Scout's Take: Despite early setbacks, Detroit's scrappiness can't be discounted

FOXBOROUGH — Caught up with an NFC scout on Thursday to get his take on the Lions and Patriots and what to expect Sunday in Detroit. (Consider this a companion piece to what we wrote earlier in the week about the Lions.)

Detroit is 0-2, but one thing that should give Detroit fans some hope? The fact they almost pulled off an impressive road upset against the 49ers. The Lions fell behind 30-13, but scored a pair of late touchdowns. That fight showed something ... as opposed to what happened the first week against the Jets.

“You didn’t see guys quit last week. They didn’t throw in the towel. There was some fight there. That's a good sign,” he said.



“Look, it’s just going to be a process when it comes to grasping the concepts. The next three or four weeks, you’ll see more frustration from that team, but they’re not quitting on him. I don’t know (Matt) Patricia personally, but I know he’s brilliant, and he comes off to a lot of people as a guy’s guy. He doesn’t talk down to his guys. He’s teaching them. That’s one of the reasons why I think they might be capable of having a better second half of the season than their first.

“Where they’re having issues is defensively,” he added. “I don’t think they’re picking up his scheme quickly, particularly on the back end and in coverage, as he had hoped. I think he might end up dialing it back to some more basic stuff, at least in the short term, and sprinkle in some more exotic stuff here and there. That’s opposed to thinking he could come in and run his whole defensive playbook. That’s tough for him, because he’s been in New England where there’s an emphasis on smarter players.

“Basically, they don’t have that deep a roster yet on defense to do some of the stuff he wants to do. Basically, what you’re seeing are growing pains, and a defense struggling to understand some concepts and getting it done.”

Detroit’s strength, at least in the early going, has been their offensive consistency. The trio of Matthew Stafford, Golden Tate and Marvin Jones means they’ll at least try and air it out against the Patriots -- the Lions are sixth in the league in passing at 314.5 yards per game.

“They have the same offensive coordinator, and so you’re seeing a lot of the same stuff on the offensive side of the ball. Same receivers — for the most part — same quarterback. It’s not really a struggle there, because they’re doing a lot of the same stuff.

That offensive familiarity is something the Lions need to lean on Sunday night against the Patriots, especially in the early going. And despite the fact the game is going to feature two high-profile quarterbacks in Stafford and Tom Brady, this is a game that could be decided on the ground. New England figures to try and take advantage of Detroit’s issues with run defense — the Lions are last in the league against the run. Meanwhile, Detroit’s ground game has been struck in neutral for the first two weeks. (The Lions are averaging 68.5 rushing yards per game, 30th in the league.)

“For the Lions, they need to be able to control things offensively,” he said. “They need to be able to run the ball consistently and stop the run. They have to get their play-action game working as a way to create some easier throws for Stafford. It wouldn’t hurt if they could find a way to get (LeGarrette) Blount going, and keep that New England offense off the field.

“In some ways, they need to be able to replicate what Jacksonville did to them — they got them in some third-and-long situations, they doubled (Rob) Gronkowski in some key situations and they won on third down,” he said. “If you don’t do that and don’t set the tone early, New England is just going to be New England and chop wood.”