Dallas City News

The Cowboys are returning home to Dallas this week to host the Lions for the third straight year, and for the third straight year they’ll welcome two former players home as well. Dan Campbell is the head coach in Detroit, and Aaron Glenn is the defensive coordinator. Both played together at Texas A&M and both later signed with the Cowboys in free agency when Bill Parcells roamed the sidelines.

Glenn may have only played two seasons in Dallas, but he was a surprise hit. Glenn joined the Cowboys as a 33-year old believed to be past his prime, but he became a key cog in the secondary and even led the team in interceptions his first year. And the man in charge of the defense for those two years was none other than Mike Zimmer, who he’ll square off with this week.

Don’t call Glenn a Zimmer protégé, though; he’s not. Glenn began his playing career with the Jets, and he hit his stride there when Parcells was in charge and Bill Belichick was his defensive coordinator. He also spent three seasons with the Texans, where Vic Fangio was his coordinator, before coming to Dallas. When Glenn began his coaching career, he worked under Browns head coach Mike Pettine, formerly a Rex Ryan disciple, before joining the Saints and studying under Dennis Allen.

All of this is to say that Glenn’s defensive scheme has been heavily molded by what he played in and what he’s coached in. When he joined the Saints, Glenn helped to implement the principles of the Fangio scheme that plays with two deep safeties, and he’s replicated that approach, along with Allen’s overall defensive philosophy, in Detroit. What that means is the Lions operate out of zone a lot, usually with the middle of the field open, and are very selective with their blitzes.

So far, the process hasn’t translated to results for Glenn. The Lions were downright bad on defense in his first two years in Detroit, though they took a meaningful step forward last year. Still, there were far too many occasions where the Lions were asked to win a shootout. Their biggest weakness was, ironically, in the secondary.

That led to the Lions making some aggressive moves there this offseason. They traded a third-round pick for Buccaneers corner Carlton Davis and signed former Raiders corner Amik Robertson in free agency. Then they spent their first two draft picks on cornerbacks in Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw. The message was clear: the secondary has to be better.

So far, the results have been solid. The Lions are 16th in EPA/pass and 11th in pass defense DVPOA. However, they’re also allowing the sixth-most passing yards per game, and the duo of Davis and Arnold are each giving up passer ratings over 100 when targeted. It’s been a mixed bag, though that’s still the best we’ve yet to see under Glenn.

The bigger problem for the Lions right now is that their pass rush outside of Aidan Hutchinson has been nonexistent. The Detroit native, picked second overall in 2022, leads the league in pressures and sacks by a comfortable margin and has been generally unblockable. Usually that means good things for the defense as a whole, but the Lions rank 24th in sack rate and 28th in pressure rate. Hutchinson has as many pressures to his name as the next five defenders on his team combined.

It’s not a bad thing to have one dominant pass rusher, but this is more than that. Detroit simply isn’t getting results from anyone outside of Hutchinson on a consistent basis, and their secondary is suffering as a result. The Lions have managed to do well against the run – fourth in fewest rushing yards per game – but they’ve also seen the third-fewest runs of any defense. Much of that is because opposing offenses know they can devote all their energy to slowing down Hutchinson while the quarterback picks the secondary apart.

That’s not a knock on the secondary either – they rank in the middle of the pack in air yards given up and are top ten in both pass breakups and interceptions – but they can only cover for so long. And against this Cowboys offense, notably CeeDee Lamb and Jake Ferguson, there is very little room for error in coverage.

Only the Bengals offensive line is giving up a lower pressure rate than Dallas, and that’s after facing the likes of Myles Garrett, Cameron Jordan, Brian Burns, and T.J. Watt. Unless Hutchinson has one of the best games of his career, the Cowboys should be able to give Dak Prescott plenty of time to find the open receiver in this game. And based on how hot he’s been in the last two games, that could lead to yet another bad day at the office for Glenn and his pass defense.