Joint practice observation: Lions defense absolutely smother Dolphins

Throughout training camp, the Detroit Lions’ defense has been giving the offense fits. It got to a point where some may have been questioning whether the Lions’ offense was going through some issues. But if Day 1 of joint practices was any indication, the Lions defense just may be that damn good.

I’ve probably witnessed about 10 or so joint practices in my years on the beat, and I can safely say that I have never seen such a dominant performance from a defense as I witnessed with the Lions shutting down the Dolphins offense—from the first stringers all the way down to the third team.

Now, this comes with one major caveat that cannot be overlooked: for the majority of practice, the Dolphins were without their top two receivers: Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Waddle did participate in a handful of red zone drills, but not much. We’re talking about a pair of 1,000-yard receivers, so their absence is extremely important context to this story. Still, it was a very encouraging performance from the Lions’ defense.

Here are my overall observations from Wednesday:

With Rock Ya-Sin filling in for an absent Kerby Joseph at safety, the starting cornerbacks for Detroit’s defense were D.J. Reed and Dicaprio Bootle. The latter left practice early with a leg injury, which gave an opportunity for both Nick Whiteside and Erick Hallett to get some time with the first-team defense.

Before practice, coach Dan Campbell also promised that he was going to work some young players in with the first-team defense, and that certainly showed up. Both Myles Adams and Isaac Ukwu got some notable reps with the starters. Campbell praised Ukwu’s performance in the preseason game against the Falcons, as well.

“Ukwu hit a long arm,” Campbell noted.

Ian Kennelly also saw some work with the first team, as he continues to challenge Loren Strickland for a depth safety role.

Things start even during 1-on-1s

Intersquad practice started with one-on-ones, and I watched the Dolphins receivers take on the Lions defenders. On live watch, it looked pretty evenly matched, but reviewing my notes, I see that the Lions starters were the ones who performed well, while the depth defensive backs struggled. I had Brian Branch with wins in all three of his matchups: one against Tarik Black and two opposite Tahj Washington—who, in my opinion, was the toughest draw with Waddle and Hill out. D.J. Reed split the reps I saw, but on the play when he was beaten on an inside move, he nearly punched the ball out of Andrew Armstrong’s hands, forcing the receiver to bobble it before regaining control. Rock Ya-Sin was the only player near the top of the depth chart who was definitively beaten on a rep, with Erik Ezukanma beating him deep. For what it’s worth, Ya-Sin won the previous rep between the twos.

Among the reserves, Dicaprio Bootle struggled on back-to-back reps, but Nick Whiteside continues to stand out in a good way. He absolutely mirrored Armstrong on a rep and nearly came up with the pick and forced an incompletion in a later rep between the two.

The domination begins on 7-on-7s

While the series of seven-on-sevens began with Tua Tagovailoa hitting De’Von Achane on a wheel route over Alex Anzalone, there wasn’t much success for the Dolphins’ offense. Reed came away with a pass breakup, Jack Campbell had strong coverage on tight end Julian Hill, and good overall coverage forced Tagovailoa to scramble and eventually hit a receiver who had already stepped out of bounds for the final rep (a flag was called for illegal touch).

But it was the Lions’ second-team defense that really stood out during these drills. Dolphins backup quarterback Zach Wilson had three plays during the drill. Here’s what happened during those three plays:

Full team drills started with a sack from the Lions defense on an aggressive blitz that found both Derrick Barnes and Branch meeting at Tagovailoa for the co-sack. Only Achane had a successful play for the first teamers after a defensive communication breakdown left him wide open for a 15-20 yard gain.

Lions coverage looked particularly sticky, as I had the Lions down with at least one coverage sack and a forced scramble during this session.

Then things got really sloppy for Miami’s first-team offense. As the drill moved to midfield, the Dolphins’ offense started with three straight penalties: offensive pass interference, then back-to-back holding calls, as Aidan Hutchinson and Marcus Davenport were a handful.

Among the reserves, Grant Stuard backed up some controversial comments with some very physical play, including a couple of hits on the sidelines that nearly drew a scuffle. He also teamed with Chris Smith and Zach Cunningham on a three-way shared sack.

Out of the entire drill, I would say the Dolphins offense had about four successful plays out of about 25 total plays.

First-team defense goes perfect 9-for-9 in red zone

The Dolphins’ first-team offense had nine snaps during red zone 11-on-11 drills, and they scored as many touchdowns as I did on the day: zero.

Coverage forced throwaways on two of Tagovailoa’s reps, a pair of runs went for zero yards total, thanks to good pursuit from Jack Campbell and a gang tackle from Alex Anzalone and Roy Lopez. Detroit stayed very disciplined in coverage on a tricky play-action boot. And the final rep from the first team offense was a sack from Myles Adams, on which Aidan Hutchinson also drew a holding penalty. The one successful play the Dolphins had was a neat bubble screen to Waddle, and while some thought he scored on the play, it was pretty clear to me that Amik Robertson had him “tackled” inside the 5-yard line.

It wasn’t as clean for the second-team defense, but they were aided by a pair of drops and a forced fumble on what would’ve been a scoring play (Hallett punched it out). Miami finally got in the end zone on the final red zone play, when Black beat Tyson Russell for the only score on about 15 total plays.

Three-and-out, then four-and-out

The Dolphins attempted to run a full drive starting on their own 30-yard line, but never got anywhere. On the first three plays, Aidan Hutchinson picked up a pair of sacks (the second of which was admittedly a coverage sack) and they sandwiched a reverse run that was sniffed out by Brian Branch for a minimal gain.

They reset the ball on the 30-yard line for another set of downs, and the Dolphins failed to move the chains again in four attempts. After good pursuit-and-tackle from Amik Robertson stopped a stretch run play for just 3 yards, Tagovailoa went 1-for-3 for 0 yards on the next three plays. Jack Campbell stood out in coverage as he was stride-for-stride on a wheel route attempt and stopped a play-action boot at the line of scrimmage. On fourth down, Tagovailoa tried a YOLO ball downfield, but Rock Ya-Sin played absolutely perfect bracket coverage. If that ball had been accurate, it would’ve been picked off.

The second team defense was almost as impressive, but the Dolphins were aided 20+ yards on a very questionable pass interference penalty on Hallett. It hardly mattered though, as Nate Lynn picked up a sack, and a pair of Dolphins penalties ended that drive.

Lions close practice with situational wins on offense, defense

Practice finished with the entirety of both teams converging on one field, with each team getting a shot at an end-of-half situation. Here was the scenario:

Tied 10-10, starting at their own 30-yard line with 54 seconds left and two timeouts

The Dolphins offense… YOU GUESSED IT… went four-and-out. After a pair of short gains to tight end Julian Hill with tight coverage from the Lions linebackers, the Dolphins faced a third-and-4. A false start quickly pushed that to third-and-9. On third down, Amik Robertson logged a pass breakup, then under pressure from Marcus Davenport, Tagovaioloa forced a ball into tight coverage, and Hallett broke it up.

The Lions offense quickly moved downfield with the following plays:

That put the Lions already in field goal range around the 25-yard line. Jared Goff just missed a diving St. Brown for a first down, and he failed to connect with Jameson Williams on the final pass play of the game—although the Dolphins were called for illegal contact on the play. Detroit could have kicked about a 38-yard field goal to “win” the drill, but the coaches opted to just end practice there.

We’ll have a post coming later today recapping the Lions’ offensive performance vs. the Dolphins.