The story of Monday night’s game between the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers was Detroit’s improbable defensive performance. Missing every starting player in the secondary of their base defense—and several reserves—the Lions managed to somehow hold Baker Mayfield in check for essentially the entire 60 minutes. Players like Nick Whiteside, Thomas Harper, and Erick Hallett made names for themselves in some of their first NFL action on a national stage.
But the Lions’ defensive performance runs a lot deeper than that. Detroit’s defensive front, with Alim McNeill back in the fold, was giving Mayfield hell all night. Aidan Hutchinson, despite extra attention, is still a menace, and Al-Quadin Muhammad is taking every advantage of the one-on-ones he’s getting.
That only tells half the st