There’s not a lot you can do to the physical makeup of a roster in a week, and for interim coach Darrell Bevell, he needed to rely on the scheme put in place by Matt Patrica — with a few twists mixed in.
On offense, there weren’t a lot of changes, which isn’t overly surprising considering he likely had some weekly influence on how much players played, but on defense, there was a noticeable change up front.
The most notable change was the use of the Lions’ base defense ends Romeo Okwara and Everson Griffen.
Over the last two weeks, the Lions relied on their linebackers to create pressure off the edge, but in this game, Bevell and defensive coordinator Cory Undlin went back to their strategy against Washington and used bigger bodies on the edge.
Okwara was on the field 96-percent of defensive snaps, while Griffen saw 65-percent of his own. Each player did rush from a standing position at times, but the idea of getting bigger up front suits this team’s strengths — especially when Trey Flowers, Austin Bryant, and Julian Okwara return.
That, and more in this week’s snap count review.
