn's colleague Ben Johnson, the runner-up for the award last year. He has leveraged continuity to new heights with Detroit’s offense, which leads the league in scoring behind one of the most versatile power/finesse combinations the league has ever seen.
But as we head into December, it’s Glenn’s award to lose. Detroit’s defensive statistics stack up against any of the other contenders, but they haven’t had to overcome the caliber of losses he has in 2024.
Whether he can maintain pole position to the finish line won’t be easy. The Packers are coming to town humming after dismantling the 49ers and Dolphins the past two weeks. After that, it’s the league’s No. 3 scoring offense, Buffalo. Plus there’s a trip to San Francisco on the docket, and no matter how down they’ve been this year due to their own injury woes, Shanahan’s group is always potent.
Regardless of how it finishes, Glenn won’t make or accept excuses. It’s not in his DNA and not a component of the organization’s standards. It’s next man up, even if we’re on the next man after the next man after the next man, in some cases.
Still, even if he won’t accept excuses, he should accept the flowers for the job he’s done, but we'd understand if he won't sign for the delivery until after the season is over.
Overreaction Monday Friday
With the win on Thursday, the Lions snapped a seven-game losing streak on Thanksgiving, while simultaneously matching the franchise’s longest winning streak at 10.
What a time to be a Lions fan.
Still, sifting through comments, social media messages and emails last night, you might think Detroit lost the game. Maybe we've unearthed a subconscious correlation between tryptophan and the Same Old Lions attitude that lingers deep within the fan base.
“They didn't deserve to win, Justin,” one emailer wrote, within seconds of Caleb Williams’ game-ending heave falling incomplete. “With Green Bay, Minnesota and Buffalo coming up, they'll be lucky to win the division.”
Look, I’m not promising you the Lions will win the NFC North. For all the injury-related reasons highlighted above, it won’t come easily. Despite an 11-1 record, Green Bay and Minnesota are still nipping on the Lions' heels.
But let’s put things in perspective. Many fans have seemingly gone from not knowing what it’s like to have success to not knowing how to handle it. Yes, most weeks this roster has made it look easy. They’d won six of the previous eight games by double-digits, including a handful of blowouts. But regardless of the point spread, a win is simply never guaranteed in this league. That’s doubly true against divisional opponents.
That red-hot Bills team we mentioned earlier nearly lost to the Jets last month, the Broncos took the Chiefs to the limit a few weeks back, and the Ravens were upended by the Browns. Plus, look no further than the Bears, who went toe-to-toe with the Vikings and Packers the previous two weeks before falling short in both games just like they did Thursday.
You can’t blow out everyone and a single-game sample size is indicative of next to nothing in professional sports.
The Lions are one of the best red-zone teams in the NFL. On Thursday, they had an off day in that department. They entered the day the league's best third-down defenses. In the second half, they had their share of hiccups in those situations. Still, isn't a season’s worth of data more meaningful than a below-average afternoon?
The Lions aren’t a perfect team, but what they’ve proven time and time again this season is they know how to win, and they know how to win multiple ways. They’re one of the league’s most mentally tough squads. It wouldn’t hurt for fans to get on the same wavelength.
The bad man can’t hurt you anymore
Speaking of mental toughness, yours is going to be tested this week. You see, the last time the Lions played a Thursday primetime game immediately after Thanksgiving, it was also against the Packers.
I can already sense the hairs sticking up on the back of your neck and your blood boiling. With an untimed play after a questionable face mask call against the Lions, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers dropped back and heaved a Hail Mary pass that was hauled in by tight end Richard Rogers for a 61-yard, game-winning score.
Whether you like it or not, it's an iconic moment and one surely to be replayed multiple times this week. But for all the anger you felt in the aftermath, both at the officiating and the horrendous defensive scheme the Lions deployed on the play, none of those emotions are worth revisiting.
Those were the days of the Lions living in the hamster wheel of mediocrity. Jim Caldwell was a good coach, one who squeezed a lot from a roster lacking depth of talent, but those teams were going nowhere.
Up until the moonshot left Rodgers' hand, we were trying to convince ourselves the 2015 Lions could climb out of the 1-7 hole they dug themselves and make an unprecedented run to the playoffs because they'd won three in a row. But even if they had beaten the Packers and gone on to run the table, did anyone really believe they would make noise in the postseason?
You would have been lying to yourself.
The following year, Detroit needed an NFL record number of fourth-quarter comebacks — some exceedingly improbable — to go 9-7 and squeak into the postseason where they were predictably overwhelmed by a superior opponent.
Those Lions needed everything to break their way to barely finish above .500. They weren’t winning divisions. They certainly weren’t Super Bowl contenders. You understandably hate it because it was Aaron Rodgers delivering the blow, but that Hail Mary was a mercy killing of an inferior team in a long line of them for this franchise.
When you see that replay this week, you can shrug because it’s not applicable to today, or you can appreciate it for being part of the rocky road that’s brought you to these unprecedented times of prosperity.
Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net
X: Justin_Rogers
Bluesky: Justin-Rogers
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