Film breakdown: How Lions’ defense set up game-winning play vs. Jets

The Detroit Lions defense answered the call against the New York Jets when it mattered most. In a hard-fought battle against Aaron Glenn’s ascending program, Kelvin Sheppard‘s defense showed signs of improvement after a rough subsequent six quarters of football.

But what the defense showed was closer to the commitments that Sheppard emphasized this offseason.

When asked about his confidence in the secondary prior to the start of the regular season, Sheppard raved about the veteran experience.

“It’s at an all-time high,” Sheppard said. “So, the time on task that these guys have had, I think, in turn, when you look at this reverse, they’re going to allow me to do a lot of things that, quite frankly, that I couldn’t do before with younger players.”

That vision of utilizing veteran experience came to fruition against the Jets when safety Chuck Clark masterfully crafted a two-play sequence to seal the victory.

Let’s take a look. First, the video clips of the two plays back-to-back.

The first play of this two-play sequence is the bluff.

Chuck Clark (circled in blue) typically plays as the free or deep safety in Kerby Joseph‘s role. As a result, Clark rarely plays at the line of scrimmage and is not typically used in blitz packages.

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Clark starts the play at the first-down marker and begins to creep up into the box with linebacker depth. Again, this is something the Jets veteran quarterback Geno Smith likely would have noticed given that it is not Clark’s typical role and he did not show it often during the game.

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Once Geno Smith kicks his knee to signal he is ready for the snap, Clark bails and drops back deep into his zone responsibility.

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Ultimately, Clark breaks on the pass here, resulting in an incompletion and a second-and-10.

The second play in the sequence is the payoff. Clark (again, circled in blue) starts the play at the sticks before beginning his pre-snap creep into the box.

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From there, he initially shows that he is bluffing just as he had on the snap prior.

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But after taking one step back, he begins to attack the line of scrimmage.

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Right before the snap, the Lions defense is now showing six defenders at the line of scrimmage, including the atypically present free safety.

There are two keys to note here on this pressure design that I believe are intentional.

First, unlike the first play in the sequence, Jack Campbell (circled in yellow) is showing pressure in the field-side A-gap. This immediately forces the offensive line and running back to consider Campbell in their called protection. The Jets do this by sliding the protection to the offensive right side, with the running back also stepping up to the right.

Second, on the play at left guard for the Jets, backup interior offensive lineman Jordan Meredith (No. 67) stepped in after starting left guard Dylan Parham was ruled out with an injury in the second half. This is where Kelvin Sheppard called the late pressure by Clark.

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Clark blitzes the B-gap untouched. Was there a missed assignment between the backup left guard and/or the running back? Or were the Jets unable to recognize and account for Clark as a true pressure threat due to his pre-snap disguises?

“The coaches call line up for me to go get it,” Clark said following the game. “I kinda tipped my hat a little early, but hey, you got to go make plays.”

Sheppard was adamant about accountability and correcting the mistakes from the first two weeks of the season.

“Tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what you’re supposed to be doing. Coaches, don’t say a word. Let’s let them talk because right now guys, there’s a gap. There’s a clear gap from meetings and practice.”

“Tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what you’re supposed to be doing. Coaches, don’t say a word. Let’s let them talk because right now guys, there’s a gap. There’s a clear gap from meetings and practice.”

From meetings to practice, from practice to games. The translation finally took hold.

“We repped that play all week for that same scenario,” Christian Izien said in the locker room after the game.

These are the incremental signs of improvement. While the outside grew skeptical of Kelvin Sheppard during the long ten days between the game at Buffalo and Sunday’s palate cleanser, Dan Campbell stood by his guy.

“It was an outstanding call by him,” coach Campbell said of Sheppard. “I’m proud of him.”