Seahwkgal":es8x55lb said:
No offense Popeye, but I have been watching Detroit for most of my adult life. It is my location. Their DB's are gawd awful. They are. They also have no depth there. They have a great D line(especially their tackles) so that is helping the scrubs playing DB. They are also very thin at LB. They are a FLUKE and it will show. AZ, however, had a solid D last season so their defense is no fluke at all as much as it pains me to say so. Detroit is the luckiest team in the NFL right now and they will be exposed defensively.
No offense taken. :th2thumbs:
I just don't think this is the same Lions defense or same Cardinals defense that we've seen in years past.
So far Teryl Austin is doing a hell of a job in his first year as defensive coordinator for the Lions. The Lions have gone from a middle of the pack defense to the top defense in the NFL. I think they'll come back down to earth, but scheme quite regularly gets underrated, and so far he's been making the best lemonade in the NFL out of some lemons on that side of the ball.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals are playing the same defensive scheme as last year, but don't have the pieces this year to make it effective. Due to injury and FA they've basically been reduced to having a very good man coverage secondary and Calais Campbell. And due to scheme, rather than playing to their defensive strengths they've so far been exposing their strong man coverage secondary through very ineffective elaborate blitz packages (which were more effective last year because their front 7 was better).
IMO the Cards aren't even in the same league on offense as the Lions, and on defense they have yet to play as well as the Lions either. Both teams have three wins though (and the Lions have a loss). By that count, it's hard for me to think the Lions have been luckier. All a matter of opinion though, of course. :th2thumbs: