The Lions usually get their sacks on long plays in coverage, but that was not the case in the win over the Dolphins.
ALLEN PARK — The Lions haven’t had an issue getting sacks this season. They’ve had great coverage spill into extended plays, and that’s allowed players, primarily linebackers, to get the quarterback on the ground.
That isn’t why they are trading for Damon Harrison, the defensive tackle they are in the process of sending a fifth-round pick to the Giants to acquire. He has 4.5 sacks over the past 3.5 seasons. He’s here to fix the run defense, which ranks tied for last in the league in yards per carry allowed. He isn’t coming to bolster the pass rush much.
That part of the team is still a concern, though it showed some strides on Sunday. For most of the five consecutive games that Ezekiel Ansah missed with a shoulder injury, the pass rush has had to hope that quarterbacks don’t find a hole early in the down.
Sunday was a different case. The Lions finished the 32-21 road win over the Dolphins with four sacks, and two came on quick rushes from a new member of the sack party: Ricky Jean Francois. They weren’t only his first sacks this season but also his first since 2016, when he played for the Redskins.
The first came when he split a double team to throw Brock Osweiler to the ground. The second happened when he used an inside move to throw aside a guard before spinning Osweiler down again.
He celebrated both with a peanut-butter-jelly dance.
Those two plays, as well as Romeo Okwara’s win with power on a 1-on-1 rush, represent some of the first sacks of the season that didn’t come late in downs. Jean Francois still attributes much of them to the defense behind him, mostly because of the way it allows him to play off the snap.
“The guys behind me were in their zone, in their drop. They were with their man. Linebackers were the same,” Francois said.
“Everyone was doing their job. When you do your job, everybody can play fast. When you don’t, we’re going to look slow. You’re going to be able to pick us apart. But when we do our job and every individual does their job, it looks faster.”
The Lions had two weeks to game plan for this trip, including a full practice week of knowing Osweiler would be the starter in place of an injured Ryan Tannehill. That timing played into the hands of Matt Patricia, who faced the Dolphins twice as a year as the defensive coordinator of the Patriots the past six seasons.
They won’t have that familiarity and timing every week, including this one, when they host the Seahawks and a slippery Russell Wilson at quarterback. That increases the need to get Ansah back. A Pro Bowler with 14.5 sacks in 2015, he has long been the most effective rusher at winning one-on-one matchups while creating opportunities for others with his stunts.
But the pass rush is likely to improve some anyway with the addition of the 355-pound Harrison. He’s a little more apt than Sylvester Williams at getting after the passer. His addition also likely means that Da’Shawn Hand will play more at his more natural edge spot. Hand ranks 10th among high-volume interior linemen in pass-rush productivity, per Pro Football Focus. At 6 feet 4 inches and 297 pounds, the edge spot fits his profile a little better than how Detroit likes to play guys on the inside.
But the defense as a whole will need to continue to play as fast and fluid as possible to give less-established rushers the best chance they do have of affecting the quarterback. Defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni has hammered the point home that sacks aren’t everything in a pass rush, but getting a quarterback off rhythm is.
They’ll have a big test this week against one of the best scrambling quarterbacks in the game. And they’ll have a big body in the middle who can try to help them handle it a little easier.
