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Bill Belichick thinks the Detroit Lions could be exposed against good passing quarterbacks as the legendary NFL coach points out they allow rival QBs a lot of the time on the ball to pick out a target.
The Lions are currently 11-1 in the NFC North and are one win ahead of the Minnesota Vikings and two ahead of the Green Bay Packers, thanks to an explosive offense that has scored 383 points.
But for the six-time Super Bowl champion, he believes the secret to beating them isn’t actually in stifling Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta and Jared Goff. He suggests it comes from what their opponents do with the ball as he thinks he has them sussed out.
“They don’t get very much pressure on the quarterback,” Belichick told the Pat McAfee Show. “A lot of the sacks that they do get are because the quarterback holds the ball for an extended period of time.
“They really haven’t rushed the passer very effectively. I think the numbers are a little misleading because of the amount of time that the quarterbacks have held the ball. I think they’ve gotten away with some things.
“It looks good now, I just don’t know if it’s going to last against really good passing teams. I just worry when they get against a good offensive team.
“If [Jordan] Love has a good day, if [Sam] Darnold has a good day, which I didn’t think really either one of them did, you know what that would look like?”
Why are the Lions weak to stopping the pass?
The Lions could be struggling due to the absence of Aidan Hutchinson, who was their main pass rusher before he suffered a season-ending injury after making 7.5 sacks in five games of the 2024/25 campaign.
Across the season, the Lions have managed to pull of 30 sacks and that puts them quite far down the order across the NFL as they languish in 17th out of all of the teams. The Denver Broncos lead the league with 47, ahead of the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens.
But the Lions rank third in interceptions with 14 behind the Vikings and Texans so that suggests it could be a tactical decision to allow more time on the ball whilst dropping slightly deeper to cover receiving threats.
