In just under 24 hours (depending on when you are reading this), the Detroit Lions will open up their 2020 season at Ford Field against the Chicago Bears.
There is no question about it that this has been a challenging offseason for every NFL team with limited practices and absolutely zero preseason games to hone their skills.
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For the Lions, one of their biggest weaknesses a year ago, when they finished 3-12-1, was their ability to tackle. According to Pro Football Reference, they were one of the worst tackling teams in the league, and that is a major concern heading into Week 1 for Lions head coach, Matt Patricia.
Via Lions Wire:
“A hundred percent,” Patricia quickly responded. “It’s something we really put a big stress and an emphasis on, fundamentals. We call them ‘the lost arts’ sometimes. I think a lot of times we don’t spend enough time on those fundamentals, and I would put tackling at the top of that list.”
“…early in the season we see that kind of adjustment to game speed, adjustment to the angles, adjustment to being able to drive and finish through on a tackle. A lot of times in practice we might be in a tag-off situation where guys might be just getting into that fit position and maybe thudding up, but not necessarily driving through, wrapping the arms and trying to finish the tackle. It is definitely something that I think we will see for the first month of football here – all different levels of really good and really maybe some not so good.”
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It will certainly be interesting to see how well the Lions tackle on Sunday against the Bears. Let's hope there is an improvement over last season when they missed a whopping 127 tackles in 16 games, which was 5th-worst in the NFL. In fact, only the Browns, Cardinals, Bills, and Seahawks had more missed tackles than the Lions.
