The Detroit Lions' secondary had few answers for Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and star wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle in Sunday's 31-27 loss to the Dolphins.
Tagovailoa completed 81 percent of his passes for 382 yards and three touchdowns. Hill and Waddle eclipsed 100 yards apiece – 188 for Hill and 106 for Waddle – as Miami punted just once in the contest.
After the game, an obviously frustrated head coach Dan Campbell said his players failed to execute the physical game plan they had designed throughout the week to try and slow down Hill, Waddle and Miami's explosive passing attack.
"We didn't hit them," Campbell said after the game. "We didn't hit them at the line. That was part of the game plan. We didn't disrupt. We did not disrupt, and when you let them do that and get into your defense – we didn't want to turn it into a track meet and it was a track meet."
Even defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn talked this week about having to be physical with Miami's receivers.
"The one thing that you can't do, just allow receivers into the teeth of your defense, and when you do that, usually bad things happen, so the more that we can disrupt these guys… get our hands on those guys," he said. "As much as you can disrupt them, the better pass defense you can have, so that's something that we'll try to do."
Detroit's defenders didn't execute the plan, which Campbell was visibly frustrated about.
Campbell announced Monday the team parted ways with defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant. Could even more changes be coming to Detroit's secondary?
One addition could be second-year cornerback Jerry Jacobs, who has been relegated to mostly special teams the last two weeks as he continues to get his legs under him after rehabbing a torn ACL suffered last December. Jacobs earned a starting role last season before tearing his ACL late in the season in Denver, and is one of Detroit's more physical cornerbacks on the roster, along with Jeff Okudah.
"Oh yeah, we're going to be looking at Jerry," Campbell said after the game Sunday. "We'll be looking at everybody."
Campbell said Jacobs is still getting his legs under him after returning from the PUP list just last month, but it sounds like Campbell is getting close to increasing his workload on defense.
"We want to make sure Jerry is ready to go and then let him compete and see where he is," Campbell said. "We still feel like last week was a step in getting him – continuing to get his confidence back, getting his legs under him, and that started with (special) teams and he got a little bit more in this department.
"Once we feel like, OK, he's right, he can take the load, and he competitively is better than one of the other guys, then he's going to get his chance."
After Sunday's struggle defending the pass, Campbell and Glenn are going to look for better solutions. Giving Jacobs more of an opportunity on defense just might be one of them.
