The Detroit Lions got back to their winning ways on Sunday when they caught the New Orleans Saints by surprise. Less than eight minutes into the game, the Lions had taken a 21-0 lead, and lucky enough for that early onslaught, Detroit was able to hold on for a 33-28 victory in Louisiana.
As we’ll do every week throughout the season for this Lions team, we’ll comb through some of the advanced data courtesy of PFF that can help us better understand the football the Lions have played thus far—and what to look forward to in the coming weeks. Let’s take a closer look at the Lions by the numbers after they pushed their record to 9-3 with a win over the Saints in Week 13.
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With Alex Anzalone sidelined due to a wrist injury, the Lions were without arguably their most well-rounded defensive player not named Aidan Hutchinson for this Week 13 matchup against the Saints—a sentence I couldn’t have imagined typing even a year ago.
But while Anzalone was out, it was Jack Campbell’s turn to assume the role and responsibility of the MIKE linebacker spot for a Lions defense in the midst of a tailspin.
Campbell responded by putting forth one of the best performances of his young career, especially as a run defender. Despite making every effort to establish a ground game against the Lions and running the ball 36 times, the Saints only gained 113 yards for just 3.1 yards per carry. A big factor in stifling that New Orleans ground game was Campbell who recorded 3 run stops (third among linebackers in Week 13), a 9.1% run stop rate (ninth among all defenders in Week 13), and a -0.7 average depth of tackle in run defense (the best mark for all linebackers in Week 13).
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