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Film Room: Suh, Fairley and the stifling run defense of the Detroit Lions

Grant Halverson / Getty

The Detroit Lions' defense is shredding game plans right down the middle.

Detroit's first two opponents, the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants, came with run-based offenses and left with pass-based ones. The Panthers passed on 58 percent of their snaps while the Giants finished with a 60-40 pass-run split. Both tried various running plays to find room, but nearly all of them backfired. Stretch, power, lead, draw and end-around plays did little, many times losing more yards than they had to gain.

Detroit’s suffocating run defense starts up front with defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley. 

Suh ranks ninth in run defense at his position, per Pro Football Focus. He beats offensive guards to the point of attack and relentlessly penetrates the backfield. His teammate, Fairley, is ranked 15th among run defenders at his position. After finally getting motivated and losing weight, he’s splitting offensive lines with quickness and burst.

In Week 2 against the Panthers, the two defensive tackles forced Carolina's ball carriers to look several ways to find running room. 

On one play in the fourth quarter, the Panthers came out with two tight ends and created eight gaps. The Lions had only seven defenders in the box, leaving them short a defender. This created the potential for a combination block by the Panthers on their stretch run when the play began.

But Fairley had other ideas, shooting through the gap created by the zone blocking. He burst in-between the right guard and tackle and was four yards in the backfield when the ball carrier took the handoff. Suh, meanwhile, pushed the center back as he ran through initial contact and watched the runner.

With Suh running laterally and Fairley closing in, the ball carrier was forced to cut back for a loss of two.

Suh’s strength and Fairley’s quickness are tough to deal with on the front, but they’re not Detroit’s only destroyers.

Linebacker DeAndre Levy is playing at a Pro Bowl level. He’s rangy and smart, quickly identifying different runs and attacking downhill with proper angles. His quickness is tough for offensive guards because they don’t have enough time to climb to the second level when zone blocking.

Levy showed off his read-and-react skills in Week 1 against the Giants. New York was tired of burying its ball-carriers up the middle, so the Giants tried an end-around. On paper, it looked like a great idea.

Slot receiver Jerrel Jernigan lined up to the quarterback’s right on second-and-6. Levy was on the far left, where Jernigan wound up after racing to the backfield. Levy was one-on-one with the left tackle, who he evaded with a strong jab off his right foot. The tackle froze, and Levy shot to the inside.

Jernigan hadn’t even taken the handoff yet when Levy ran past another blocker who pulled across the formation. When he took the handoff, Jernigan tried to outrun Levy to the corner and turn up the sideline. But Levy ran parallel to the line of scrimmage and forced him to keep running wide. Eventually, he tackled Jernigan out of bounds for a two-yard loss.

A tackle for loss is the norm for Levy. He ranks first in run defense among 4-3 outside linebackers, per Pro Football Focus. His 20.5 run-stop percentage is the best at his position, too. His skills are a key part of the Lions’ stifling run defense, but what puts them over the top is their team defense.

It’s not just Suh, Fairley and Levy. It’s linebacker Stephen Tulloch and the defensive ends and defensive backs. Tulloch does an excellent job of scraping across the front and taking on blocks as the fill defender. The defensive ends set the edge by forcing runs inside or outside where defensive backs fill alleys.

Late in the third quarter in Week 1, the Giants ran a power play to the right. The left guard pulled from the backside of the formation and led through the C-gap. The ball carrier was expected to follow the lead block but Suh blew up the play when he beat the right guard to the punch and slapped him aside. This forced the ball carrier to stretch his run past the edge-setting end and to the flat.

Waiting for the ball carrier were two cornerbacks who beat their blocks and opened their hips outside. They suddenly became the force defenders. The deep safety also came down and filled the alley in-between the outside and slot cornerbacks. With nowhere to run, the ball carrier stretched the run farther before he was tackled by the outside cornerback.

The Lions' defense is one of the best in the NFL against the run, allowing a league-low two yards per carry and 57.5 rushing yards per game, second only to Rex Ryan's New York Jets. 

Detroit's staunch commitment to defending the run has forced opposing offenses to rely on their passing games. For blockers, this means dealing with an unleashed Suh and Fairley.

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