Is Detroit's defense for real?

Question

Only 26 points allowed - lowest in the preseason. Interestingly Dolphins are next with only 31 allowed.

Answer 1

Preseason superstars but dont expect the same come regular season. Notice good teams dont run line stunts and blitz packages during preseason...the Lions have and they still only sacked Browns QBs once. And they have not faced a complete 1st sting offense yet,last night it was Quinn with no Lewis and a very limited appearance from Edwards. The week before it was 2 series from Palmer (the Bengals play misierable every preseason) with out Rudi Johnson or Housh., and week 1 it was 2 series from Manning with no Jacobs or either starting WR. And all 3 teams ran base offenses. Keep in mind bad teams play harder and run far more of their playbooks than teams that are good...the Pats are 0-3 but do you seriously expect anything less than 12, 13 wins from them this season. Never read too much into non playoff teams preseason success, they keep starters in longer and run much more of their playbooks than contenders (and contenders dont care about preseason wins...listen to Marinelli, you would think they have started their Super Bowl march based on the importance he has placed on these games).

Answer 2

You can't judge a teams defense by what they do in the preseason.  Detroit will probably give up more then that in their first game against Atlanta.

http://americanfootballtopics.blogspot.c...

  

Answer 3

viphockey4 makes a good point. I would add that a lot of times teams do things that are nonsensical in regards to winning the game. What they are trying to see is how a guy performs in a certain situation. That's why you can't say "wow, they only allowed 26 points" - it's totally taken out of the context of what the offense they face is trying to accomplish and what the defense is trying to do. And neither are playing to win, only to test and evaluate.

Stats like that are great for you if you are a sports handicapper and can't resist preseason games - take the under, I suppose. But it simply does not translate to the real season. If they keep scores low, it will be because they have a new, ball-control offense, they decide to actually friggin' protect Kitna, they stop turning the ball over and the defense can be rested and not starting out every series from their own 40.

Answer 4

it's preseason not every starter is playing on every team. with that being said we wont really find out until week 1 of the regular season