ALLEN PARK — After a 1-1 start to the season, the Detroit Lions have experienced some good, bad, and ugly moments. With a new mailbag edition, MLive’s Dungeon of Doom podcast is back to survey fans and answer inquiries from our Subtext service.
After two weeks of action, hosts Kyle Meinke and Ben Raven discuss the situation. The guys talk about Aidan Hutchinson’s ongoing success, Derrick Barnes and Brian Branch’s crucial defensive versatility, the challenging matchup with a highly skilled Kyler Murray, and why they are not yet panicking about the offense and offensive line play. The Lions’ performance in the red zone has been dismal; in their loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, they managed only one touchdown in seven visits. Indeed, we talk about what went wrong in that division. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson stated, “I came away with the idea that third down in the red zone is always important.” We discuss this as an offensive, so we did not have enough third downs there. I think we only had one conversion there, but it was a significant one that led to a score. That is the difference between three points and seven points.Thus, on red zone night this week (Thursday), we must improve there. That will be our starting point. What struck me was that, out of our six runs in the red area the previous week, just two of them were very effective plays for us, or what we would call good plays.
